"The Dark Knight" is darkly masterful. It's a summer blockbuster that contemplates near-total civic disaster: Crowds swell, tractor-trailers overturn and buildings explode, but the pop violence feels heavy-handed, sad. The light barely escapes the film's gravitational pull. Yet, fluttering through this 10-ton expressionist darkness is a sickly butterfly with stringy hair and a maniacal giggle. Played by a dead actor, he's the most alive thing here. It's not entirely fair to say that the late Heath Ledger steals "The Dark Knight" from Christian Bale and the forces of (problematic) good, but, like Joker, he is the animating principle and anarchic spark of the film: an unstoppable force that collides with the immovable objects of Batman and director Christopher Nolan's ambitions. Much more serious in intent and message than 2005's "Batman Begins," "Dark Knight" would be fatally heavy without Ledger's bad little leprechaun. As it is, the film strains its own Wagnerian threads. “Knight” picks up where “Begins” left off, with Gotham City desperately trying to free itself from the grip of the criminal underworld. New mob boss Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts) makes deals with the Russians and Chinese while the media tries to figure out if this Batman is a hero or a vigilante. The knock-off Batmen go on the rampage, led by the Scarecrow from the previous film (Cillian Murphy, in a brief, unexplained appearance). And someone is robbing the banks of the Gotham mafia, leaving behind a Joker as a calling card. Is Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) of the Major Crimes Unit somehow involved in the robberies or does he simply take advantage of them to take possession of the bad guys' assets? What does the new district attorney, a white knight named Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) want? Because Wa...... middle of paper ......and Incredible Hulk" looks like, well, comic books. The question of whether a true hero is a man of due process like Harvey Dent or a "dark knight" who breaking the rules and getting innocent people killed is concerned throughout the film, reaching a climax that forces us to face exactly what murdering someone could do to the average man's soul "The Dark Knight" pushes the boundaries of power and even surveillance, which casts a shadow over Batman leaving his tech guru (Morgan Freeman) in the light (Michael Caine's Alfred, meanwhile, serves as the Caped Crusader's enabler, politely urging him to stay things the course). necessary to think about, yet they are almost lost in the transversal confusion You come away impressed, burdened, provoked and dejected, clinging to Ledger's squirrel incandescence like a beacon in the darkness...