Very disappointing sequel

Rating: 3/10 (2 August 2008)

I really can't understand why people are gushing about this. The movie was overcomplicated, overly-long and, frankly, quite boring.
The set-pieces were a mixed bag, i'll admit, ranging from the ludicrous Hong Kong escape (where the plane managed to out-fox the entire Hong Kong airforce) to be glorious (the truck trip). However, I had serious issue with the fight sequences. Almost every combat sequence (Batman Vs The Bad Guys) was overly-jumpy, with hardly any clear view of what was going on.
The Scarecrow appearance was a bad joke. Two minutes of screen time and no follow-on? I was fully expecting him to turn up later. This was a criminal waste of an opportunity as The Scarecrow really has the ability to throw an extra level of chaos into a situation.
Two-Face 'turned' in the last 15 minutes, when I was already glancing at the cinema ceiling wondering when it was going to end. However, I will say that this character (Harvey Dent) was the most interesting of the entire movie. Without doubt.
The Joker was not the central character to the movie, as you would believe based on the hype. That honor, IMO, went to Harvey Dent. However, The Joker was played in a suitably crazy, off-the-wall, manner.
Batmans throaty voice was verging on the ridiculous, especially in overly-long scenes of dialoge, as they were towards the end. In Batman Begins his voice was relatively controlled but raised and deepened when he got angry (and amplified with The Scarecrow). In this, it was a constant, irritating growl/scratchy throat noise, even when he was speaking to Rachel, who knew his real identity! How on earth they didn't catch this in pre-screenings and complain, I don't know.
The plot just seemed to go around and around and around, with no discernible start, middle and end and a palpable lack of believability. How did The Joker manage to infiltrate a troop of Police without anyone noticing the massive scars on his face? How come the blades on Batmans arm-guards stuck an inch into the wood, at the start of the movie, but seemed to glance off The Jokers face at the end (leaving no scars)? How come a simple bike crash left Batman knocked clean out yet in every other scene where he takes a hammering, he's fine and can pick himself up? For a movie that claims to bring the franchise back down to earth it certainly managed to bypass many problems for the sake of the plot.
The editing was also poor, with completely unconnected scenes cutting into each other in a rather obvious, jarring, manner. I noticed this within the first 10 minutes.
Ultimately, I think the crux of the problem was that where Batman Begins was a focused, tight, plot consisting of a relatively small, core, set of characters, this tried to expand in all areas but didn't retain the same level of pace which left it trying to cover many more angles without the same level of detail. Any film that has me concentrating more on how my backside is aching or what the cinema ceiling looks like, proves only that its not been able to deliver enough to keep my attention focused. Where movies like Ironman and The Incredible Hulk did just that, this didn't come close.