Intellectually stunning, emotionally lacking

Rating: 8/10 (5 September 2008)

So my partner & I were perhaps the last people on the planet to see this, but we finally got to this last night. Surprisingly, even for a 6:30 showing on a Thursday night, the theater was probably 80% full.
I think everything that can be said about the great acting, writing & directing has already been said, and yes Mr. Ledger's performance is standout. Thus, I think it will be easier to explain why this film isn't the perfect 10 so many have given it and in fact, isn't even a 9. I give it an 8 and that is a with +1 for Ledger (it's a 7 otherwise). Here's why I can't give this top marks: (note major plot spoilers ahead - this analysis assumes you have seen the film or at least know the major plot twist of the half way point)
Because both Joker and Batman represent ideals rather than fully developed characters, there is no emotional response to their conflict. The antecedents of this film aren't Superman or Spider-man but Heat and Goodfellas. It's a crime drama. But even in Heat, the criminal (who structurally, is the protagonist) is a flawed human being we can relate to, perhaps even more so than the cop chasing him. Epic crime dramas painted on a huge canvas can still be small and intimate when they need to be. Given this design element of The Dark Knight though, the film asks other character to carry the heart while Batman/Joker fight over the mind. The problem here is that the characters tasked with job fall short. The first is Rachel Dawes, whose initial function seems to be that of Batman's conscience. While he intellectualizes what he does, she is supposed to point out the human consequences both for others and for himself. In Dark Knight though, she is reduced to the pretty girl on the arm of the new guy. The tragic events about 2/3 of the way through, fail to resonate and rather than being heartbroken or feeling loss at a main characters death and another's disfigurement and loss, I was left thinking (rather than feeling) "that sucks."
As for the new guy, Harvey Dent, who begins as Gotham's "White Knight" we all already know his fate, so despite his representation of the good Batman is trying to do, it never resonates because the audience is left waiting for the big reveal of his scarred face (which is excellently foreshadowed several times throughout the film in both dialogue and lighting). Again, this is not an emotional moment but a visceral one. The audience stares at him not in sympathy or disgust or fear or even pity (all of which would be emotional reactions) but with a movie-goers anticipation of a cool CGI/make up effect. Even Harvey himself seems unaware of the damage done to his face. His fall is motivated by the death of Rachel, not his own disfigurement which he never seems to deal with on an intellectual or emotional level.
The best films not only bring us into a new world, a new reality and show us things we have never seen, but they engage us on an emotional level. In The Dark Knight, I always felt like a detached observer of Batman rather than someone with an emotional connection to his character or his work. Gotham feels feels very insular and isolated, apart from the rest of the world, not a representation of a city you or I might actually live in.
I love Christopher Nolan films, and as Memento and The Prestige have proved, there is never a wasted line, never a wasted action. Everything said, and everything shown ties back in. On that count Dark Knight delivers brilliantly. But unlike those two films, where the stakes were emotional and the twist serves to further manipulate our emotions, Dark Knight's brilliant writing comes across like an intellectual exercise. A puzzle box to be solved and reviewed and discussed philosophically, but not to be felt. And for me, a 10 movie needs to felt.
Don't get me wrong, I love the film. An 8 is a great rating for me (7 is a generic good film, 8 is a very good film, 9 is just shy of perfect and 10's are reserved for those 1 or 2 films a year that just go above and beyond the call). But it's not the best superhero movie ever (Spider-man 2 still holds that distinction) and I'm not sure if it's even the best superhero film of the summer as Iron Man (to me) had a lot more heart even while lacking the larger philosophical context and deeper underpinnings of Dark Knight. I will certainly be buying both on special edition DVD as soon as they come out but my guess is that in the years to come, Dark Knight won't get as many plays as Iron Man or even it's largest influence - Heat.