But the movie that really blew us away was the one we saw yesterday afternoon, The Dark Knight. It’s got a real story. It’s got special effects that ya gotta love. But, most of all, it has a great cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Arron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhall, Morgan Freeman, and most importantly Heath Ledger.

Ledger  did a fantastic job as the Joker, redefining the role and bringing to that character a spookiness and humanity that no one else ever has. I have tremendous respect for Jack Nicholson, but his Joker was standard Crazy Jack, and while entertaining, was eclipsed by Ledger’s portrayal of the psychotic villain. It is a great tragedy that Ledger died earlier this year of an accidental overdose of prescription medication.

Fortunately, there will be one more chance to see Ledger perform. His last movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasssus was being filmed when Ledger died, but the director, Terry Gilliam, decided to complete the film, using Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, to shoot Ledger’s final scenes.
Katie Holmes was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhall, an actress that I’ve always admired. She does a great job in her role as the love interest of both Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent.

The rest of the cast was largely the same as in Batman Begins, and all did their jobs wonderfully. I’m looking forward to more Batman movies, though I suspect it will be very hard for any of them to come close to this one.