A couple of days ago, my dad called and asked if I was going to a midnight showing of The Dark Knight. I told him that I’d taken today off, but that, no, I wasn’t really planning on going to see it until after my wife got off work.

Fast forward to yesterday. We got home from work, and my wife says that, if I really wanted to, we could go to the midnight showing. It won’t be long before she learns not to make offers like that, but, luckily for me, she’s not quite there yet. So, last night, at 12:01am, we were sitting in a packed movie theater watching The Dark Knight.

Heath Ledger did a better job that I expected with the Joker. While he’s not the manic Joker that I prefer, it was much, much better than Nicholson’s travesty. Ledger’s anarchist Joker pulls no punches, and there’s always a sense that he’s enjoying himself regardless of what’s going on around him (even if “what’s going on” is that Batman is beating him up). He’s laughing or otherwise obviously having fun, even when he’s doing some very, very nasty things. (My one complaint about the audience we had was that there were a couple of teenagers sitting behind us laughing hysterically at the Joker’s antics. He’s having fun, but I really couldn’t see how one could find him funny without being something of a sociopath themselves.)

Overall, I loved the movie, but be warned that it’s relentlessly dark. There really aren’t many bits of levity to break the mood. I am honestly amazed that it managed to keep its PG-13 rating.