Everytime a movie has too much hype surrounding it, I'm afraid to see it. Thankfully, the Dark Knight lives up to its hype, despite its star's accidental suicide in this past January.
Heath Ledger gives his most explosive performance of his short career...literally. As the darkest joker to date, Heath completely transforms himself into a serial psychopath, complete with pencil tricks and a disturbing nervous ticks.
Christian Bale, on the other hand, makes a better Clark Kent than Batman; his clean-shaven, suavve persona isn't quite a shoe-in to be Gotham's knight in skin-tight armor. While attempting to upkeep Batman's trademarks of fear, bravery,and all things that go bump in the night, the false baratone put on by Bale seems a tad overdone.
Plot twists, though, keep the Dark Knight from being another run of the mill superhero flick.