Critics are hailing "The Dark Knight Rises" as an example of filmmaker Christopher Nolan at his best. But even the most impressed among them has noted that the 2012 follow-up to 2008's "The Dark Knight" lacks the special quality Heath Ledger brought to that blockbuster Batman film.

Ledger, who died the same year the film was released, turned in an Oscar-winning performance as "The Dark Knight's" villain, the Joker.

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