The cinematic equivalent to a run-on sentence.

Rating: 3/10 (17 December 2008)

Spoilers: I am trying to figure out if I saw the same movie all these teenage boys are coming on here and claiming to be the best movie ever. Back in grade school when I was learning to write there was a concept called a run-on sentence. This was including too many ideas in one long un-punctuated line. This is essentially what the filmmakers gave us with Dark Knight. This film is in MAJOR need of an editor.
First off all, there are way too many plots and subplots going on. Both the Joker and the Two Face story lines should have been treated as separate movies. Watching this movie I felt myself to be bored and was constantly looking at my watch. At over two and a half hours, this film was way too long. Compare this to a fast paced, entertaining well edited film like Plains, Trains, and Automobiles and you see how longer doesn't mean better. There were at least 3 incidents with the joker that I thought was the conclusion to the movie only to have it drag on for another long anti-climatic showdown.
Secondly, I had never really thought of Michael Keaton as Batman, but after seeing Christian Bale's portrayal, Keaton is looking better and better every day. Unlike Keaton, or even Val Kilmer, Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is an extremely unlikeable character. A total jerk I felt little sympathy for unlike the affable Bruce Wayne Keaton gave us in the scene where Vicky Vale is looking at his collection of Samuri outfits. Batman Begins has a stupid beginning and an utterly idiotic ending, but at least the middle portion of that movie was entertaining. The Dark Knight was a complete bore.
Another thing is that Ledger's Joker character came off more like the psycho loner from the original Dirty Harry film than the charismatic villain from the comics. And in this supposedly "realistic" interpretation of the Batman concept, the Jokers henchmen came across as the worst from the 60's TV show.
All in all this movie was a disappointment, a real boring mess.