A Major Disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (3 January 2009)

This movie was so wildly praised by critics and fans alike that it was hard not to have somewhat diminished expectations. It can't be *that* great, right? Right.
I can't say this is a bad movie, just not a very interesting one. It begins promisingly with a superbly executed set piece, with the Joker staging a daring bank robbery. This is a very nicely done action sequence, and Heath Ledger's Joker does indeed live up to the hype. It's a genuinely strange characterization, and the story built around it should work.
After that, the movie starts to drag. There are far too many long, talky sequences, followed by the usual slam-bang action scenes that are shot from a distance so you can't see what's really going on. What's really missing from the action is any sense of a story; there's just more of the same that you usually see in a superhero picture. Been there, done that.
Another fatal mistake is one that happens far too often: too many villains. This was a major problem with the 90s Batman films: you have to squeeze the Penguin and Catwoman and Christopher Walken into one film, with no time left for anything like character development. In this movie, the focus is on the Joker, but that's not enough: we have Two-Face into the mix (who only becomes Two-Face at the two-hour mark, leaving only a short time for him to be dispatched by our hero).
Two-Face was my favorite of the old Batman Rogues Gallery, and he deserved a story all his own. Throwing him in as an afterthought to the Joker (particularly when Ledger's scenery chewing overshadows everything else in the picture, including Batman) both makes the film far too long, and blunts its impact.
Lost somewhere in all this is Batman, who almost seems absent from the picture. Although he has to make a tragic choice, there seems to be no character development, and Bale's performance is practically phoned in. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman contribute their customary gravitas, but again this just adds to the extreme length of the picture.
Batman Begins was a strong picture, and I'm puzzled as to what I'm missing here. I saw this on Blu-Ray and found myself reaching for the remote every ten minutes or so, to see how much longer I was going to have to watch this. I finally hit Stop by accident at 2 hrs., but decided to just let it go. This movie failed to engage my interest on any level and I just wanted it to end.