The Associated Press

Christian Bale and Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight."

With so much hype surrounding “The Dark Knight,” one would think it would be almost impossible to live up to early critic’s and fan’s expectations of the film. However, director Christopher Nolan does all that and more, capitalizing on the pitch perfect introduction provided by “Batman Begins” and leaving all the previous incarnations of Bruce Wayne and company in the dust.

Christian Bale returns to the role of Batman, once again doing an admirable job of portraying the hero’s struggle to stay away from the dark side of morality, this time portrayed in the Joker. Most of the film’s talk will be about the late Heath Ledger’s performance as the maniacal bank robber, and rightly so, but Bale remains the film’s center.

Bale’s performance is paired remarkably well with Ledger’s, a performance so in the audience’s face they probably won’t even be able to absorb its complexity the first time around. From Ledger’s physicality to the morphing of his voice for the role, he truly disappears into character.

Ledger’s Joker is not easily compared to Jack Nicholson’s 1989 version; the two performances come from completely different places. Ledger is funny, but when you laugh at him you almost feel guilty because his performance relies much more on the character’s psychopathic and nihilistic tendencies rather than its potential for comedy.

The film’s plot revolves around the cat and mouse game between the Joker and Batman, which nearly destroys almost everything in both their paths, including newly appointed D.A. Harvey Dent, Batman’s love interest Rachel Dawes, and Lieutenant James Gordon. The film becomes increasingly intense as the hero and villain continually one-up each other, raising the stakes more and more as they go along.

It’s only when the film temporarily departs from its realistic underpinnings that its quality suffers. An overly complex abduction of a businessman in Hong Kong eats up 15 minutes of the film’s running time, while a labored implementation of a new Bat-sonar-device only further bloats the already epic story. You’ll find yourself wanting to see the interaction between hero and villain much more than you do. After all, this relationship is the film’s greatest strength.

This film is not a superhero story, but one that explores the similarity between hero and villain. Despite the theatricality of the characters, Ledger and Bale’s performances are realistic and relatable, which is what Nolan has been going for from the beginning.

It’s saying a lot that this film will be noted for its emotional weight when the plot of the film basically involves a man dressed as a bat trying to catch a bank robbing clown. It takes a good director to make this story entertaining, but it takes a great one like Nolan to ground every aspect of the film with moral complexity and realism.

If you see one comic-based film this year, see “The Dark Knight.”