Just came back home from the Dark Knight. Ok, not exactly 'just'. Two hours ago. Close enough.

So I avoided going to see it during the hype heavy premiere and all the hub hub about it. I have to say, I enjoyed it, it is a pretty good film, one of the better super hero movies.

I won't state much of my opinions about it seeing reactions after my Spiderman 3 views last year. I'll just say that I thought most of the actors did a good job. I again thought Batman to be too much like a chain smoker voice-wise. It's too over the top, and my best example of Batman, The Animated Series one from the 1990's, voiced by Kevin Conroy, did a much better job portraying the comic book character without the gruffness. Rachel, Brucey's love interest, again, could be done entirely with, she's awful, the new actress is uninteresting and her role in the story is just dispensable. Harvey Dent is just as cool as people have been talking about - a serious man who we could truly believe wanted to do what is best for Gotham. Scarecrow. Scarecrow. How we missed you. Wait! Don't go yet. Oh well, there he was, for five minutes.

Now, for the Joker, Heath Ledger. I'll go out and say it right now - he was pretty good, just not out of this world like all the world is shouting. He obviously studied the character and fit his own personality into it, borrowing A LOT from Nicholson's Joker, from the lip licking to the type of voice. I truly belive - and I do not mean to sound insensitive - his death played a lot into the opinion of the audience. Yes, he was pretty good as I said, just not incredible. I do not believe he deserves a posthumous Oscar for his performance. It was just good. That's it.

Now for other parts of the film. I enjoyed seeing some of the references. The Animated Series definitely was taken into account for some of the character designs - especially for one in particular that won't be mentioned for 'non spoiling' purposes. When I saw this character, it clicked where the look came from. Another character, detective Ramirez was practically Montoya from the cartoon for me, through the entire film. As for the Jeph Loeb name drop, few would notice, but cool nonetheless. The flow of the movie was pretty good, even though it ran almost two hours - didn't notice it pass, and that is rare nowadays. The Batman/Wayne combo seemed to have an on/off switch, on one time Batman is kicking butt, and at another, Bruce is *trying* to be swave, and even at one point, they trade places, shockingly enough. I was disappointed to see nothing was added after the credits, even though I left before the end - I checked online afterwards at home. We're used to seeing bonus content in films, and it's annoying to have some in some movies, and not in others. Movie posters should state - stay after the credits, there's stuff to be seen, or, not. Credits are originally designed to be watched, and I appreciate when they are developed like the ones in WALL*E, but we should face it - people don't care. I often try to sit through the credits reel, sadly today wasn't the case. I did catch the mention of Ledger's and the stuntman's honorable mentioned from the movie makers.

I'll cut this short, I've already gone long enough. Dark Knight is one of the better hero movies out there, proving that a direct sequel can work - it was fun to watch, with good development. It's just that, good, true, enjoyable, just not out of this world incredible.