To my own surprise, I did not like The Dark Knight

Rating: 6/10 (25 August 2008)

There must be something wrong with me, because I didn't like The Dark Knight. There, I said it. I didn't like it.
I mainly didn't like it because it was not at all what I expected from a Batman movie, and not the sequel I expected after Batman Begins. The Dark Knight didn't feel like a comic book movie, it felt like "The Thin Red Line" featuring the Batman. I was disappointed.
The movie felt far too intense and unsettling. I felt genuinely disturbed after the movie ended. Perhaps that was Nolan's intention, but it isn't what I want out of a comic book movie.
The Joker is everyone's favorite Batman villain, and he always had some flamboyant aspect to his personality. Not here; here, he's just deranged and creepy. Too real and plausible.
There were too many characters, and some characters were poorly defined. Furthermore, the story was too convoluted. It's great to see more complex stories in a comic book adaption, but this felt too close to Nolan's earlier works like Memento or The Prestige for my taste. While I love these two movies, it's not what I want from a Batman movie.
Finally, while Aaron Eckhart did an awesome job playing him, Two-Face simply looked a bit dumb, reminding me of a poor 80s zombie flick. He's supposed to have half of his face cauterized, not outright removed.
It's not a bad movie by any means. It's just not a very good Batman movie.