A hodge-podge of mainstream actors competing for each scene.

Rating: 7/10 (29 January 2009)

Don't get me wrong, this movie is above average. But not in my top 10 list. I am going to predict, as time goes on, this movie will slowly drop down to maybe in 30th place in the IMDb ranking.
First off, I am impressed with all the details that Dark Knight embedded me. I appreciate the well developed characters of Joker, Two-Face, Alfred, Rachel, Commissioner Gordon and Lucius. All the actors are stunning in their performances. Christian Bale was good as Bruce Wayne, but whenever he turned into Batman, it's that same annoying raspy voice that comes from him. Half the time, I just wish Batman would stop talking. Heath Ledger, rest his soul, did a good job at reinventing Joker and his performance is Oscar worthy but it wasn't the real Joker. But he should have been a different character. Joker was a more comical giddy trickster, not a depressive washed up alcoholic version. I liked Aaron Eckhart's portrayal of Two-Face, it was right on the money.
Maybe I am applying my personal taste in movies whenever I write about them. I am just not a big fan of comic book movies though I did like Batman Begins. The major flaw of this movie was that it just felt a little too much to take in one sitting. There is such thing as overabundance in movie making. The running time felt a little too long for my attention span, it had that same effect on me like Transformers did. Dark Knight was that temporary rush I had at the beginning up until the Two Face scenario, but I just started getting a headache afterwards. The fact that I know that in every Comic hero movie, the good guy wins and the bad guy loses or dies. It's inevitable and by knowing this, I often wished that this movie would be over soon while sitting 3 quarters of the way.
Nonetheless I still give props to this movie for being well produced and took a shot at human psychology on what people would really do. There is a notable scene which the two boats were forced to make a life or death decision. I guess direction wanted us to see that the city of Gotham has good people despite of the high crime rate.
7/10, I'll watch again on DVD knowing I can pause and take a breather.