Dear Scott Kurtz: You do realize that by writing this, you have contributed to the hype you rail against?

Speaking as someone who goes to a lot of movies, watches movies at home, and downloads movies to watch while she does mind-numbing tasks at work, I was not over-inundated with Dark Knight information, for the simple reason of I didn't let it. I saw no interviews, I read no news items, I avoided trailers. And the ones I did see in theaters were little more than appetizers. The film's content more than exceeded its trailer.

The "hype" only gets to you if you let. That is the point of hype, and, in fact, all marketing.

If fans stopped feeding the marketing machine, the marketing guys would eventually catch on, and the ram-it-down-your-throat approach to selling movies would go away.

But it won't because it works.

The movie, however, is worth the hype. It is dark, violent, disturbing, and clever (but not too clever). It was as satisfyingly entertaining as -- if not better than -- the first one, and that's not just because of Heath Ledger's creepy-good turn. It is just overall a great movie.

( Here starts what might be a spoiler. )