After spending one late evening watching the movie on a gigantic IMAX screen (which, I must say, is the way to go if you intend on viewing this), I left in a combined state of exhaustion, exhilaration and dang near bafflement.

Director Christopher Nolan packs so many things in this sequel to his 2005 superhero hit "Batman Begins" -- things that are both sensually and mentally rousing -- I don't know whether to applaud him or curse out his overambitious, overstimulating behind for coming at a brotha like that.

Why don't I just work it out right now?

Where shall I start? Well, the obvious place would be with our Caped Crusader (Christian Bale), still leading a double life as bored millionaire Bruce Wayne and the masked, mysterious vigilante known to the people of Gotham City as "the bat man." Taking on the bad guys (not to mention copycat bat men) is starting to take its toll, as he carries a weight on his shoulders that's heavier than his suit.

He's beginning to think that fearless do-gooder District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) will clean up the streets for him, since he's doing his best to take down the city's mob underworld (led by a slithery, leather-skinned Eric Roberts). Little do they both know that the kingpins have an ace up their sleeves: a clown-faced psycho named The Joker (Heath Ledger), who turns out to be an unpredictable, uncontrollable force that neither the good guys nor the bad guys can keep tabs on.

Now, for a movie that has exploding buildings and car chases so jarring that they feel like hallucinations, Ledger's performance is the movie's most jolting, electrifying sight. I'm sure I won't be the only one to recognize that the dearly departed Ledger makes the movie.

Adopting a weaselly, Wallace Shawn-esque accent, he plays his Joker as the quintessential madman-on-a-mission. He's not a villain who's in it for the money or the power, or even the chaos and the anarchy. He's out to prove that evil can be easily accessed in the most noble of people. Ledger's most chilling moments aren't when his character is going on another one of his murder-and-mayhem sprees. They are when he's talking to people about his nihilistic beliefs, and he scarily begins to make sense.

And therein lies the focal point of "Knight," a movie where even its hero is always one jujitsu move away from going over the line. Nolan, along with his brother Jonathan, came up with a story that's all about how good versus evil will always be the eternal (and internal) struggle. It's a narrative deep, dark and complex enough to appease the fanboys, the novices and even some cineastes.

Yet since he's also making a summer, studio movie, Nolan doesn't skimp on the spectacular carnage. The great thing about the action sequences -- the best I've seen all summer -- is how Nolan eschews CGI chicanery in favor of creating these special effects with old-school, visibly authentic ingenuity. (I never thought I'd see the day where watching an 18-wheeler flip over on its back would make me rejoice with pleasure.)

As with the first film, it takes nearly a half-hour to get going, as the top-notch cast (which includes Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal, replacing "Begins" weak link Katie Holmes) mostly stand over each other in offices, boardrooms and secret lairs, giving expository monologues along the way. But when it does get going, the results are cyclonic.

A flick that goes about hitting both your senses and your soul with equal vigorousness, "The Dark Knight" is that rarest of summer movies: a blockbuster where the ideas are as big as the thrills. Does Nolan pull it all off? Not entirely. But we should be glad that somebody in Hollywood is trying.

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