Why So Serious? - The Dark Knight Review

I've been hearing the hype for the past 6 months, in the last 2 days I've read many reviews which have given the movie astronomical ratings of 4.5/5 while IMDB rates it as the No. 3 greatest movie of all time with a rating of 9.6/10
I saw it a few hours ago, and people... it's all true. The Dark Knight delivers on all accounts. The story is compelling, the plot is brilliant, the acting is exceptional. I've never seen people clap and cheer and jerk with fear until The Dark Knight. I've never heard as many "Oh Fuck! That was awesome" exclamations by people for any other movie prior to The Dark Knight.

Now, The Joker. It is his movie. Heath Ledger has made it his movie. Only in an exceptional movie do we see so many memorable dialogues mouthed by the villain. Consider this snippet of dialogue in a scene between The Mob and The Joker where he suggests that killing the Batman is their only option to survive -

The Joker: It's simple, kill the Batman.
The Mob [smiling, sarcastically]: If it's that simple, why haven't you done it already?
The Joker [perpetually smiling]: I have a rule, if you're good at something don't do it for free!

Or

The Joker: This town deserves a better class of criminal... and I'm gonna give it to them.

Or
The Joker: I use a knife because guns are too quick. Otherwise, you can't savor all the emotions. You know... when people are in their last moments.

Or
The Joker: [looks directly at Dinner Guest] You know, you remind of my father.
[takes a knife to dinner guest's neck]
The Joker: ... I hated my father!

Or
The Joker: This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

Or
The Joker [after being kicked by Rachel Dawes]: Oooh... a bit of fight... I like that!
Batman: Then you're gonna love me!

This movie belongs to The Joker, people will rarely ever see a villain who you wish doesn't die just because you enjoy his sinister mind. Heath Ledger puts in pure psychotic evil into the character. He's not a funny guy, but his lines and acting at times are hilarious and scary.

The action sequences are brilliant, the chase scene ends in by far the best action set piece in any super hero movie. Harvey Dent's role is played perfectly by Aaron Eckhart. "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. " These words end up becoming prophetic in the case of Harvey Dent. His transformation is shown superbly, the scene where The Joker manipulates Dent into becoming Two Face is awesome. Once again Heath Ledger takes a brilliant movie and makes it an all time great one with his inspired performance. Bruce Wayne a.k.a. The Batman is played by an amazing Christian Bale; each time he comes on screen it seems as if everything is under control. But it's not and there's only one reason for it - The Joker. The sneer with which he says 'Why... so... serious?' is chilling. His performance is seriously electric.

It's only a well scripted plot which can make so much room for a villain and yet have an equal stage for the hero to battle it out till the end. The real compliment to this film is that it has to be watched multiple times. So go ahead and watch it.