To be honest, I’m not much of a Batman fan. My favorite superhero of all time is Spiderman. I think perhaps Spiderman is more down-to-earth and approachable than Batman. Or maybe it’s because of the costume ?

However, I’m all in for an afternoon of great entertainment and this film delivers one of the best Batman film to date. Seriously, I didn’t expect much from this film, perhaps the usual, a whole lot of explosions, guns, bombs and more explosions etc. Well, I wasn’t entirely wrong but this film delivers so much more and makes it as one of my favorite superhero film! I’ll tell you why.

1. Christian Bale as Batman
I’m glad that Christian Bale starred again as Batman. He fits perfectly for the role. I guess I know why previous Batman films never warmed to me because their previous stars like George Clooney and Val Kilmer as Batman overshadowed the supposedly mysterious and dark character with their own charm. Batman is not supposed to be charming. In my humble opinion, Christian Bale handles the balance between Batman and Bruce Wayne pretty well.

2. The oh-my-goodness-star-studded casts
I came to know that Aaron Eckhart stars in the film when he appeared as a guest in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, discussing about this film. That was when I decided that I have to watch it. If you don’t like Batman, watch the film for him . His character, Harvey Dent/Two-Face gave me the creeps by just watching his face and he made it so real *shuddered*. Other casts like Michael Caine (as Alfred Pennyworth), Morgan Freeman (as Lucius Fox) and Gary Oldman (as Comm. Gordon) complemented the film perfectly. The butler character Alfred Pennyworth somehow reminded me a lot about the very loyal butler Niles from comedy series The Nanny.

3. The Batpod
Lo and behold the brand new Batman’s means of travel, the Batpod. I always had the indestructible Batmobile in mind, the multi-faceted ‘car’ that Batman uses in all his previous films. But this latest addition to his means of transport totally had my jaw dropped. It is super kick-ass COOL!

4. The Joker
As in most superhero films, the villains play as much an important role as the superhero himself. In this film, it’s hats off to Heath Ledger for his performance as The Joker, the perfect devil incarnate. His laughter gave me goosebumps down my spine, his eyes ooze pure insanity and his very presence reeks of madness and death. It’s really very hard to imagine that this Heath Ledger is the very same Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. The transformation is HUGE!

5. The Plot
The whole story is brilliantly told and well written! Some might say that there is too much talking in the film but I love all the witty lines. The action scenes had me ‘WHOAA-ed‘ most of the time, but not overly done, just enough to tease the audience. Although the coin-tossing-thingy is kinda No-Country-For-Old-Man-ish, leaving fate to decide one’s mortality. That aside, it is still an excellent story filled with surprises, twists and ironies that lingered in my mind long after the movie ended, and I realized, being superhero is one tough job.