I remember going to see Batman in the theaters with my family in 1989. I liked it. I probably even liked it a lot at the time.

Batman Returns so failed to leave an impression that I can’t even remember if I saw it all the way through.

I did like Batman Forever.

I’m pretty sure I saw Batman and Robin at least once. At least most of it.

I can’t describe my feelings towards those movies. They had almost a campy feel to them. They were entertaining in the moment, but they didn’t leave much of an impression. I certainly haven’t felt the need to watch them repeatedly or add them to my DVD collection.

Batman Begins changed all that.

I was absolutely blown away. Not only was taking the story back to its roots brilliant, but the whole….feel of it was changed. I was trying to describe this to my niece and nephew yesterday. Superhero realism aside, Batman Begins — and now The Dark Knight — felt like it could happen. The characters are fully developed with intriguing backstories and flaws and conflicts.

Christian Bale far supercedes Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney as Bruce Wayne.

Anyway, I took Kevin and Mia to see The Dark Knight yesterday morning.

When I went in to wake them up, Kevin — who usually has to be dragged kicking and screaming out of bed — had been awake since 7 a.m. because he was so excited.

We were all three spellbound.

I’d always thought Heath Ledger was a good actor, but I really only had 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale to go on. (Yeah, I had no interest whatsoever in seeing Brokeback Mountain.)

But he amazed me as The Joker. Jack Nicholson brought a rather flamboyant, campy flair to the role in Batman, but Ledger…well, I see why he was so negatively affected by his own character. He really was the quintessential villain. Every nuance — the mouth movements, the eye movements, the smacking of the lips, the voice — was perfect. And not being much of a comic reader…well, I had no idea that the Joker was so dark. He truly was terrifying.

I also loved that we got to see Harvey Dent’s ruination the way we did. Tommy Lee Jones’ interpretation of Harvey Two-Face was more comedic than anything — he played second fiddle to the Riddler and seemed almost inconsequential in Batman Forever.

But Aaron Eckhardt’s portrayal was truly heart-breaking. Dent really was a good-hearted crusader against evil and injustice and only the nefarious scheming of the Joker proved to be his undoing. As Gordon and Bruce Wayne discussed, Dent really was the best of them, which was precisely why he was targeted.

Bruce’s decision to become the villain that the Joker intended Dent, Gotham’s White Knight, to be was courageous and true to his own tortured nature and proved he was, as Alfred said, the hero Gotham deserved.

The Dark Knight indeed.

Christopher Nolan’s vision of the famed genre has been utterly fascinating and brilliant thus far. The casting has been spectacular as well.

(Okay, so I am less than enthused about Rachel Dawes, but I do prefer Maggie Gyllenhaal over Katie Holmes. I have a feeling that the character herself was maybe less than fleshed out, because I think Maggie’s a fantastic actor, and even she seemed a bit one-dimensional as Rachel.)

I cannot wait to see further installments.

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