Batman has always been my favorite superhero, and that’s mostly because there isn’t anything particularly *super* about him. Sure Superman is faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, yadda, yadda, yadda. But let’s be honest: he’s also an alien. And Spiderman has that pesky little problem of mutant arachnid DNA. Batman, on the other hand, is just a man, powered mostly by his brains and a bundle of emotional wounds.

Three years ago, Christopher Nolan brought yet another incarnation of Batman to the screen, to an audience still stinging from Batman & Robin (Why, George Clooney…why?) Gone were the garish colors, the slapstick villains, and those horrid rubber nipples. Here was a Gotham that was believable as an American city and a superhero who was still learning how to play the part. When those end credits began to roll, I was more than ready for the sequel.

So, naturally, a week and a half ago I went online to buy tickets for a matinee show on opening day. If there was any movie where I wanted to be surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd in a packed theatre, it was this one. As the lights went down, the audience was absolutely – almost reverentially - silent. And when the lights came back up nearly three hours later, we applauded.

It was just that good.

Part of that appreciation almost surely stems from the fact that this is Heath Ledger’s final movie, and let me just say now, he totally deserves that honor. In this role he was simply amazing. I was, overall, truly impressed with the writing, the acting, and the direction Nolan took the characters in. It is, in short, a film worthy of Batman.