Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2009)

Soon after watching the Dark Knight, I decided that it does not belong in IMDb's top 250 greatest movies of all time. It's a problem with IMDb. The minute a popular film hits the box office, what does it do? It skyrockets to the top 250. Of course, this happens because, whenever a big blockbuster first comes out, people get all hyped up about it and rate it 10 stars. They hardly ever take the time to recognize any faults that may be in the film. They just jump to conclusions to call it "a masterpiece" and "best movie of the year." Now I too had looked forward to this movie for a while. I enjoyed Batman Begins, and saw all of the other Batman films.
The Dark Knight takes what was originally a cheesy comic book concept and tries to turn it into a big-budget crime thriller. It doesn't exactly make the transition. Because of this, the whole film turns out to be contradictory. At no point does the atmosphere jibe with the source material. The Dark Knight is also much too long and it isn't even that engaging. I wanted to like it but found myself wanting it to be over already halfway through. The way it is structured is also very sloppy and disjointed. It's just one outrageous scene after another. The movie doesn't have a whole lot to offer apart from a great performance from Ledger. I feel that Batman is very weak in this film as a character, especially compared his portrayal in Batman Begins. The Joker really dominates the entire film, not leaving much room for Batman's character to be developed. Batman also speaks in a growl throughout this film. Yes, I know this was intended, but it is not very menacing, nor intimidating, but quite ridiculous. And it is made worse by the fact that The Joker is main character in the movie who poses much of a threat.
Christian Bale is alright as Batman in this movie, but his performance is really dwarfed by that of Heath Ledger. Morgan Freeman is great as he almost always is--best acting in the whole film (besides Heath Ledger). Maggie Gyllenhaal is average in this movie, and I found myself not sympathizing with her character at all. She's just another wooden character. Gary Oldman is alright. Michael Caine is good, but I have seen him do better. Aaron Eckhart is very competent at playing his characters (Two-face and Harvey Dent). But it is pretty unbelievable how brutal he turns out to be, compared to his cordial personality in the beginning.
The Dark Knight has one very good scene (the hospital scene), in which Two-face looks at his coin and finds it has half its side burned, just like his his face. I was very impressed with this scene. In my opinion, it is the one part of the movie that has any depth or symbolism. But I found many scenes in the movie to be poorly done, including the scenes with The Joker escaping from the prison, and the scenes with Batman on the motorcycle. These scenes rely on expensive special effects to compensate for a story that isn't very compelling.
Also, the scene with the two ships at the end is way too long, far-fetched, and really just a poor scene overall. The movie flows somewhat until this point, but this scene is just intrusive and irrelevant to the movie. The whole scene is very anti-climatic and interrupting. Overall, I'd say The Dark Knight is ok as far as summer blockbusters go, but that's really not saying much. For many, the movie is made watchable by a great performance by Ledger, high-end special effects, and first-rate production value, but, for this viewer, the shoddy writing ruins its chances of ever becoming great. The Dark Knight isn't so disappointing that I would ask you not to watch it; it's probably worth watching if you really like Batman. I do not ask you to side with my negative opinion of the film, as I am of the minority. However, I do ask you to not blindly fall for the hype, as so many have done, and to acknowledge the faults present in the film. Thank you.