The Dark Knight (2008, USA)

I don't know if it was the caffeine I had to keep myself alert through an 11:30P.M. screening of a two-and-a-half-hour movie, or if The Dark Knight really is that much creepier and more frightening than its predecessor, but how on Earth did they manage to secure a PG-13 rating? Scratch that - it is that much scarier. And grosser. Don't bring the kids. Yeah, I'm talking to you - who the hell brings a two-year-old to a movie like this in the middle of the night?

Anyway.

As Batman Begins was an origins tale, the story of a dark hero, Knight belongs to the villains - Batman and his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne, get surprisingly little screen time in this rogues gallery, and with so many moving parts to the film, it's no huge surprise. Knight is incredibly densely-plotted, the number of threads weaving in and out of the action far surpassing your average action flick. But from the start, in fact the very first scene, the movie belongs to Heath Ledger's Joker. It's not that Bale, Gyllenhall, and the others aren't good as well (special props to Aaron Eckhart for an excellent performance), but Ledger is the most commanding presence to behold, and no one can pull the eye from him when sharing a scene (though maybe they should have given Caine a try). There's been a ton of hype about the film in general and Ledger in particular, but this is one of those rare instances where it proves true - despite the potentially hampering length of the film, the action fails to flag, and the characters ring true from start to finish. I wasn't a huge fan of Batman Begins when I originally saw it in the theater, but it's grown on me in the intervening years. Knight has no need to work its way into my system - it arrives as a full-blown adrenaline rush, a thoughtfully complex one at that, and should earn a deserving spot somewhere at the top of the comic action canon.

Also, more films need to open with William Fichtner and a shotgun. Just sayin'.