The Dark Knight

With Iron Man blasting the roof off the box office this past weekend, the superhero genre has yet to reach its apex in theaters. Hot on the heels of its phenomenal success comes The Dark Knight movie, boosted in no small part by the unfortunate and untimely death of the major star, Heath Ledger, who portrays Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker (along with a cornucopia of who's-whos in Hollywood, including Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, all of whom have stepped-in as doubles for Ledger in various scenes). While there are several superhero movies slated for the rest of the year, including the highly-anticipated Wolverine, Dark Knight will likely be the Other Big One.

While the studios have managed to keep the lid pretty tightly-closed on this one, you can follow the link to have a peek at the trailer, as well as some pictures from the set and of the actors. Of course, there are copious links to supporting information, and it's all very nicely presented and easy to navigate.

There's been a lot of back-and-forth on this one, with rumors surfacing one day only to be quashed the next, but the one constant has been Ledger's performance, which is said to be the best of his short career. In fact, there has been a lot of serious talk about his being nominated for a best actor Oscar posthumously. While that's great and all, how sad is it that he lost the award for sweaty, hairy man-on-man love (not that there's anything wrong with that) and he stands a great chance of winning for playing a psychotic clown? And he'll never know either way?

While Ledger's death has definitely helped promote the film (sad, but true), the best way to look at it is that the film was already finished before he passed away; let his performance drive the film, instead of his death overshadowing it. The few pics and sequences look great and I - like the rest of the free world - can't wait for this blockbuster to hit theaters!