Batman (Christian Bale), who arose from the first movie, Batman Begins, as a symbol of hope and justice for a beleaguered city, is no longer certain in his actions; neither are Gotham's citizens. First hailed as a hero, his influence has taken a turn for the worse. Denounced as a vigilante by some, while others emulate him and take the law into their own hands, the Joker exploits this uncertainty by threatening to kill Gotham's citizens daily until Batman reveals his true identity. Cue the crisis of conscience for Bruce Wayne, and let the games begin. Seeing salvation in the form of Harvey Dent, both Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Batman bring him into their ongoing war against organized crime. To Batman, Dent is the more traditional — square-jawed, gleaming smile — hero the people of Gotham deserve. To The Joker, Dent is the man to bring down if Batman will not be so obliging. For comic book fans, Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face, so you already know where this confrontation is going.

The crime syndicate, reeling under the unrelenting punishment Batman's war on crime is delivering to them, turns to the "freak" Joker for salvation. In a gruesome introduction punctuated by a cleverly wicked vanishing pencil trick, the Joker persuades the syndicate to make him their leader. The syndicate wants to protect its assets, but he only wants to wreak bedlam and destroy the social order and its strongest proponent, Batman. We are shown this Joker is not fun and games and puppy dogs tails. His preferred weapon, aside from the pencil, is a knife. No glitzy lethal gadgets such as razor-sharp playing cards, acid-spewing flowers, and lethally electric joy buzzers for him; just a sharp blade to etch a permanent smile on unsmiling victims.

The Dark Knight is not a superhero movie in the usual sense, but it is why superheros in comic books were created in the first place. It is a moral dilemma wrapped in entropic reality, stuffed inside an enigmatic situation that has no irreproachable resolution. For every "right" decision Batman makes, The Joker is quick to twist it into a wrong one. For every good deed Batman does, The Joker is sure to dearly punish him for it - -giving credence to The Joker's revealing quip, "You complete me!"

With its ambiguity distilling each situation with an existential heaviness more at home in an arthouse or French drama, the story manages to keep moving at a brisk pace with carefully timed action sequences. Batman makes his appearance in a swirling slugfest, leaving him with a desire to redesign his armor for more flexibility (including a cowl that lets him turn his head). There is an exciting high-energy chase during which part of the Batmobile converts to a fat-wheeled motorcycle, leading to an unexpected bat turn as Batman races toward a solid wall with no room to go around it. Another scene — reminiscent of the Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton long-barreled gun versus Batplane showdown in Tim Burton's Batman — has Batman going full-throttle toward a resolute Joker, who is anxious to fulfill a strong death instinct. While some of the synergy and complexity of The Dark Knight can be seen as drawn from Burton's film, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, along with David S. Goyer, have written a story that extends the struggle between The Joker and Batman far beyond the fictional confines of Gotham City, challenging us with its dilemmas as well as the characters onscreen.