"I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger. "

First, I need to talk about Dr. Horrible and his blog of Joss Whedon.... or something. I don't really like Joss Whedon. Don't like any of the stuff he's done except for his guest direction on "The Office". That was funny and awesome. It even has one of my most favorite lines from the series.

"Poop. Poop is raining from the ceiling."

So Dr Horrible and his blog of no vampires or science fiction.... or bats. I'd been told to go to the site by a few friends that seriously love them some Joss Whedon. I'll be honest and say that every time I hear that name, I cringe a little inside. It's not that he's a bad guy, not like William Faulkner ... or Mexico, I just don't enjoy anything he's done. But I head over to the site anyway just to give it a look. It's Neil Patrick Harris. Singing for crying out loud. It can't suck as much as... well, Buffy. And it didn't. But then it didn't quite deliver. Yes, there were funny parts to it. I laughed. Out loud, even. It just kind of ends and trails off while Captain Douchbag whines to a therapist and Neil Patrick Harris becomes a simpering half-a-villain. We can't even have an anti-hero to get behind. You want the guy to win and kill Captain Douchebag. Or at least make him look like the ass that he is.

But oh no. Instead of having something to drive him to become totally, awesomely evil, he decides to be all emo instead. I realize the goal of this little internet piece is humor. I get that. It's funny. But we have archetypes for a reason. They are followed to have a logical path for the character to develop. Sometimes you can go outside that box and come up with something awesome. This time, Joss Whedon didn't.

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But one thing that really did completely succeed on every level was "The Dark Knight". The thing with Batman is that he's an ordinary man. He has no super powers, wasn't dropped in a vat of toxic waste, or sent from space. He's something to which we, as ordinary people can totally relate. If anything, Batman's "superpower" is his unwaivering sense of control. He has his set of rules and morals that he follows in the strictest sense. He does what he does because of his past. Not to have any sort of revenge or to relive it over and over, but that he has felt a pain that is so deep and horrible, that he wants to prevent others from feeling that same kind of pain and loss he did. Batman and Bruce Wayne are a vision of what we as humans have the ability to do; namely, overcome horrible things in our lives and rise above it. Be shaped by it to become something better and greater than what we currently are. This is what Christopher Nolan understands as a writer and a director. Without the psychological aspects of Batman, he's nothing more than a weird guy, who may not quite have a grip on who is is, prancing about in a bat suit like a ninny.

That psychological element saturates the entire Batman universe. The villains all have strong roots in psychology. They are more than a pack of crazy people. They reveal something about who we are as people. The dark side of sadism, obsessive compulsive behavior, delusions, and narcissism. Because the villains have a human element to them, their character development and motivation is clear.

This is what Christoper Nolan understands as a director and writer. It's something he's understood for years. (Watch "Memento" if you don't believe me.) It's this understanding that as people, the more substance something has, the more it resonates with us. Nolan wrote a script with very strong psychological elements that flesh-out and enhance his characters. They become more than silly "crazy people" who do silly things. They have motivation and a weight to them that makes them powerful. As a director, Nolan instilled this in his actors so that "The Dark Knight" becomes far greater than all previous comic book movies. The acting is second-to-none, and while it is far darker than any of the previous Batman films, that darker element provides far more substance to the characters, story, and themes of the universe. Unlike many other comic book films, "The Dark Knight" doesn't talk down to the audience. The film doesn't downplay the characters or what creates and drives them. Above all, the film isn't afraid to show us these characters in all of their glory as wonderful and as horrible as they are. By seeing them so clearly, we can see just how much Bruce Wayne struggles with what he has created. How it has become bigger than him. Above all, we see just how strong he is when he is unwilling to compromise his standards in order to achieve his goals. We can see that the complete and total chaos of The Joker renders Batman almost helpless in a way, because The Joker is everything that Batman isn't. He destroys innocence because there is no innocence. He creates chaos because there is no order.

While I cannot say for sure that Health Ledger will win the Oscar for this performance, I'll be unpleasantly surprised if he isn't at least nominated. The pre-release hype on just how good his portrayal is not hype. It honestly is the one of the best on-screen performances I've ever seen because he was able to fully embody that chaos and completely immerse himself in the character. Additionally, the masterful portrayal of The Joker is made even more bittersweet because this film is able to really show us the range of Health Ledger's acting ability, but it's posthumously.

In short:
Intelligence FTW.
Heath Ledger = Oscar nominated performance win.
"The Dark Knight" - Epic amounts of win. Completely destroys every other comic-based movie in it's wake.