"The Dark Knight" lives up to its name. It is truly dark in look and feel and deals with uncomfortable issues head-on. It's the first action movie I've seen in a while that managed to be thought-provoking at the same time things were blowing up left and right. The theme of vigilante justice and the struggle to do what's right in an increasingly difficult-to-judge world is explored pretty extensively, and to the credit of Christopher Nolan, no pat answers are given--and especially not for Batman himself. It's a movie that takes itself seriously, so anyone out for a simple action fest may be disappointed.
The cast is uniformly excellent, especially Heath Ledger. Every future performance of The Joker will be measured against this one. Aaron Eckhart, to my mind, turned in a great performance as DA Harvey Dent. With these two in top form, the rest of the cast has to work overtime to keep up, especially poor Maggie Gyllenhall, who doesn't have much to do in the Rachel Dawes role.
Be forewarned: This movie has plenty of gruesome violence, particularly involving knives and razor blades. The squeamish are advised to take a pass. In my opinion (and it's only my opinion), kids under 12 should not be permitted to see this, unless you are prepared to discuss the violence and its repercussions at length with them.
For my money, this was the best movie I've seen this year. Pixar receives accolades, as it should, for its animation, but the scripts are always outstanding as well. "Wall-E" is no exception. There are three or four themes explored at once, none at the detriment of the others. A bonus for men: This is a surprisingly good date movie.