I was a bit skeptical when talented genre director Christopher Nolan (Memento) was hired to restart the Batman franchise, but was left way in the dust eating my own words when it turned out to be one of the best superhero movies ever made, right up there with Superman (1978) and X2.  I love it's purity, it's willingness to start fresh but respect what came before it, the way they nailed the very soul of what made Batman Bruce Wayne and what made Bruce Wayne Batman.  And most of all, Christian Bale fucking rules - is there any role he can't play??

And now we have the amazing, tense and gorgeous trailer for the inevitable sequel, The Dark Knight, which you can see here.  Check out the picture below that I grabbed from the trailer of Heath Ledger as The Joker, another fantastic casting choice.

This is from a scene where he picks up what might very well be a dead guy and says (in a perfectly sinister tone) "Why so serious?"  Look at that maniacal twist in his eyes, his fucked-up makeup, his gnarly "My crazy hair is a reflection of just how crazy I am myself" hairdo.  Just awesome.  It looks like they nailed this one.  I cannot wait.