Atmospheric, yet also muddled & forced

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2018)

The Dark Knight is, like Batman Begins, an atmospheric piece of work that captures the filth of Gotham City very well. It is, however, not as good as Batman Begins since it seems to be a constant montage of anticipation of/and action sequences themselves.
The only aspect of The Dark Knight that was improved upon from Batman Begins are the action sequences. The ASL ( Average Shot Length ) in these sequences is a lot higher and we can now actually see what is going on in the fight scenes. There are still however a lot of fights later on in the film that feature a lot of amateurish shakycam camerawork, but it is common knowledge that Nolan's strength is not his action sequences, and the problem with The Dark Knight is that it nearly consists of wholly action sequences or the build up towards them. Car chases are still unremarkable while being filmed with low camera standpoints combined with inside shots of characters ( In the police vans ) we know nothing about. For some reason Nolan believes it to be necessary to show these unknown characters reactions to create some kind of cheap immersion.
The Dark Knight has pretty cinematography, sure. Like Batman Begins, it captures a visual atmosphere that complies with its overseriousness and dark tone. It is still not as atmospheric as the neo noir cinematography of Batman Begins, so the visuals might not be as fitting as they were in the previous entry, but standing alone it does provide some interesting images, such as the one of the Joker taunting Wayne to hit him in the middle of the street, or the entire trackingshot of the Joker attempting to blow up a hospital. It is all great to look at, but once again it doesn't quite capture that darkness and sleaze that Batman Begins did due to its Blade Runner-esque stills and smoke vents.
The acting is pretty good from most of the cast, except that Maggie Gyllenhaal is a significant step back from Katie Holmes's portrayal of Rachel. Much has been said about the praising of Heath Ledger as the Joker, who undoubtedly delivers an adequate performance albeit a bit overly theatrical. The tongue flicking, cue laughing, hair touching all becomes a little bit cliché after a while, but at least his antics are interesting to witness. His character in reality isn't very well written, as even though he isn't the typical 'Villain motivated by only money', he is still only motivated by one thing, which is chaos. The Joker is a psychopath with no honor to morals whatsoever, and the kind of writing for this simplistic psychopathic villain isn't really a stroke of genius on anybody's part, because his motivations are even lazier than the cliché money obsessed villains.
There is little room for character development due to the constant barrages of would be tension and action sequences. Only Harvey Dent has a character arc, and this arc is really once again the result of poor writing, as he changes from the idealistic hero of Gotham City to a revenge ridden monster due to one traumatic event. This is a character arc we have all seen before, and it is not original by any means. Not to mention the fact that he rips off No Country For Old Men's Anton Chigurh with his coin clip.
The Dark Knight is also muddled in its morality. It tries to create duality and discussions about right and wrong in its actions, but Nolan himself doesn't even seem to know what he wants here. The later stages of the film feature moral dilemma after moral dilemma which constantly forces the viewer into these life and death kind of situations. It really is a poor excuse for lack of storytelling and character to bring forth these cliché sequences constantly. It truly seems to believe it is telling something about human morality, but it is in fact only using these moments as disguise for the weakness in its writing & character.
Like Batman Begins, it constantly follows a montage like overly fast pace that decreases the audience's immersion significantly. This is coupled with a lot of irrelevant scenes such as Reese's attempted blackmail. There are a lot of over dramatic conversations in which the camera is constantly spinning around characters for some reason ( Much like in House of the Dead. Not that i am insinuating that The Dark Knight is as bad as that one, since that is ofcourse a great insult to the latter. However, these pretentious dynamics in camera movement do not have any place in this film. )
The Dark Knight has generally good acting, nice cinematography creating an atmospheric city albeit in lesser proportions than Batman Begins did, decent action sequences ( Especially for Nolan standards ), but it is also muddled in its view on dual morality. These situations are constantly repeated throughout the film which really makes it border on pretentiousness. The narrative isn't as complex and sophisticated as Batman Begins, but it still slightly succeeds as a reasonable film with a lot of visceral thrills.