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No need for a catchy intro: The Dark Knight is the movie of the year (so far) and the best superhero film of all time. Heath Ledger will get the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his psychotic, beautiful and defining role as The Joker. Director Chris Nolan gets a major nod for topping his previous Batman Begins, which re-legitimized and redefined the superhero film. The Dark Knight (DK) is the pop-cinematic masterpiece Hollywood and all of us loyal viewers have been waiting for.

Picking up directly where the last film left off, Gotham City is in disarray from the escape of several prisoners from Arkham Asylum and one of these prisoners, as we saw at the end of Batman Begins, is the Joker. The Joker has gained a reputation as chaotic, evil and beyond any form of code or creed, whether it’s law-biding or criminal. The grit and brutality of DK starts immediately as Joker’s men, on his order, begin offing each other mercilessly at their own heist. The film becomes unrelenting after this point and never turns back.

The audience mirrors the Gotham population as each scene in the film runs the risk of devastation and terrorism from the Joker. After it is discovered that the bank the Joker is robbing is a mob bank, we see that this character is seemingly bent on breaking all forms of institution and revels in anarchy. And so begins DK’s brilliant, philosophical subtext: co-writers Chris and John Nolan have crafted a masterful script dealing with ideas of power ala Foucault, democracy, fascism and anarchy each represented by four main characters: The Joker, Batman, Commissioner Gordon and new Gotham white knight and district attorney, Harvey Dent (anyone remotely into the Batman comics knows immediately where the thing with Dent is going but I promise it doesn’t matter one bit in spoiling the story).

Christian Bale, once again as Batman, represents a vigilante figure trying to relinquish his responsibility over the city to a more legitimate power structure: Dent (played to the T by Aaron Eckhart). Bale again commands attention as Batman, leading a noble life sacrificing his reputation as Bruce Wayne to live for something better as Batman. Bale is strong and quirky, but somewhat more mentally powerless this time around as Batman. He is confused about his role in a society where some love him and some hate him. More over as The Joker, another non-institutional vigilante, wrecks havoc across Gotham, Batman begins to wonder how different he and The Joker really are.

The Joker is a complex, disgusting, intelligent and provocative character, and will surely be the epitome of Ledger’s career. It does not matter that Ledger is dead; this role would have been his for the rest of his life anyhow. The Nolans’ Joker is a character that could have so easily been overacted, turned into a fad (cough cough Jack Sparrow), but it did not and this is all thanks to Ledger’s humanist treatment of such a far-fetched figure.

When The Joker speaks you can feel the years of abuse lashing out behind his sunken eyes, the scars on the corners of his mouth scream some dark past to the audience. The Joker is truly horrifying, macabre, humorous, intelligent and human all at once: a true villain. He uses all of this to turn Gotham upside down for no reason what so ever and this is the scariest part of the film. It is pure evil but somehow so realistic and one can never just write him off as a simple antithesis, especially when Batman realizes that the trauma he endured in his life and the way he fights outside of the institutional bounds of society somewhat mirror the path of the Joker. They are one in the same, occupying simply different ends on a spectrum of chaos.

I cannot say enough about this film in a simple review. It is too rich, deep and challenging. Film students will dissect this film for years and audience will watch again and again. All in all, The Dark Knight is an epic masterwork that will go down in cinematic history, especially the film’s star Heath Ledger in a role that will haunt audiences for generations to come.