Much of the buzz, press, and reviews surrounding The Dark Knight seem to border on hyperbole, as do the laudatory cliches I am resisting hurling your way right now. If you find this film to be over-hyped, over-saturated, over-played and over-praised, then friend, this website is not for you. Because I am about to launch into what might be one of the most enthusiastic reviews of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight on the entire internets.

Nolan and his co-writer, brother Jonathan, have crafted a Batman film which corrects quite literally every mistake of their predecessors, even Nolan himself. With The Dark Knight, they offer us proof that a superhero film does not have to be wholly dependent on the source material in order to be great or even what fans call "faithful;" nor does it have to be bright and flashy to appeal to children, nor light and self-conscious to make the adults more comfortable while watching a superhero film.

No, the Nolans know that a superhero film represents an opportunity to draw from an abundant source while adding something as well. The Dark Knight is neither a regurgitation of famous Batman storylines nor a Warner Brothers marketing scheme. It is the Nolans' film as much as a Frank Miller Batman comic is a Frank Miller book. This is perhaps what is most commendable about the latest chapter in Bat-mythology: that it has the feel of solid fiction, like an authored book or, dare I say it, an auteur film.

The film opens without credits, throwing us directly into a brilliant bank robbery orchestrated by a man known only as The Joker (Heath Ledger). The Joker enjoys heists and organized manipulation, but he has little care for money and many of his "plans" are just brilliant improvisations, a total embrace of existential chaos, as we soon learn. He is the definition of a sociopath, the raging id of an entire society. He is, in other words, the perfect Joker.

With all due respect to Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger blows the legendary actor out of the water - and out of the viewer's consciousness - with his funnier, scarier version of the Clown Prince of Crime. He's aided by a wonderful script and Nolan's sound direction, but Ledger, using just mannerisms and speech patterns and with very little makeup, becomes unrecognizable as the same actor who played hunks in Brokeback Mountain and 10 Things I Hate About You.

While the Joker is gaining power in Gotham's underworld, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is looking toward an end to his tenure as the masked vigilante Batman. He sees his salvation both in District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), a symbol of justice for whom (unlike Batman) the people of Gotham have a name and face, and Dent's girlfriend, ADA Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), for whom Bruce still holds a torch. The rise of the Joker and his siege of Gotham make things more complicated for Bats, however, as the lines between justice, vengeance, law, safety, and freedom start to blur.

Praising the cast of the film seems redundant, as most of the names here have established themselves as actors of high regard, if not mega box office stars, numerous times. But Christopher Nolan's talent is not in recognizing names, but recognizing what roles, however atypical, suit them. The Joker, especially as he is here, is not a role in which I would have imagined Heath Ledger two years ago, but apparently Nolan never considered anyone else. Gary Oldman as the tough-as-nails Police Lieutenant (and later Commissioner) James Gordon seemed strange in 2005 with Batman Begins, but here, with an expanded role, is able to flesh out his character. Aaron Eckhart, with his talent for playing duplicitous characters, is in more familiar territory as the not-all-rosy Harvey Dent, but Nolan still deserves credit for recognizing the actor that Harvey/Two Face needed.

This cast is met with a story that deserves them. The themes of the film, which deal mostly with the nature of fascism but evoke everything from terrorism to urban decay, are nothing new but are so rich and so damned well done as to actually become a reason for enjoying the film - an odd thing to say about a film with eight major action scenes all worthy of the climax of any other film. The Dark Knight is a blissful relief from what has been a mindless summer and makes me feel guilty for enjoying so many films that now seem so lazy. True, it is thoughtful and complex in the broadest sense of the words and still accessible to wide audiences, but it is refreshing and engaging nonetheless, the perfect pop masterpiece.

The Dark Knight is easily Christopher Nolan's best film since Memento, the film which put him on the map and whose follow-ups, with the exception of Batman Begins, have not impressed me. Neither his celebrated remake of Insomnia nor his much-praised The Prestige approaches the quality of this newest film. It is not just an improvement upon the young director's last superhero outing, but upon almost his entire oeuvre. And now, one of the cliches I have been holding back for the last 900 words: I was blown away!