It could have been as good as everybody's pretending it is, if only...........

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2008)

Nolan had the dialogue written by a professional in that particular area, not him and his brother. The movie had in its favor rock-solid acting (particularly in the case of Heath Ledger, who pretty much lives up to the staggering hype), a great director, a wonderful plot with wonderful nuances and a wonderful way of ending with a beginning. But the dialogue....the dialogue, my God the dialogue. It was pathetic. Abysmally bad. So overwrought. Almost everyone speaks in what sounds like carefully prepared prose. I kept thinking 'People don't talk like that!' It ruins the continuity of scenes and makes them unrealistic. It reminds you you're watching a movie. More than anything though, it doesn't afford the characters relationships with each other. They're never talking to one another, never reacting to one another, they're just saying in-character things kind of in each other's general directions. Nobody had a rapport with anybody. Even the dynamic between Bale's Batman and Caine's Alfred that the 'Batman Begins' so lovingly established, seems falsified and staged, and I imagine it's hard to screw something up so bad that even the joint ministrations of Christian Bale and Michael Caine can't save it.
However, in spite of all that, this is still such a good movie that it couldn't effectively ruin itself. It just breaks my heart how much better it could have been.
Certainly not lacking in the action department, and unique in that the action never feels separate from the plot, like a pee break from the drama of the story, like a lot of these movies end up. Everything is woven together quite masterfully. Beautifully choreographed action scenes, with lots of brutal beatdowns, car/truck/wheeled bat-gadget chases, and an appropriate amount of stuff blowing up all awesome-like.
Worth seeing, but could have truly great with different writing. =(
8/10