So like the rest of America, I went to see the new Batman movie this weekend anxiously anticipating “the hype” of the Oscar winning performance given by Maggie Gyllenhaal Heath Ledger.

Do yourself a favor and go see it.

While a highly critical person like myself could find minor flaws and make arguments against it, it’s an impressive motion picture that holistically is a masterpiece. Period. No matter what I do to describe the movie, regardless of your expectations and knowledge prior to seeing the movie — it will pale in comparison with what The Dark Knight is prepared to deliver. It’s full of surprises you don’t see coming.

Most comic book action movies are shallow at delivering substance. Why? Because most action movie story lines and acting suck. This movie brings a deeper dimension not only to the Batman series, but for action movies in general.

After you watch the movie consider this; the poetic delivery of the theme “evil” and “darkness” throughout the movie is ambivalent. I personally found myself drawn in to Ledgers’ morbid visceral creepy performance of the Joker so brilliant it was hard to swallow the fact I was falling in love with the villain of the movie — not the superhero.  Here’s a video comparing the performances of both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.  Who do you think was is better?

• Did you know… the orchestral score of the movie was done by Hans Zimmer and James Howard. Zimmer and Howard gave the director an iPod filled with 10 hours of music cues based on just the script, which Zimmer contends the director memorized on flights to and from Hong Kong.

• Did you know… IMAX technology was used to shoot some of the action scenes.

• Did you know… the caterers on the film provided intricately thought-out fruit plates for Christian Bale that were a bit more composed and deliberate, whereas the food for Heath Ledger was arranged in a more frazzled, chaotic, Joker-like fashion.

My favorite shot/scene from the entire movie is actually only a 5-second clip — the part with the Joker, when he has his head out of the cop car. What a beautiful shot.