I saw “The Dark Knight [1] last night. In a word—
Wow!
From the opening bank heist (which is … just … oh my God) to the final scene (which I can't reveal because it's a spoiler) is just …
Wow!
Character wise, this is perhaps the truest portrayal of the Batman characters in a movie I've ever seen. Heath Ledger [2]'s portrayal of the Joker [3] is as stunning as it is disturbing (and really, it's scarier not knowing his background). Gary Oldman's [4] James Gordon is lifted right out of the comics. And the tragedy of Harvy Dent [5] clearly comes through.
The only gripes I have with this film, oddly enough, are with The Batman himself. It's not that I have a problem with Christian Bale's [6] portrayal per se, it's just that I didn't like his “let me attempt to disguise my voice so no one recognizes me but make it plainly obvious that I'm trying to disguise my voice” Batman voice. I don't think it worked. My other gripe is that The Batman is a world-class detective (even studying criminology in college) but you would never know that in this film (and the only reason I'm griping this much about an otherwise excellent film is that The Batman is my favorite superhero, and this film is about as letter perfect as a superhero film can get).
(You want a better review? Okay, here [7] are [8] some [9] that are worth reading).
[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/
[2] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005132/
[3] http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000180/bio
[4] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000198/
[5] http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000190/
[6] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000288/
[7] http://www.progressiveruin.com/2008_07_20_archive.html#1698052698739369531
[8] http://www.progressiveruin.com/2008_07_20_archive.html#749986940740059500