It's going to be hard to write this review without veering off into hyperboleville, but Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is that good. It's well deserving of its 94% at Rottentomatoes, it's 9.5 user rating from Meta Critic, and "A" cinescore. It's everything you ever wanted to see in a Batman film.

"The Dark Knight" is a dark tale that is more often than not, unforgiving and unrelenting. This is a movie that stays with you long after you've left the theater. Make no mistake about it, "The Dark Knight" is a comic book movie as high art.

This is a fully realized world where actions and choices have consequences. No one gets out of this movie alive. People die. Important characters are killed off. And the characters that do live have so much blood on their hands that it's almost hard to imagine what's next for them.

The movie is pretty dark and can almost come off as being mean-spirited at times. Quite honestly, I have no idea how this movie achieved a PG-13 rating because this movie is more violent (in terms of deaths, not blood) than last year's "The Departed."

Everyone gives outstanding performances, especially the four leads. Bale, Eckhart, Oldman, and Ledger really upped their game. I have to give the biggest props to Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger.

Aaron Eckhart almost seems like he could have been pulled from a modern day Frank Capra film and I found myself pulling for him the entire movie. You know it's a good sign when you know exactly what's going to happen to a character but still find yourself rooting for him to make the right choices.

Heath Ledger...what can I say? The man gave the performance of a lifetime and easily ranks as one of the all-time great screen villains. Seriously, he and Anton Chigurth are like peas in a fucked up pod. You would not want to run into either one of these guys ever.

There are so many powerful images in this theater, but I think some in particular really stand out.

- There's a scene where the Joker is riding in the back of a police car and has his head sticking out of the window. It's a hard scene to describe but its truly deranged. It's like some sick man reveling in the sickness that he's unleashing in the world.

- I loved the scene of Batman on his bike in pursuit of the Joker. It's just this great image of a man in an obsessive state of mind, destroying public property. *That's* Batman. He's a hero, but he's also strikes terror through everyone who comes in contact with him. And I love the imagery of his cape flowing behind him as he pursues the Joker.

- There's a great scene where Batman is torturing the Joker and you can just tell that the more he tortures the Joker, the more the Joker enjoys it. Or if he isn't outright enjoying it, he's getting further and further from giving any information to Batman. And the more that happens, the madder Batman gets. It's brilliant stuff.

- I loved the music in this movie. It's great stuff, especially the scenes where it seems like they have two notes about a step apart from one another. And the notes just hover there in a very eerie effect.

That's all I got for now. Maybe at some point I'll give a more in-depth thematic analysis of the movie. But all you need to know now is that it's a brilliant movie and is one of the best movies I've seen...well maybe one of my top movies of all time.

- Matthew