- Heath Ledger did a lot better than I expected. I don't think it was his acting that made The Joker so much fun as much as it was the script, but still, he pulled it off admirably. Yes, I loved Nicholson's Joker, though it always felt a little too theatrical, sorta over-played. I always like Cesar Romero's Joker, but it fit in with the show so the comic-book-ish-ness worked in such a cheesy setting. This is a tougher Joker, and one I can believe. Crazy, sure, but with no illusions, no plan, just doin' his thing. True psychopath. I'm glad that he cannot be recreated, as I'm betting that he'd not be as good a second time. Let's knock off all this Oscar talk, though, huh? The man's dead, and while it was a good performance, let's not go for a sympathy award.

- Everyone else turned in solid performances. I didn't have anyone that made me think they were a bad casting choice. Maggie Gyllenhaal was a hundred times better than Katie Holmes.

- Nice to see (mostly) believable gadgets from the Batman. I don't need them to be 100% perfect, this IS a superhero flick, but it's good to see them be within the realm pf reality, where I'm not going "yeah, right" all the time.

- Some very pretty camera work. I didn't get that feeling of the film team trying to show off, just solid shots and good panoramas, and thank god, no slow-motion.

- Cameo of Scarecrow. Nice.

- OK, this growly voice thing has got to go. Every time Bats opened his mouth, I wanted to yell at him. It's like they told Bale "OK, when you're Wayne, you gotta be arrogant, aloof. When you're Batman, you gotta be a kodiak with a head cold."

- The "sonar" thing was the one gadget I couldn't buy into. Seemed like WAY too much of a stretch for me to dig it.