Gotham's new district attorney, Harvey Dent, promises the city that it's always darkest just before the dawn, but that the dawn is indeed coming.  Oh, but Gotham has not yet emerged from its own deepest shadows, and this serious, somber yet enthralling tone is struck clearly in the epic action and gritty performances of THE DARK KNIGHT. Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan's dense and dark escalation from BATMAN BEGINS not only advances the jump-started franchise, it mashes down the throttle and drives the story and characters into unsuspected, uncharted cinematic depth like the Batpod races through Gotham's streets. Heath Ledger steals the show and rightfully so in a performance which simply couldn't and never will be duplicated.  In the actor's hands and soul, villainy has reached new devious heights and amoral lows, all presented with dangerous, delightful unpredictability. Welcome to a Batman film without rules. Frightening and awe-inspiring, THE DARK KNIGHT shatters perceptions of comic-based cinema and towers high above all pretenders into even the darkest of nights.

If BATMAN BEGINS related the origin of Bruce Wayne's double identity as the crime fighting symbol of justice in Gotham City, then THE DARK KNIGHT shatters the equation into fragments which reflect split personalities, duplicitous dealings and the human cost of living with alter-egos.  There is no light without darkness, and Christopher Nolan's new tale revels in the yin and yang of that truth.  Take the film's title at its word: this a dark film, perhaps too dark in spots for some fans' tastes while finally dark enough for others.  Yet these inky shadows are made too compelling not to explore, even celebrate in dramatic fashion.  Ever more so than in the first film, it is the collision of contrasts between light and dark which raises the storytelling stakes so high, and largely with great success.

This story hinges on the fight between the Joker and Batman in a battle for Gotham City's soul: one masked figure confronting the other in a personal duel of morality over a metropolis which teeters on the verge of surrendering its own morals permanently.  That all sounds fine on paper and in post-viewing discussions of the film's thematic core — but it succeeds only as a brutally intimate battle between the two opponents who are indeed as interlocked as two sides of one coin.  Yet this particular cinematic coin has, impossibly, three sides and so it never flips flatly, simply onto one face or the other: life and death are never such easy choices.

Star Christian Bale amps up his performance as The Dark Knight of Gotham while leaving a good portion of his Bruce Wayne persona back in the previous film.  That origin story a closed chapter, now Bale rebuilds what it means to be Batman from the inside of his new armored Batsuit out.  This works well for the sequel in many parts, while not so effectively in several scenes where — despite the new cowl's flexibility — Bale seems to exhibit some difficulty acting through his leaner, meaner mask.

Alas, as well as Bale extends the character of Wayne/Batman, he cannot help but pale in comparison to the pallid white-face killer clown that is the Joker.  All credit due to the script co-written by the director and his brother Jonathan Nolan, it is the impeccable, dangerous acting choices made by the late Heath Ledger which make his achievement a crowning finale to his all-too-brief career.  How fascinating to watch an audience unsure whether to laugh at his murderous excesses or cringe at his unhinged sense of humor.  The Joker's smile is entirely illusion, scar tissue slathered in clown makeup which cannot hope to conceal the death's-head grin lurking under the greasepaint façade.  Witness his diabolically demented genius, become fascinated by the horror he shows you in the mirror, and he'll never set you free — but he'll gladly let you escape to spread the word.

To the Joker, Gotham is a cause about to be lost; it remains Batman's mission to protect the hope that Gotham can save itself.  Into this crossfire of conflicting morality walks Harvey Dent, the bold and effective D.A. played with equal complexity and power by Aaron Eckhart.  As the city's newly proclaimed "white knight" waging and winning a war against corrupting mob bosses (here Eric Roberts leads the feinting counterattack), Dent personifies the best of what Gotham can and wants to be.  In doing so, he's also captured the heart of Rachel Dawes (a role ably continued by Maggie Gyllenhaal), the assistant district attorney who once and possibly still owns the heart of Bruce Wayne.  Yet as the white night rises as a civic hero, so too must he inevitably fall as the price Gotham pays for its stand against criminal terrorism.  Harvey Dent pays a shattering penalty for his heroic acts and is left literally half the man he once was, as the infamous Two Face is born in a crucible of injustice.  As Joker puts it, "It's all part of the plan!"

THE DARK KNIGHT benefits from solid performance all around, including Gary Oldman adding more layers of humanity and faith to Commissioner Gordon, along with serviceable if shortened roles for Michael Caine as Wayne's most trusted mentor Alfred, and Morgan Freeman as Batman's tech-guru Lucius Fox.

Prepare to be wowed by Wally Pfister's cinematography which turns the architectural delights of real-life Chicago into the metropolitan labyrinth of Gotham City, and Nathan Crowley's production design which makes you believe a Batpod really can fly, weave and blast its way through downtown traffic.  Thanks to director Nolan's aversion to faking the action with CG effects, THE DARK KNIGHT stands firmly on a foundation of practical realism, making the action and stunt sequences all the more riveting and palpable to watch.  Add to this the return joint venture of composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, whose score fuels the film without drowning out the drama, and this sequel packs plenty of explosive energy to propel audiences through its 152-minute (and occasionally overindulgent) running time.

Yet boil the film down to its most basic appeal and strength, and while fans will buy tickets for the Batman, they'll stay for the Joker... who will indeed haunt them a while after leaving the theater behind.  Ledger's performance reduces Jack Nicholson's effort in Tim Burton's BATMAN to a punchline fallen flat: this Joker is no greasepainted gangster, he is a ruthless, random madman as insane as he is ingenious.  Joker is truly an agent of chaos who spreads his terror like a dark plague, infecting the citizen of Gotham with self-doubt and selfish corruption.  All he needs is to tip the scale just enough to watch the entire city topple over into anarchy.  Borrowing a phrase from one of the graphic novels which inspired the Nolans, his plan is the ultimate killing joke, a murderous prank with nothing funny at all in the punchline.  Ledger sells this dangerous duality in spades, and his commitment to the part is mesmerizing, not to mention sad that we shall not see more of it ever again.

So embrace this marvel for what it is: a dark and sometimes dizzying leap from the towering heights of Gotham into the deepest pits of the city's own greed and despair . . . but know that THE DARK KNIGHT shall triumph in this deepened, revitalized and thrilling franchise.  Then enjoy this new dawn for the darkness which gives it meaning.

NOTE to parents: you should take THE DARK KNIGHT's PG-13 rating seriously and give solid consideration before allowing any young children to see this film.  While criminal situations and violence are not graphic, the Joker's actions and character are disturbing at moments.  This is not a children's Batman movie.

FilmEdge continues our coverage of THE DARK KNIGHT and the Batman franchise with our game reviews of BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM and LEGO BATMAN on the XBox 360