I saw this Saturday morning, and all I can say is .. WOW!! This film has been talked to death, so I went into this thinking that there is no way this movie will live up to all the hype and was expecting to be disappointed. I'm so happy to report that I was wrong! I absolutely loved it for the entire 2.5 hours. Yes, it is very dark and sinister and evil. I would even say that no one under the age of 14 has any business seeing this film, for it is nothing like the comic books, TV shows, cartoons or even the 1990's batman movies. Heath Ledger is definitely a stand out. I don't know for sure if this performance is Oscar winning stuff, but he does make you want to learn more about the joker and you can’t wait for him to be on screen again. I wonder if there were any stand in actors for Heath’s part? If there were you don’t notice it. Plus he wears evil clown makeup throughout. Anyway this is absolutely the best film of the summer and it MUST be seen on the big screen, inside a cold and dark theater with a big tub of buttery popcorn! Thank you Sherron for draging me to see this :-)