Nowhere near the best Batman Movie

Rating: 4/10 (11 July 2019)

Like many others I've always been so confused as to why this movie is praised so highly. I believe Batman Begins is superior and I don't even hold that film as one of the best Batman films. It seems like it was due to Heath Ledger. Listen I loved Heath Ledger too but I'm not going to go give all his movies a 10 just because he passed on. Everyone dies eventually people, get that through your thick skulls... Ok moving on to review..
I'm one of the biggest Batman fans out there. He is my second favorite superhero behind Superman. With that being said I like to think I have a wealth of knowledge on this stuff. My issue with the Nolan Batman films was they were trying to be too real! This is supposed to be fantasy. But you can still bring realism into fantasy without losing the fantasy. To me it went too far away from why I love Batman to begin with. They were in a city that was called Gotham but it still looked like regular ol Chicago! No amazing Gotham statues, building structures just boring.
Christian Bale was not intimidating as Batman, as a matter of fact he was actually quite comical on most scenes. Even people who claim to love the movie stated that Bale's Batman voice was comical. So again how is this the best Batman?! Batman is not supposed to be comical in the least. This is a man who seen his parents killed in front of him and that trauma stayed with him his entire life which made him become Batman. Imo the trauma aspect of Bruce was done much better in the 1989 Batman film. It really showed the extent of how it messed him up. When Michael Keaton put on that suit it was no smiles, no games. Just a man in a batsuit filled with trauma and vengeance.
Which brings us to the costume. Many consider it the best Batman costume. How? From most angles it looked ridiculous on Bale because the mask was too big for Bales head. I think it would have looked better if they shrunk it down to fit his head more. It ended up looking like a Halloween costume to me. Nothing innovative about it imo. We didn't get the cool grappling hooks, no cool gadgets, and Batman did not feel like a detective. He actually came off kinda cocky and pompous on most scenes. Batman can be an A-hole but overall he has a big heart. I did like the Bat tumbler because that makes more sense for batman to have a tank and not just a regular car.
The story was not well paced. I found many parts boring and i never understood if it was trying to be a superhero movie or a cop film. Overall it felt more like a cop, mob film with batman thrown in here and there. Plot holes... Oh im joker and im going to throw Rachel off a building. Im batman im going to dive after her and chill with rachel on top of this car not caring that Joker still up there potentially about to kill all these people. Again how is that good story telling?
Heath Ledgers performance was superb. Great, believable Joker. Don't really need to say anything about that except I wish Heaths Joker had been funnier. But again a great Joker performance does not make a great Batman movie. There needs to be all elements that make a batman film good not just one performance and praise because of the mans death. Overall I think Batman Begins is superior and I also have issues with that film. I personally do not hold up the Nolan trilogy up and I don't believe it will age well. I think in the future most people will consider the trilogy lackluster at best.
Here are my top 3 Batman films that I believe are superior to the dark knight. These will remain my favorite Batman films until a superior Batman film come along. Seeing how they just cast Robert Pattinson as Batman we may be waiting awhile. Nothing against Robert I just don't see him as batman. But of course he may surprise us and I will give him a chance.
1. Batman 1989
2. Batman Forever
3. Batman Mask of the Phatasm