By Rick Bentley

Fresno Bee

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The Joker (Heath Ledger) strolls into a posh fund-raiser for District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) in the latest Batman big-screen adventure, “The Dark Knight.” The wingding is hosted by Gotham City’s favorite playboy, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale).

The demented-looking Joker begins to terrorize the bluebloods with his chilling look and brutal physical attacks. He even puts a knife to one person’s mouth. Finally, after he has offered a sober and frosty explanation of why his face is scarred into a permanent smile, The Joker asks in a tone that will send a shiver up your spine: “Why so serious?”

Good question.

“The Dark Knight,” scheduled to open Friday, is the darkest Batman movie to date. And this isn’t just slightly darker than the 2005 “Batman Begins.” This film is leave-the-light-on kind of dark. The serious nature of the movie stems from four factors: an examination of vigilante justice, the masks people wear, the true nature of evil and at what point can personal rights be ignored in favor of community safety?

Seriously. This is a different Batman movie.

The dark tone reflects the 21st century comic-book Batman. Gone are the colorfully bright panels in which Batman and Robin would take on space aliens or bad guys with comical names like Killer Moth and The Rainbow Creature. The new Batman lives in a world where one of his Robins was killed, Batgirl was tortured and left paralyzed, and the Caped Crusader’s very existence has been questioned.

All of which is enough to turn anyone serious.

Christopher Nolan, scriptwriter and director of “Batman Begins,” wanted to make sure he reflected the seriousness of the comic-book character when he stepped back into his dual roles for “The Dark Knight.”

“What was important for me was the action of the story derived from interesting dilemmas for the character. The central dilemma for Batman is that he is someone driven by very dark impulses,” Nolan says during an interview in June at the Beverly Wilshire. “He is driven by anger and rage. But he attempts to channel that into something positive.

“His central dilemma is: How far can he go using intimidation and violence to achieve good? And I think that is a very human dilemma. It is something society deals with. That is what is going to make this film more exciting and frightening for an audience.”

Even its name suggests the serious tone of “The Dark Knight.” This is the first Batman movie that does not include the word “Batman” in the title.

Aaron Eckhart, who gets to play both good and bad as Dent, agrees that “The Dark Knight” reflects some serious matters that are happening in the real world.

“There are people standing up who are unpopular for the decisions they have made. This is a heavy movie in a lot of ways,” Eckhart says. “The thing that struck me right away was the mirror of our times, the things Chris was tackling. I think people will appreciate this as more than a comic-book movie.”