Are you an insomniac?

Rating: 3/10 (19 July 2008)

This movie will cure you. When it comes out on DVD, buy a copy, and keep it at bedside... Writer, why did you throw away the very dark, mysterious presence of The Batman? He should have continued as an almost demonic wraith, mentioned only in trembling whispers among the crime elite of troubled Gotham City. The Batman I remember from "Batman Begins" was a black, gorgoyle-like spirit perched high atop a building, overlooking his beloved Gotham. Awe...mystery...foreboding. Sadly, you snuffed out this hard-won characterization immediately with the confusing (very) first scene of, "The Dark Knight". Oh, and having The Great Batman bend the rifle barrel was textbook, "Super-manish", and only further illustrated just how impotent you had made him in this second installment.
To bring out the darkness in this character, Bruce Wayne/Batman must go through some personal crisis...a defining moment. This never seemed to fully materialize. I wasn't saddened by the death of Rachel Dawes, the sacrificial lamb.
Writer, if you must kill off the love-interest, wouldn't it have been a good idea to introduce us to a replacement for featuring in the third installment of the Batman saga? And Maggie Gyllenhaal was a replacement, herself! Hopefully she was only intended as a place-holder, all along. If there were any heterosexual couples who turned out to see Ledger's last performance, it was likely the female who decided that she and her boyfriend/husband visit "The Dark Knight", drawn by the promise of a romantic element (...later, when some of these marry, she'll also choose the wallpaper). I know that for some time, readership of the comic was likely male-domninated. But hey, we have "talkies" now...haven't you heard? Wave bye-bye to any chances of a return visit from these couples, as the female has a firm grip on certain things, including her man's wallet. Movie-going is still accepted as a cheap date. However, cheap + movie with no romance= tuh-RU-bul! Didn't "Mary Jane" make an awesome contribution to the tangled web of a certain nerdy, lovable arachni-boy? Are we learning anything at all from the "Marvel"-ous competition?
Though I, among many others, love Morgan Freeman, and can appreciate any effort to draw the Afro-American dollar, "Lucius Fox" does leech away one of what little "powers" Batman possesses...his ingenuity. He once made his own crime-fighting toys. Now even this has been stripped from him. Batman hangs by the toes perilously close to "average Joe-ness". He has no real super-powers...and what he did have, you, writer, stripped this from him. There once was a looming, midnight monster threatening the evil of Gotham. Now the Bat has been skinned down to a pathetic, fluttering, squeaking thing...your aim with the stake was unerring, writer...dang, Christopher! Haven't you been told to never work with family??!!!
The Joker: cuddling a puppy one minute, splashing in a puddle of his victim's gore the next, and back again in the wink of an eye. But Ledger's Joker? Plain vanilla. He seemed to have played this madman with some timidity, as if he feared being perceived as goofy...giddy...both aspects of who we know to be the Joker. He should exhaust us with his homicidal mood swings; keep us off-balance all the time. Ledger's characterization of him was "flat-line". Not even a blip. And writer, you missed a golden opportunity to characterize him, as he walked out of the hospital he was preparing to demolish. He was already dressed as a nurse, and with his makeup all askew, the picture would have been complete with the addition of some big, fuzzy pink bath slippers on his feet. Then, boom! I must confess that although it would be just like the Joker to blow up a hospital, this choice is a bit unsettling in this day and time. Reality suspended my disbelief at that point.
Christian Bale himself attested to just how uncomfortable it is...running his voice through the gravel so as to sound more like a butt-kicking good guy...and it shows. Very contrived. Bruce Wayne requested, and, of course, received, a suit built for greater flexibility. However, I don't recall the advantages of this new suit having ever been revealed to us. Why even mention it in this overly-long movie? I do realize that this, combined with Two-Face shooting the Batman in the end might have been meant to horrify us that, in addition to a dead girlfriend, we now have a dead hero, but we are too confident in "star-power" (the one power of The Bat you haven't yet negated...). This ploy, if intentional, just didn't work out.
The soundtrack drowned out what might have been some memorable lines uttered by Commissioner Gordon, as Batman roared away on his totally merchandiseable "Bat-Cycle". This seemed to have been an omnipresent problem.
Okay, okay. "The Dark Knight" had a big, big weekend. Figures. Ledger, hero of the gay community, dies before the official debut in theatres. The gay and lesbian dollar makes a resounding "ching", but it doesn't make this movie any better. It stank, regardless. The reactions, or lack thereof, of the audience in the packed theate confirmed that it was just a big, sprawling, boring mess. I almost dozed off three times. And here lies yet another cherished comic book icon...mangled.