Packaged Hipness and Faux Aggression

Rating: 1/10 (1 August 2008)

"The Dark Knight" is one of the worst films I have ever seen. I've disliked most of Christopher Nolan's prior work, but was willing to be converted, and the rave reviews psyched me up.
Drained of humor (even black), plot less, structurally inept, poorly shot, one-third of the movie coming across as a Pierce Brosnan Bond movie (Bale even goes into Bond autopilot without noticing), Nolan hasn't a clue how to make pictures or what makes humans tick, and I wish the undeserved hype around him as a director ended now. Ledger is dreadful, but the poor chap's role is so wretchedly written that his character never stands a chance. Not to mention Nolan's amateurish decision to make Ledger copy Vincent Price's "Thriller" voice, undermining any authority the character is supposed to have. By attempting to ground the Batman mythology in contemporary reality, it just comes across as plain silly.
Nolan makes films for technology age emotionless drudges hiding their lack of self-esteem and identity crises behind a mask of hipness and faux-aggression. By going to see "The Dark Knight", Nolan is dictating to them that they are cool and superior. That the film is a horrible, poorly made, highly manipulative piece of work, is irrelevant.