In case his less memorable "Batman Begins" didn’t make it clear yet, writer-producer-director Christopher Nolan proves with "The Dark Knight" that he isn’t out to make cartoony comic book adaptations. While respecting both Bob Kane’s creation and the storytelling grit that Frank Miller later brought to the pointy-eared costumed vigilante, and ensuring that fanboys and fat execs would be equally pleased, Nolan likewise appears to have aimed at carving his own, realistic touch in retelling the Batman saga. Even more notable, given that two directors — the renowned Tim Burton and the reviled Joel Schumacher — had already rendered the DC Comics character to Hollywood-approved celluloid life and, moreover, that we, the YouTube generation, have virtually reached a saturation point, entertainment-wise, Nolan’s "The Dark Knight" manages to be both familiar yet a more heightened piece of entertainment. Nolan seems to imply that the only thing that can top reaching the mountaintop is to go even higher.

It helps that "The Dark Knight" has several IMAX-huge scenes, not to mention vehicular chases that pay muscular homage to "The French Connection" and tense montages that crisscross between characters yet maintain a neat narrative thread. Yet Nolan, who co-scripted "The Dark Knight" with his brother Jonathan (based on a story the director co-conceived with David S. Goyer), also manages to hit us on the head with quite a few cerebral stones.

Here’s one: Besides your basic good-vs.-evil concept, "The Dark Knight" also notably plays on the concept of individuality as a form of isolation — as witness Batman being a lone crusader despite substantial assist from Alfred the butler and Lucius Fox the gadgets pro, the Joker being a lone loony despite essential assist from his array of clueless henchmen, and even district attorney Harvey Dent being a lone idol despite his political popularity.

Yet "The Dark Knight" — a sleepless two and a half hours per viewing — feels rather distant and impersonal overall. It left me with some cathartic hole I can’t put my finger on, despite obviously being better than much of what we have seen so far this year. It is a laudable effort by Nolan but one that somehow remains inches away from being a bona fide triumph.

One thing is crystal clear, however: Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker, is acting greatness personified. It helped that the "Knight" writers managed to have injected more life in Batman’s signature nemesis than in the chief protagonist himself (prompting my brother to opine that this movie should have been titled "The Joker") and imbued the thieving villain with a penchant for both perverse puns (e.g., "stranger" instead of "stronger," "slaughter" in place of "laughter") and for subtly stealing recognizable pop references (e.g., he plays with a video camera at one point like Robert Smith did in The Cure’s "In Between Days" video, quotes political scientist John Lewis Gaddis’ timeless quip about dogs aimlessly chasing cars and, the whopper, quotes from a Tom Cruise flick). Yet Ledger essays the character with such smart abandon and lack of showiness that he manages to make the demented, diabolically anarchic evildoer such a delight to behold. "The Dark Knight" is good, but Ledger is even better. Oscar or none, Ledger’s performance as the Joker is absolutely winning.

(E-mail the author at critic_in_a_hurry@ yahoo.com.)