The Dark Knight is not oscar-worthy.

"Promising to make an argument and actually making an argument are by no means the same course of action." -First, I stated that if someone accepted my debate challenge, I'd happily elaborate on flaws other than the most crucial. Rd. 2 rolled around, and I hadn't addressed other flaws yet. However, I have 1 more round, which is this round, to do so. It's that simple. It's not a broken promise. I never said I'd address those flaws within the first two rounds. I'm going to summarize the Harvey Dent flaw, and also summarize my opponent's attempt to convince us that it's not a flaw. In the film's chronological order: 1. First, HD takes on the role of Gotham's district attorney and simultaneously its "white knight." 2. Then, HD is Gotham's "white knight." 3. Then, HD is Gotham's "white knight." 4. Then, HD is Gotham's "white knight." Despite CON's attempt to identify the scene in which Harvey threatens to kill a mobster (which he's clearly not actually going to do) in order to get dirt on a psychopathic murderer...is not a character flaw. Period. Dent was trying to HELP the people of Gotham by CATCHING this homicidal maniac. You can call that whatever you want, but in the end...it boils down to the fact that he was trying to help catch the Joker. It's simply not a character flaw. 5. HD is still Gotham's "white knight." Everybody loves him. 6. HD Gotham's "white knight." 7. Harvey Dent is a maniac. 8. Whoa!!! Back up!! He's a maniac, already? But the film didn't show any surfacing character flaws! It wasn't gradual! It was choppy! He cares more about sparing the Joker's life than avenging Rachael's?? But why? Oh, I forgot...it's because he has an obsession with coin-flipping. Experiencing his loved one's death caused him to go over the edge, become a psychotic villain, and.........flip coins. Sure, that makes perfect sense. 9. Harvey Dent aka Two-Face dies 15 (or 20 at most) minutes later. Awesome! Don't you just love it when one of Batman's most epic arch enemies takes up 15 whole minutes of footage? Man! That deserves an Oscar award! Ok enough of that. I've spent enough time on Dent. Now it's time to address TDK's other major flaw: clumsiness. A boundary exists between what is known as "willing suspension of disbelief" and flat-out clumsiness. Willing susp. of disbelief is basically the act of accepting those cheesy, unrealistic scenes in movies. For instance, 5 rebel soldiers battle 15 storm troopers...and surprise surprise, the rebels blow the storm troopers, who outnumber them 3 to 1, out the roof. But certain scenes in The Dark Knight venture beyond WSOD and into the realm of clumsiness and flat-out blooper-ness. Have a look-see: Exhibit A) Batman fights the Joker at the party in the penthouse. The Joker dangles Rachael by her arm from the window. He lets her go. She falls. Batman flies down and saves her. But what the heck happens next? While Batman and Rachael are conveniently resting on the roof of a car...the Joker and his henchman, and not to mention the innocent party people...are doing what???? Are they still up there? Are they discussing the Super Bowl? Do the Joker and his men flee?? Exhibit B) This one is so horrible that it's funny. The Joker asks that cop how many friends he'd killed and a few screen shots later, he's got him (a highly-trained police officer) by the throat with a knife. That's right, a knife...even though the Joker was stripped of all his knives (and lent) once he was imprisoned. Maybe he carved a perfectly good knife by hand while he was in Gordon's cell. Hmm...or maybe the cop had a switchblade? Ha. Either way, it's laughable to me. But that's not even the punchline. Here's the punchline of the whole scene: the Joker has that cop by the throat, and then asks for a phone call. He gets the cell phone and then calls the number that detonates the bomb. What happens next? The bomb detonates and blows everybody in the building away except...you guessed it: the Joker and Lao. How convenient! Everyone in that room, including the person within breathing room of the Joker...was blown away! Yet the Joker remained perfectly unharmed! And so did Lao! Classic. I'm almost out of room, so for my finale, I'll say this: when debating whether the Dark Knight will indeed win the Oscar, we clearly must address other films of 2008. A certain slew of films is due this month...all of which are more Oscar-likely, in the eyes of leading critics, than TDK. As long as we can agree that Ledger's performance is more of an individual accomplishment than an accomplishment of the film as a whole, then it's clear that the odds are on my side. Your stance implies that TDK is better than all of the following: Wall-E, Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler. http://movies.aol.com... http://www.oscarfrenzy.com...