(No spoilers or plot discussion)
I had the good fortune to attend an IMAX preview screening of 'The Dark Knight' tonight, and thought I'd share a bit about the technical details of the presentation for those interested in such things. The real question, of course, is it worth the extra money and potentially longer drive to see the film projected in IMAX? This is just my opinion, of course, but given the 'stir' being caused by the earlier IMAX preview of the film, there's definitely quite a bit of interest in the larger film format with this film.
First of all, contrary to some isolated reports online, the aspect ratio most definitely DOES change when going from the shots done in anamorphic 35mm and those done in IMAX. Personally, I didn't find it at all distracting. The IMAX screens are a grey material (as opposed to bright white) and in a dark theatre you can't tell that the screen extends beyond what's being shown at any one time. The majority of the film was shot in anamorphic 35mm (as opposed to Super35) and got a 4k DI. The IMAX DMR process did a great job on that material and it looks better than anything I've ever seen converted to IMAX before. The material actually shot in IMAX (that received an amazing 8k DI) is completely mind-blowing in its clarity and detail.
There are no "transitions" between IMAX-shots and 35mm-shots, but its really not jarring. The massive size of the IMAX screen and your closeness to it means that in most of the IMAX footage you really can't take in the whole frame at once, and Nolan did a great job of capturing large areas to allow you to scan the frame picking out amazing details in different areas. Much of the IMAX photography is from helicopters and serve as some amazing establishing shots. Some of the action scenes were also shot in IMAX, which gives them an immediacy and a feeling of "being there" that is truly incredible.
The sound is equally excellent (and not limited to just certain shots within the film). IMAX uses incredibly powerful amps and speakers and is encoded as multi-channel full-range lossless audio. The sound is crystal clear throughout the film and there were a few times when the entire theatre shook when an extremely deep roar was coming from the speakers.
Overall, its hard to imagine watching the film in a standard theatre. This is the first time for a major motion picture where "The IMAX Experience" is truly used to its full potential, and the end effect is spectacular. In my opinion, if you are even REMOTELY close to an IMAX theatre, it would be well worth the time and money to make the journey to see the film projected that way.
As for the movie itself, I won't give anything away, so I'll just say some things very generally. First of all, yes, Ledger's performance is great. It was a very well-written role and his characterization was terrific.
'The Dark Knight' is the best "Superhero" movie I've ever seen... and I'm usually not a fan of the genre. The only thing that really bothered me about the film was that it quite clearly isn't the same "Gotham" as in Batman Begins. In fact, its very clearly Chicago, which felt really odd to me. Its cool to see such high resolution photography of flying through Chicago in IMAX... but it is definitely flying through Chicago, not "Gotham." Other than that quibble, though, Nolan definitely made the most interesting superhero movie that I've ever seen.
Since I am physically incapable of writing a positive review of anything without criticizing SOMETHING, let me rant for just a moment. I am a HUGE fan of large format photography (and I abhor Super35), and this is the first Hollywood movie to have portions shot in 65mm/15 perf (aka IMAX). The result is amazing.
Sadly, IMAX is starting to roll out their new "IMAX Digital" systems to theatres later this year. Since IMAX prints are insanely expensive ($30,000 a pop), its understandable that theatres would be more interested in the very cheap hard drive storage used in digital projection. From a quality standpoint, however, 2k digital projection cannot hold a candle to IMAX film (as I mentioned earlier, they used a full 8k DI for the IMAX portions of 'The Dark Knight.' That's a full 16x improvement in resolution over their upcoming digital projection! On a seven story tall screen, 2k doesn't cut it. So go catch 'The Dark Knight' in IMAX, as it may be the only chance you have to see the format's true potential.
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