A TRIP to the cinema with my 16-year-old son was just the thing to cheer me up this morning, so, at his prompting, we bought tickets to see “The Dark Knight”.

Great film, but take my advice: do not go to see this if you think it’ll be a laugh. Heath Ledger is brilliant as the Joker (genuinely sinister, as opposed to Jack Nicholson, who played it strictly for laughs in Tim Burton’s 1989 version), and Christian Bale is… well, he’s Christian Bale. He’s well enough cast in the lead role, but you can’t help feeling that he’s going through the motions. His “impassive, strong and silent type” acting just comes across as a bit lifeless.

Like its predecessor, “The Dark Knight” tries to be all serious, dark, violent and threatening, and it is all those. But once again I’m left wondering whether making a serious movie based on a comic book superhero is worth the candle.

But I did like it. Honest.

PS. On the way home, having foolishly turned my phone back on, I received a call from a journalist friend. “What are you up to?” he asked. “On my way home from ‘The Dark Knight’,” I reply.

“You talking about last night?” Oh, what a wag!