Yes, I did have to stand in line for the 2:45 Friday show of The Dark Knight at the Vista Theatre which is one of the only theatres in L.A. that didn’t sell advance tickets online. It’s totally old school, one of the smaller old fashioned movie palaces with faux Egyp-tian decor and a ticket taker who is always dressed ‘in character’. It’s by far my favorite place to go...I can take the bus there and then hike back to my favorite restaurants or even the related theatre, which I did right afterward and, flouting ‘conventional wisdom’ saw Mamma Mia. More on that film later.

One of the reasons we have to suffer through so many low quality sequels and other mindless fare is that the quality of the copies diminishes inversely to the money these films make. The Dark Knight is in no way a bad film, quite the contrary, however it cer-tainly isn’t as smashingly new as Batman Begins, nor is the story as well developed. It’s because the origin story has been told. We’ve seen Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) work through his pain and find his mission, and most of this was done outside of the suit. So in this second installment of Christopher Nolan’s reworking of the superhero tale, we’re back to having to rely on other characters to take center stage. As others have so astutely remarked, there’s only so much you can do inside that amazing black suit, although it looks absolutely gorgeous. He’s like an exquisite Michelangelo rendering, with the enhanced musculature of the suit. In many shots he is perched atop a skyscraper waiting to spread his wings and when he does he soars, rolls and lands as much like a real bat as I’ve ever seen possible given that men and bats don’t have much in common when it comes to physiology. Nonetheless, I missed Christian Bale’s cheekbones. That’s why I love the X-Men: Wolverine never turns into anything unrecognizable, he can’t hide his mutation.

And so we are left with the other characters who battle for center stage, and what a bat-tle it is. We have Gary Oldman an actor so malleable that he can go from playing the sexiest Dracula ever, to injecting some real adult fireworks into the Harry Potter series and then land as the ultimate straight man here, Commissioner Gordon. Yet no matter how hard they try to suck the charisma out from Oldman by loading him down with a brush mustache and some unfortunately over-sized glasses, everyone in the theater still cheered when he returned from the dead. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent is the golden boy to the “Dark Knight” and he holds his own amongst other legends like Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. But there’s really no contest - this is Heath Ledger’s movie.

When I started to see the promo posters around town, the ones that only featured The Joker, I had an icky feeling that Warner’s was exploiting Ledger’s untimely death. After having seen the film, I imagined the discussion: we don’t want to seem exploitative but what else can we do? It is no exaggeration that this is one of his best performances and so unlike his other standouts, Brokeback Mountain, for example, that it confirms his real skill as an actor. Now I grew up watching the Batman TV show and my favorite villain of all was of course, The Joker, as rendered by the late Cesar Romero. Romero was a second string leading man, who in a much less racist world would have been a full blown leading man. He was sort of a Latin Cary Grant, tall and handsome with a beautiful deep voice. By the time he played the Joker he was past his Latin lover prime, so his Joker embodiment, was a devil may care one. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe Ledger saw some of those episodes and decided to pay a little tribute here. That show was comedy so the performance was broad. Ledger doesn’t play it that funny but he is funny -- in the sickest ways imaginable. And Ledger is just too restrained to chew scenery the way Jack Nicholson did when he stepped in. Heath Ledger has wiped Jack Nicholson off the map! This creates a problem for the franchise however. When the Joker tells Batman; “Kill you? How could I kill you. You complete me!” or something to that effect we are left wondering what villain could possibly live up to him. Thus we wait for Nolan Batman number 3 which will make even more money and will inevitably disappoint.

By this time in the franchises, the cinematography, stunts and special effects have tak-en over. As a camera lover I can appreciate this. Even though I had read all about the great tractor trailer flip in American Cinematography that didn’t stop me from getting all revved up when it happened. The flying scenes, the “Bat Pod” shots from the specially rigged jib attached to the cut out SUV, all of it was appropriately stunning and amazing.
All this is to say that I didn’t swoon over The Dark Knight the way I did over Batman Be-gins which I just couldn’t get out of my head. This time around though, I am having trouble getting Ledger and his Joker out of my head. When I think of this movie, I’ll al-ways go back to him smoothing his hair when he meets Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) for the first time or the way he insists that, “I just want my phone call.” Heath, if you’re listening, you complete this film and you will be much missed.

If you have been in a cave the Dark Knight is in theaters NOW!

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan; written and produced by Jonathan Nolan from characters created by Bob Kane; produced by Charles Roven and Emma Thomas; Director of Photography, Wally Pfister; James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer, composers. Released by Warner Brothers.

With:Christian Bale (Batman/Bruce Wayne); Heath Ledger (The Joker); Gary Oldman (Lt. James Gordon); Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent/Two Face); Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth); Maggie Gylenhaal( Rachel Dent); and Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox.)