The Dark Knight *****

It's easily the best Batman movie ever. "The Dark Knight" takes up where the earlier "Batman Begins" (2005) left off, but with a darker tone and vicious villains, led this time by a maniacal Joker, indellibly played by the late Heath Ledger. The darker tone signals a new attitude toward Batman, not fun and campy, certainly, but also less of a hero, and more a conflicted crusader.

In this sequel Batman (Christian Bale), although officially a wanted vigilante, teams up with Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) and the new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to clean up the mobsters still active in Gotham. But things fail to go as planned when the criminals turn to The Joker to take out Batman. On a personal level, Bruce Wayne is still carrying a torch for Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, a welcome change from Katie Holmes), but she won't leave her new boyfriend, Harvey Dent, until Wayne hangs up his Batsuit.

The story moves along well, interspersed with dramatic and effective action sequences, most shot the old-fashioned way, which is very effective, but here using IMAX cameras. See this movie on an IMAX screen if you can. This is a great movie and there is no way you can match the impact of a screen more than 50 feet high on a standard theater screen, much less at home. And the music and sound editing, which are excellent, are heard to their best effect in an IMAX theater.

At only 37 years old, director/writer Christopher Nolan here maintains his high standing as a talent of the first order. The great promise he showed in "Memento" (2000) has been fulfilled in a steady progression of larger projects: "Insomnia" (2002), "Batman Begins," and "The Prestige" (2006). It's interesting that he has cast Christian Bale and Michael Caine in his last three movies. And they always deliver.

Rated PG-13. 152 minutes. Christopher Nolan - Director / Writer (screenplay) (story) / Producer, Jonathan Nolan - Writer (screenplay), David S. Goyer - Writer (story), Bob Kane - Writer (characters), Charles Roven - Producer, Emma Thomas - Producer, Wally Pfister - Cinematographer, James Newton Howard - Composer, Hans Zimmer - Composer, Nathan Crowley - Production Designer, Lee Smith - Editor. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Principal actors: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman.