I was planning on holding out until after our move next week to go see “The Dark Knight,” but when the guys from work offered up the opportunity tonight, I couldn’t resist succumbing to the thrill of being part of the biggest opening weekend of all time.

And lo and behold, I am utterly blown away. “The Dark Knight” is not just a good comic book movie. It’s not just a good action flick. It’s an amazing film. It is the “Gone with the Wind” of Batman movies, and perhaps the “Gone with the Wind” of 21st Century cinema. Massively entertaining, the characters are fully developed, the message is introduced subtly and clarified over the course of 2.5 hours to its full-blown crescendo just as the final credits begin to roll.

And then there’s the star. The star is not Batman, or Bale, or the Joker or Ledger, it is Ledger’s portrayal itself. Heath was crazy good at what he did for a living and we only really started to notice with his last couple of movies. His performance is perfectly studied, as if he observed real murderous psychopaths for 8 months before hitting the set and playing “terrorist without a cause.” To think we won’t see his face on-screen again after the upcoming Terry Gilliam flick hits theaters is to know the agony of squandered potential. Jack Nicholson was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe in 1990 for his Joker performance. Ledger should have an Oscar named after him.

Go see this movie.