Are you all out of your minds?

Rating: 1/10 (20 July 2008)

This movie is overlong by at least a half hour. I am so tired of films that have about six or seven endings. It's become a bit of a cliché. Just when you thought it was safe to get up from your seat and start filing out of the theater, another epilogue begins and you're forced to sit through at least another ten minutes of ridiculous, overblown, pretentious blather that's been well-covered in the previous four or five epilogues. Some writer/directors just don't know when to say when, and that's usually a sign that they don't have confidence in their material, nor their approach to it. This movie is a prime example of that kind of narrative drawback.
But that's just the beginning of my complaints about "The Dark Knight." Loud, obnoxious, puerile, without one whit of wit, this movie also represents the extreme destructiveness of a relentless hype machine that's intent on whittling down our collective sense and sensibilities. The acting, which ranges from wooden to hyperbolic, seems as if it's being carried out by inter-planetary aliens who have no idea what it's like to be human. The script sounds as if it was written by someone who barely made it out of bone-head, freshman composition. I've never heard or seen so many clichés strung together in a misguided attempt at profundity and universality. As each new, cliché-ridden set piece followed another, I began to feel beaten down, as if my defenses against such obvious manipulation were being fed upon by my own desire to enjoy what everyone else seemed to be accepting so readily. Fortunately, my will to survive such cultural mediocrity is strong, and I was able to withstand this latest onslaught with my dignity intact.
Please understand, I enjoyed "Batman Begins," a story that was told in a simple, straightforward manner, with some minor attempts at profundity that were in line with the childish, comic book subject matter. To try and make something so "de profundis" about a superhero running around in a bat costume chasing down some uber-villain in grease paint and fright wig, is truly akin to putting lipstick on a pig. After it's done, you can't help but wonder: "are they really expecting people to take this crapola so seriously?" I'd rather see Adam West and Cesar Romero go at it, then have to sit through this load of pretentious, horse manure. At least I was able to get a laugh out of the original TV series, which was undeniably a camp classic in its original incarnation.