From its spectacular IMAX "let's show you exactly the kind of mess you're in
for" opening bank robbery sequence, a beautiful short blockbuster in and of
itself, to Heath Ledger's definitively unhinged and ever
stakes-raising ... more nihilistic Joker antics to ultra-suspenseful set pieces that also
function as bedeviling questions in ethics, Christopher Nolan gave us what some considered a
comic book adaptation that transcended comic book adaptations. Whatever you call
it, the film was an undeniable coup, a masked-hero story with a true noir heart
beating under its elaborate big-budget trappings.