The Dark Knight was excellent! Aaron Eckhardt as Harvey Dent is the surprise of this film; his portrayal of Dent was the most interesting of the characters, imo. Christian Bale is once again 100% bad-a** as Batman, and as enjoyable to watch as other returning favorites Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.
Though I am as saddened as most other moviegoers were by Heath Ledger's unexpected passing, he was not my reason for seeing this film. His portrayal of the Joker was quite scary, for lack of better words. However, if you have hyped this movie up too much in your mind, you may be disappointed by what you get. As a native Chicago-an and devoted Bale fan I greatly enjoyed seeing Bale running around the loop (where I work!).