Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sitting in front of his computer. It is 12:58am. He is blogging.

You may be asking yourself, “Self. What could possibly compell my Maximum Leader (a man who likes his sleep) to break off his own little All-Star break and blog at one o’clock in the morning?”

Well, loyal minion. That something would be the fact that your Maxmium Leader just got back to the Villainschloss after seeing a 10pm showing of “The Dark Knight.”

Wow.

Your Maximum Leader has seen every Batman film. In the theatre. Within a few days of the movie opening. (Most of the time he’s gone opening night.) Yes… He even paid money (American dollars in fact) to see “Batman and Robin” on opening night in the cinema. (NB to loyal minions: Sweet Jebus… Paying money to see “Batman and Robin.” That was a mistake.) He knew that he was going to ditch his family and see “The Dark Knight” on opening night. He was going to see what all the fuss was about.

Now, allow your Maximum Leader to state on the record that while he thought that “Batman Begins” was pretty damned good, the 1989 “Batman” was a bit better. Perhaps it was the fact that Katie Holmes’ weird smirk annoyed him. Perhaps it is because he has a soft spot in his cold heart for Michael Keaton (an underrated actor). Perhaps it was just the sheer magnetism of Jack Nicholson… But the 1989 Batman has always been the best Batman film in your Maximum Leader’s opinion.

That was until about 30 minutes ago.

Not only is “The Dark Knight” the best Batman film of the collection; it is the best “comic book” movie ever. It may actually be a fantastic film when considered against any film in any oeuvre.

Yes… It is that good.

You should make every human effort you can to see this movie in the theatre.

It is not overhyped.

Go ahead and pay the exhorbitant charges to see the movie. Even if you live in New York, Chicago, or LA where movies might actually cost more than $10 per ticket. Pay. If you have to buy a ticket online and pay some $1-2 service fee to do so. Pay.

It is that good.

It is not just the performance of Heath Ledger that is superb. Every single actor - even the minor ones - are that good.

Let your Maximum Leader tell you how good Heath Ledger is as the Joker. Your Maximum Leader never once thought of Jack Nicholson’s portrayal during the movie. And even now your Maximum Leader is thinking to himself, “Damn. Ledger made that role his bitch. He owns the Joker role.” Your Maximum Leader doesn’t see how anyone else could even try the role in the future. Because no one else is going to be as good as Nicholson; and Nicholson wasn’t as good as Heath Ledger.

Frankly, Christian Bale’s portrayal of Batman is underappreciated. Your Maximum Leader has read reviews saying that the Joker is so much more interesting than Batman that the viewer “forgets” the “hero” as he is drawn into the villain. (NB: Your Maximum Leader thinks that this observation is true. We may not find Batman/Bruce Wayne as interesting as the Joker - or any villain. Because we know Batman’s motivation. We know what drives him. We also know that he is basically good (vigilantism aside) and that he operates with constraint. As the bad guys do not operate wtihin constraint, they are more unpredictable and fascinating.) But, Bale does a masterful job of bringing some nuance and real emotion to the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne. His performance is noteworthy, although overshadowed by Ledger.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t going to go into spoilers or deep plot review (although he may in a few days - to give you a chance to do the right thing and see the movie). But let him just say two more things in praise of this film. First, he will make every effort to see it a second time in the cinema. Second, if there was a place where he could sign up right now to reserve a prepaid copy of this movie on DVD he would ante up.

Do yourself a favor… Go see this movie.

Oh yeah… Do yourself a good parenting favor… It is not a movie for kids. Your Maximum Leader believes that no kid under 16 should see this movie. It isn’t just the violence - of which there is much. It is the story itself. It is an adult film with adult themes. Your Maximum Leader saw a few parents with kids around 10-13 at his showing. Unless those kids were intellectually sophisticated (and guessing from the parents your Maximum Leader would say they were not), this movie was just an action flick. Those people didn’t get it.

Carry on.