A Total and Complete Disappointment

Rating: 1/10 (20 July 2008)

****WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS HERE*** This movie is a monumental disappointment. I had seen all five of the previous Batman movies on the big screen, and I watched as they kept getting worse and worse and worse. I hoped that this one would break the trend (and with all the raves surrounding Heath Ledger's "great" performance, I really thought it would), but it did not. This movie is so trite and so absurd, and what is most reprehensible is that it suggests that there is no Good vs. Evil anymoreas a matter of fact the movie closes with Batman himself being chased by the Gotham Police(!). And constantly throughout the movie Batman (now suddenly called "The Batman") is seen as being the reason behind all the murders, robberies, and destruction the Joker is perpetrating in Gotham City. By the way, Gotham City here does NOT at all look like the Gotham City that we know; it is Chicago pretending to be Gotham City, which is very boring. What happened to the stunning production design that Gotham City is supposed to have?!!
As for Heath Ledger, he makes a great impact in one of his first scenes in the movie (when his sudden killing of a gang member serves as the punch line to a joke), but after that scene the Joker's energy totally dwindles away and he becomes another smart-aleck, philosophical killerand even downright boring. In an attempt to keep things entertaining with the Joker, the movie resorts to dressing him in a nurse's outfit (a cheap laugh).
To make a quick comparison, "The Dark Knight" is very much like "Live Free or Die Hard" (and a million other movies) in that everything is on the verge of complete destruction and chaos at the hands of a villain, and like Die Hard 4 (When are needless sequels going to stop?!!!!) it tries to replicate the feel of 9-11a real-life tragedy that should not be incorporated into comic-book stories like Batman. Batman himself makes a pathetic showing in this film, as he is much clumsier and more ineffective against the villains than ever before. But then again, why should he even try when everyone is calling him a "vigilante killer"? When I was eight years old and saw the first Batman movie at the theater in 1989, seeing my favorite comic book character brought to life in such a stunning way was a dream-come-true. Had "The Dark Knight" been the movie that was released instead in 1989 (especially seeing Batman getting chased by the cops at the end), I would have been devastated. Now as an adult, I can honestly say I am disappointed.