Not as good as most people would have you believe

Rating: 6/10 (28 August 2008)

The Dark Knight is an intensely powerful, dramatic and compelling film, but despite that I'm not sure I really enjoyed it a great deal. I saw it on the huge IMAX screen in London, which has an ability to almost suck you into the action and make you feel a part of the film, but at the same time various aspects of the film meant that I felt alienated from the characters and the plot.
Who is Batman, and what do we really know about him? After having watched the whole film (all 2.5 hours of it), I'm not sure I could say. What are his motives? Does he really love Rachel - indeed does he have the capacity to love at all? Again, hints are given, but the central character is so poorly developed that it makes it hard to really care about what happens to him or those around him.
My inability to empathise with the characters wasn't helped by the ridiculous number of sub-plots, most of which are rushed or incomplete, and the relentless pace at which the film moves from one to the other. The film would have been so much better if it had stuck to a simpler storyline, and developed the characters and themes within that.
The frenzied sequence of largely unrelated action set-pieces, whilst initially breathtaking, ended up feeling dull and predictable. What was lacking in between the explosions was anything resembling meaningful dialogue. A few mumbled words from Batman and some inane musings from the Joker weren't enough to keep the film going.
As such, I left the film feeling somewhat exhausted at the bleak, joyless, violent world I had witnessed, and disappointed that this much-hyped film just hadn't been as good as I was hoping it would be.