Some random musings on "The Dark Knight," if I may:

#&149; The more times I watch this movie (I'm at four total since its Blu-Ray release last week), the more astounded I am by its pace. Director Christopher Nolan and editor Lee Smith achieve a relentless tempo that can seem overwhelming at points. Yet it amazes me how much action they pack into two and a half hours: the characters they introduce and craft, the ethical dilemmas they explore and of course the gloriously reckless action itself. One film critic chided "The Dark Knight" for this constantly climaxing mood, but it rarely wearied me.

#&149; Next to Heath Ledger's haunting Joker, it's easy to overlook how essential to "The Dark Knight" Aaron Eckhart is as Harvey Dent and later Two-Face. Eckhart brings such affability to the former and fatalistic fury to the latter.

#&149; I implore Nolan to film the entire third film in IMAX. I know the cameras are quite weighty and the technology expensive, but the image quality would vindicate the investment. The IMAX scenes in "The Dark Knight" look so visceral that the regular 2.35:1 film almost suffers by comparison.

#&149; And lastly, some obligatory speculation about who could play the next "Batman" villain. I'm all in favor of Philip Seymour Hoffman revisiting his scary conviction in "Mission Impossible III" as a no-nonsense Penguin, and as Catwoman I'd enjoy a 10-pounds-heavier Keira Knightley (Catwoman should have SOME curves). But please, a desperate no to the notion of Johnny Depp as the Riddler. Already overexposed, Depp would overwhelm a third re-booted "Batman" and, however inadvertently, shift the focus to himself with 20 times as much force as Ledger's Joker did in "The Dark Knight." I'd prefer the Riddler be nixed altogether in favor of a villain less flippant, which Ledger's Joker was to some extent.