Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease.

I saw this movie twice. Once in IMAX and once in a regular cinema. The first time I was surrounded by the hype and tried to take everything in. The second time I was much more focused and got everything that "The Dark Knight" had to say. That being said... the story is a tremendous one. It weaves itself almost too perfectly up until the final confrontation between the Joker and Batman. Watching it for a second time, the conmen/civilian boat angle ran a little too long. It was trying to prove a point... but did so too slowly.

The movie was good. The set up was amazing, and the detail was incredible. Ledger did an amazing job as the Joker, and brought out a real twisted character. And the plot is very clear. I don't know who would think otherwise. It is easy to understand the plot behind the movie if you catch all the little things that are pointed out. The detail and the thoughts that went into this movie brought out a new side to Batman and in the end created a must see movie.