and so it is, The Dark Knight opened in singapore, and i caught it on opening day. i hate to rave about movies and make people have so much expectation going into the cinema, just to be let down by high hopes, but i have to. you know how it is nowadays, i only blog when there is something big going on.

some trivia: there is a singaporean actor in the movie. edison chen appears briefly.

here comes the spoilers.

all the press movie reviewers who get to enjoy early screeners, free flow of popcorn and at the end of the day get paid for doing what they do best – watch movies – are right. all the hype and buzz about Heath Ledger’s final movie appearance is true.

he has way surpassed the performance of the first joker, Jack Nicholson. he has set a benchmark so high in the supervillian world, that even Dr.Hannibal Lecter pales in comparison. this is by far Heath’s most memorable role, outdoing his previous oscar winning gay effort in brokeback mountain.

watching him strutting his stuff in that makeup is a little haunting, it was as if he raised from the dead to deliever this outstanding performance. he will definitely be remembered for a lifetime, and a half, as a legend, together with Elvis, Kurt, and Pac.

when i watched the first installment of Christoper Nolan’s epic, i truly appreciated the effort he put into developing the character of Batman. in this second installment, nolan has done a even better job in the development of the characters, especially the villians(yes, villians, that is plural)

despite the gritty performances from Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, the movie left me with a hint of disappointment in my mouth. i can’t get past the fact that they replaced Katie Holmes, who played the pesky d.a. Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins, with a much older, far less attractive Maggie Gyllenhaal. i know that Katie Holmes was pregnant during the period they were shooting. but com’on, i spent the first hour figuring out who was that new lawyer, and guessing where did that satin clad katie holmes go.

when the credits rolled, i was caught in the moment, i just starred blankly, trying to take everything in. but when i saw the line ‘this film is dedicated to our friend Heath Ledger‘, i was slammed back to reality, and it hit me. Heath Ledger is gone. rest in peace.