Why so serious?

Rating: 6/10 (29 July 2008)

Let me start off by saying I liked the film.
That's right, I liked it. In my opinion, "like" is a long way from "love", and "love" this film, is something I did not.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Nolan, and I DID love Batman Begins, I just didn't think this film was worth all the hype, it's a great sequel, but that's all it is.. A sequel.
Most people seem think this film is something huge, something amazing, something that outshines all Batman films to date, I can honestly say I disagree. This film is worth a watch, and worth the money, but I don't feel it's quite the movie of the decade, the year, or even the summer.
PLOT One GREAT thing about this film, is it's plot. As with all the Batman films, it has a rich heritage and the director has put his own swing on the tale. The plot itself is equal to, if not slightly better than that of the '89 Burton adaptation of the Joker's story.
CINEMATOGRAPHY Call me a fool, but it didn't live up to Batman Begins, some of the shots were badly placed and the cuts were just too damn short, leaving the tense-o-meter a step too high for what is always just going to be a comic book story at heart.
DIALOUGE They were trying too damn hard for "quoteability factor", and not nearly hard enough on character building. This is a Batman film! People aren't looking to reference the damn thing in their next presidential speech! Some of the dialogue was REALLY forced, and very cringe-worthy for much of the film. The sequence at the end was the only part that was truly great, Gordon's final "Dark Knight" speech to his son, that's where the great quote really work well, not mid-sentence during a meeting between two criminal leaders in a warehouse.. It doesn't really work.
MISE EN SCENE Not much to say here, clue's in the title. Unless your screen is well back lit, prepare for squint-city.
SOUND The sounds in this movie were great, as was the score. A couple of pieces were too casual when they could have easily been given more shock factor with the aide of the score, the famous "pencil" trick, and the few coin-flips. Instead they seemed to resort to using fast-cuts in the wrong places, which are never as effective as a good strings section.
EFFECTS One thing they didn't hold back on. Some great special effects in this film, but some naive audiences seem to forget it's the AFFECT of the movie, not the EFFECTS.
EMOTIONAL VALUE It didn't quite hit me in the heart the way Begins did, it seemed to try and be an emotion-run film, but it really didn't work for me.. It's hard to describe, I felt something, but I was very "aware" this was an action film. Even the deaths and drama, still didn't match up to the feeling Batman Begins gave off, at no point in this movie did I feel over-run with any kind of emotion, besides the initial weird-ness of seeing a dead man on screen in the film that killed him, but you can get that from Enter The Dragon, or The Crow - it's nothing new and exciting.
Final Verdict : The Dark Knight, whilst being a slightly-higher-than mediocre Action flick, really does not live up to it's predecessor, and certainly does not deserve it's current "#1" slot, on the IMDb top 250. I'd say if the third is just as good, it'll make a decent set, but it's not a great film in it's own right, in the way Batman Begins was.
6.5/10