Dark Knight Discussion [SPOILERS]

Steve and I finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight, although waiting for the IMAX experience ended up being a dubious decision, what with the no trailers and the group of yoots who tried to jump us for taking two of the five seats they were attempting to save (their friends arrived 30 minutes into the movie, and it was a sold-out show; they were clearly tripping to think that they could take up a huge chunk in the dead center of the theater) and did I mention the total lack of a Watchmen trailer? Grrr.

Overall, I was pleased with the movie, although the Harvey Dent transformation was psychologically and physiologically unbelievable and the Batman voice effects were a tad distracting. Ledger is almost as good as the hype would have it, and Maggie Gyllenhaal does more with a small role than Kate "Oftom" Holmes could manage. Some quibbles and questions:

- At the end, Dent is lying motionless on the ground. Is he dead, or is his another faked death? In the penthouse at the end, does Bruce say that Harvey can never know or could never know? If Dent is already dead, that's a pretty weak criminal career for a prominent Batman adversary.

- Why are we repeatedly shown Gordon's son and his fascination with Batman when it's Gordon's daughter who grows up to be Batgirl? Gratuitous sexism?

- If they needed a fall guy for the people Dent killed, why not just blame the Joker or one of his minions?

- What's up with the lame Scarecrow scene at the beginning? I don't remember what happened to him at the end of Batman Begins, but if he was caught, how did he escape? If he wasn't caught, why is he conducting small-time operations in a parking garage?

- Watchmen foreshadowing: Note the emergence of Batman-impersonating masked vigilantes. We see that they are fundamentally sad sacks when one of them is captured by the Joker. Batman's tagged deposit of Lau is also an interesting parallel to Rorschach's more deadly deliveries.