I’ve been a Batman fan for most of my life, so when “Batman Begins” came out a few years ago and erased all the nasty memories I had of the day-glow “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin,” I was ecstatic. And when they finished the movie with a nod to The Joker as the sequel’s big bad guy, I was even more excited. For Batman and his fans, the Joker is the ultimate villain – even more important to the hero than Lex Luthor is to Superman in my mind.

So I guess you could say I was pretty excited to see “The Dark Knight” this weekend. And I was not disappointed. But before we begin, I’ll let you know this: even though this blog is part of the “People Who Talk About the Ends of Movies” group, I think I’ll start things off by letting you know that I’m going to talk write a bit about some plot points in the show. If you’re not interested in knowing those, stop reading now.

The movie was great. I was a little worried that I would end up slightly disappointed with the newest installment of one of my favorite heroes (I’ve already been slightly disappointed by a childhood hero in a fedora this summer). But the movie pulled through in a way that I didn’t expect at all: it scared me.

Heath Ledger’s Joker was maybe the scariest villain I’ve seen in a movie in years. Throughout the show, he lies about the backstory that gave him the permanent smile of scars around his mouth. So we never really get to find out where he comes from and why he likes to wear makeup. He just shows up in Gotham and starts killing people. And that’s another terrifying aspect of the character – he kills not for revenge or anger or money. In fact, he never really has any motive for his actions. He just does it because he’s good at it and because he enjoys it. To me, that’s a terrifying idea.

I think one of the best scenes is about halfway through the movie. The Joker sits calmly in a county jail cell while police catalog his personal possessions (“Nothing buy knives and lint”). Around him, the prisoners and police are in a frenzy. But the Joker just sits and waits. He created this chaos, and he’s two steps ahead of everyone else. What follows involves lots of explosions, a cell phone, amateur thoracic surgery and some psychotic social experiments.

The Joker (especially in this movie) is the perfect foil for Batman’s brooding heroism. Bruce Wayne/Batman protects Gotham out of a sense of duty and obligation. He feels he’s doing the right thing by donning a mask and cape and enforcing his own sort of moral code. The Joker, on the other hand, kills and causes chaos for the sheer thrill of it. He feels no obligation to anyone and operates under no rules.

Of course, there were some things I’d have changed about the movie. They introduced Two Face in a storyline that I thought wasn’t overly important, and then got rid of him so quickly I was left wondering why he was ever there at all.

But overall, the movie did a great job of  creating a sense of dread, of urgency, and of realism that stuck with me even after I left the theater. I’m definitely going to see it again.