Great story, great visuals and high production value with sub-par action sequences

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2010)

Just like I said in my review's title, this film has many great things about it for its own good, while it doesn't serve quite well as an action flick. And let me start by talking about the dark side first.
My biggest problem with the film is its relatively poor action sequences. Batman fights a bit slowly, which makes hand-to-hand combats look somewhat contrived at times. But I guess that was a choreograph issue. However, jumping down, flying and car chase sequences are all beyond awesome, among other things.
Now here comes the reason why I loved this film. First, the story is considerably great! Even though it's a Sci-Fi movie in which those unbelievable gadgets also contribute to the story's extraordinariness, the plot is miles deeper than that in Bond films. Involving politics, psychological world of criminals, and themes like human nature is what makes it shine above other movies in this genre. As for the storytelling, Jonathan and Christopher Nolan have done a great job again too. There're pretty a lot of dialogs but oddly enough that doesn't feel slow-paced, even considering the lengthy running time.
As for the acting, most did well, especially Heath Ledger's vivid, funny and engagingly strange portray of the Joker, who is the highlight of the whole film. And he overshadows Christian Bale's role of Batman in my view, who's only doing average in this film. But in general, this is not another hero-owns-everyone movie, since it puts the same amount of emphasis on bad guys, which is rare to be seen.
8.5/10