Mildly Disappointing Sequel; overlong dialog, less involving,

Rating: 6/10 (28 August 2008)

My expectation for Batman: The Dark Knight, the 2nd of the newer, sleeker installments was probably a little high mostly due to the word of mouth of co-workers/friends calling it better than/ as good as Batman Begins. Unfortunately I didn't think so. There is an awful lot of jockeying and expository dialog - too much - testing my patience. The media reported "Oscar-Worthy" performance by Ledger, while good, is not fantastic. He is only sporadically on the screen. It follows, the movie I think suffers from the film-makers trying to develop several story lines at once. The Joker should've been focused on more - (spoiler) instead we have the Joker, love triangle weirdness, and Harvey Dent villain development. Also, what is with Christian Bale's raspy (I'm masking my voice) line delivery when in the suit - detracting and awful. A fan of the original 89 movie, I'd also like to add both of the lead females in these newer Batman movies really don't bring the class and presence of Basinger from the original - they are the girl next door - Gyllanthal is a good actress but is not a fit in this movie imo (maybe even less so than Holmes in Batman Begins),... anyway.....,Interlaced were a great locale skyline/scene in Hong Kong, and about 2/3 of the way through a superior chase scene delivering (spoiler!) the most exhilarating moment technically in the movie - the tank transformation. There was some great final dialog by the Joker delivered to Batman too - For me these were badly needed elements, but few between. Also we have a less interesting/less imaginative crises - (spoiler) bomb hostages vs. weird kooky interesting hallucinogen idea in Begins. I was hoping for more "wow" moments, but instead got more hand-to-hand combat and rapid-fire expository dialog - ho-hum - Some editing and recasting could've done this movie some good. Mixed review, with several entertaining scenes trying to break out of the mold....