The Dark Knight has broken all kinds of box office records, and I'm sure by the time you read this, it will have broken some more. The "Batman" series has come a long way since Michael Keaton first donned the bat suit on the big screen twenty years ago with Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Fast forward two decades and the unbelievably-cool special effects bring the good versus evil plot to a whole new level. Christian Bale, now in his second turn as the billionaire-turned-vigilante Batman, faces off against the late Heath Ledger, who needn't special effects to take the Joker to an all-new level of insane. Both are brilliant in their roles. Katie Holmes, now half of TomKat, didn't return as Batman's love interest, so Maggie Gyllenhal gets her turn at the "bat" bringing her sleepy-eyed innocence and cool intellect to the role. But you may have heard all that.

What you may not have heard is that the movie is definitely not for kids. I opted to take my almost-eleven year old, who is going in to fifth grade, and even then I wasn't so sure I wanted him exposed to so much violence. PG-13 can hold a lot of violence, and what a lot of people don't know is you can get away with heavy violence and keep the precious PG-13 a lot more easily than sexual content. Personally, I feel more uncomfortable with violence.

That being said, he didn't think it was "scary", like my eight year old most surely would have. We made the right choice in not bringing her. The Joker and his creepy-faced entourage are the stuff nightmares are made of, and the violence definitely triggers the pain body. People are getting beat up and/or killed a lot throughout the two and a half hour movie. Knives, guns, punches, thrown through glass, thrown off buildings, hangings and car crashes are just what's on the tip of my tongue. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

But was the movie well-written? Yes. Well-acted. Decidedly so. Did it have a good message about sacrifice and doing the right thing even when it's not the popular decision? Of course. And it is an action movie, so perhaps at least some of the violence stuff just comes with the territory. I know, without a doubt, I'll be in line when the next one comes to the big screen, too. For a superhero action movie, it's very, very well done.

With The Mummy coming to the big screen next, I'm ready to kick some mummy butt. Anyone with me?