My (Very Belated) Review of Batman

I feel it is my duty as a movie-lover to add to the gazillion reviews (although extremely late) for the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight." I'll make it brief, since I'm sure everyone's been bombarded with people talking about it. So here goes:
I loved it! I thought the movie was well done, everyone's acting was phenomenal. Heath Ledger was creepy as hell and he made the movie. He made my skin crawl and he did a great job in portraying that he was evil just for the fun of it. I thought they did a good job showing him as out of control and, obviously, extremely dangerous; but they also did a good job showing the audience a glimpse of someone's mind who has no empathy or any sense of right and wrong (ie a sociopath). It's tragic that Heath Ledger died and cannot continue to make extremely well-done movies and intriguing characters, but at least he ended with a fabulous movie! Christian Bale also did a good job, yet again, as Batman. He creates a good balance of the hero and dealing with his sense of duty as the city's hero, and acting within his expected billionaire role. Michael had me watch the older Batman movies, and Christian Bale is by far the biggest and best bad-ass! Oh, I have to mention Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. I thought he did an amazing job in showing that he was a man for the people and wanted to get rid of the crime in the streets without it being cheesy. But when he turned into Two-Face (which I still don't know how the makeup people did it!) I thought they did an extremely good job in showing his motivation for turning evil. Tommy Lee Jones' original portrayal of Two-Face was more comical and goofy (does acid really make your mind go crazy if it just destroys your face? my point exactly.), and I thought Eckhart's interpretation and presentation was much more believable. I also liked (this might give something away....) that they didn't continue his story into another movie. I thought it did a good job with his story ending on a high note and leaving it at that. The characters in this movie were dynamic and very well-developed. The movie may have been long, but as my sister said, you don't even notice!
One big negative of the movie, at least for someone who gets emotionally involved in movies, is how dark the movie is. I said that the glimpse into a sociopath's mind was a good thing because it's fascinating, but it's also a scary place to go. I feel silly admitting it, but I saw the movie at night and ended up having some really freaky nightmares from the movie.... not a good time! So if you're sensitive to those kinds of things, definitely watch the movie during the day when you can have enough time to process the movie and get it out of your head while you sleep! Other than that, I don't really have anything negative to say about the actual movie!
Okay, I have to mention Michael's and my favorite parts: the truck-flip was mind-blowingly cool! As well as the transformation of the Batmobile into a motorcycle! AWESOME! And Michael's favorite part was the Joker walking away from the hospital... he was laughing about it even as we walked out of the theater. (*Possible spoiler*): But it's hard not to laugh at Heath Ledger in his joker makeup, long greasy hair, and a nurse's dress throwing a tantrum about a bomb taking too long to go off...
I definitely recommend this movie, but for the faint of heart, see it during the day-- I sure wish I had! But this movie will have you talking about it and thinking about it long after you've seen it!