Soulless, anticlimactic, over-hyped and finally..not Batman!

Rating: 1/10 (12 March 2009)

The Dark Knight is the worst sequel since "Highlander 2: The Quickening". I am dumbfounded at this entry into the franchise that was re-invigorated so wonderfully with Batman Begins. I speak to people frequently about this film and have had little opposition to my views on it, ergo people don't like it. I really think this film is the biggest dupe since The Blair Witch Project. I want to make it clear that I love Batman, Bob Kane's Batman, Frank Miller's Batman, Jeph Loeb's Batman and the DC Animated Universe's Batman. Like many, I found the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher films excruciating to watch. Batman Begins came along and Christopher Nolan gave us a Batman we could respect and understand as well as believe. We were then teased with The Joker's calling card and ready for what was going to be the meeting of the the most famous adversaries in comic and screen history....and we got....a joker with self applied makeup and no gadgets who is essentially a terrorist, no batcave, a batsuit that looked like a riot cop, a convoluted Scorsese like story about laundered money and a massive emphasis on factionalised and organised crime, a Two-Face who's only motive is a dead girlfriend, a Batman we hardly see, and a Gotham City that now looks like Chicago. But the enigma I can't stomach is that the film HAD NO CLIMAX!!! I asked many viewers what they thought the climax was and there is a different answer each time...oh it was Batman confronting Dent...no it was the Joker hanging upside down, no it was Rachel Dawes being killed.....NO there was no climax! This film's success lies only in the sad fact that it's main antagonist was played by an actor who died during the promotional phase of the film. In Nolan's attempt to legitimise the Batman mythos he has made it sterile and boring.