My father was... a drinker.... and a fiend! And one night, he goes off crrrrazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that... Not - one - bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. Then, turns to me, and... he says "Why so serious?" Comes at me with the knife. "Why so serious?" He sticks the blade in my mouth... like this. "Lets put a smile on that face!"
Hey... why so serious?

Morgan Freeman(Lucius Fox): Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And your plan is to blackmail this person?

As to a possible next film and who's going to be in it, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the multiple appearances of 'Mr Rees' (or whatever version of the surname you use) - Mr Rees pronounced quickly, mysteries? Probably the Riddler? Also, as far as I'm aware anyway, isn't the 'canon' Riddler an employee of Wayne Industries too? And I've been told also that Mr Rees is one of his aliases, though not his actual name (though I can't remember what this is and am too lazy to check at the moment).

I'd also be quite surprised if Two-Face wasn't in another Batman film.

Do you want to see a magic trick?

I'm going to make this pencil disappear...

My personal feelings are very mixed. If it was a Batman movie, it was a horrible, horrible batman movie. It really was - not what I grew up used to, not what I expected. The last batman movie was a bit darker than I was used to, but all in all was a great movie - this was just darker. Infinitely moreso.

As a stand-alone movie, however. This was amazing. Purely effing amazing. I'm still sitting at work with my eyes closed, running through it in my head. I apologise to anyone who was sitting in the movie theatre with me, as when I saw Harvey flip his coin the first time I shrieked aloud, "OMFG IT'S TWO-FACED!" - something I had no foreknowledge of. My companion was extremely upset, though thankfully didn't understand what I meant (until Harvey had half his face burned off, and then he looks at me and goes, 'oh my god - is that two-faced?' - No, he's really not very bright. I adore him anyways, however).

Anyways. Heath Ledger's performance was amazing. The story, as far as I can tell, is not actually about Batman - it's about Gotham City. It follows the same vein the first movie took, however Batman was still the central focus of it. Now... not so much. I'm not particularly complaining, it was just not what I went in expecting.

The Dark Knight was the story of three prominent people in Gotham - Harvey Dent, the charismatic and righteous D.A., Gordon, the idealistic and hopeful police officer, and Batman, the dark, mis-understood, honourable figure with a single-mindedness.

The Joker, representing destructive chaos at its finest, was a person with no past, no identity. One could simply argue Joker was Gotham given human form - a maniacle, want nothing, need nothing, chaos-loving madman. His sole intention wasn't necessarily to bring chaos to the city - that's not what he cared about. His sole desire was to destroy the three pillars of Gotham, the three men who represented the three faces of 'good' in the city. The inevitable result would be city-wide chaos and panic, but that wasn't the goal. It was pure, malicious hatred for peace and order.

The depth of the characters was fantastic. I can go on for weeks, and have been discussing with my old college literature professor for the past day or so over e-mail the rampant symbolism some of you have touched on (the hanged man, Odin hanging from the Tree of Life, etc). I can see both, however I see the Hanged Man more prominently - he represents a lack of care, a lack of need, a lack of concern. The simple enjoyment of hanging there makes it entirely worthwhile. That is how the Joker acts, behaves, and seems to thrive.

I'm jumping around a bit now, having to type between tasks at work. I'll close it on a few notes, however:

Gordon. As I said, the idealist of the three, attempting to maintain some sense of balance between the vigilante justice of Batman, and the sanctioned, less accurate but more civil justice of Dent. Joker existed to prove to Gordon that people cannot be trusted, as much as he wishes they could be. Something Dent tried to warn him of, but never succeeded.

And then Dent, the righteous and devout man of Justice nearly believed himself invincible. It's pretty obvious Joker's intention - to destroy, defile, and completely remove the sense of right and wrong. It became less of a sense of true Justice, and a sense of chance. - And now this has sat here for 4+ hours, after I'd forgotten about it.

I sincerely doubt it will be Rees as riddler simply because they've stayed true to names so far, and the Riddler was a Wayne Ent. employee named Edward Nigma, Edward Nash, or Nygma. Rees also shares a "nod" after being saved by Wayne, whom he knows is Batman at that point.

The most hilarious moment in the movie for me wasn't actually the skipping in the Nurse outfit, it was when he sits down with it and the wig, and gives a weird half smile, then says "Hiiii."

but too much dying =(