Spectacular sequel , although the fun has left the building

Rating: Null/10 (19 July 2011)

Director Christopher Nolan defies the odds and crafts a sequel that surpasses the original. In short, this becomes The Godfather-Part II of comic book movies and establishes a new parameter that others that follow will be judged - perhaps a bit too harshly.
Gotham City's march toward the light is bolstered by the efforts of nighttime vigilante hero Batman and by idealistic crusading district attorney Harvey Dent, but their efforts are undermined by the appearance of a brilliant anarchist known only as the Joker, whose diabolical attacks have a tendency to expose the seamy underside of many of Gotham's citizens.
The film unfolds like a labyrinthine crime epic, with a multitude of supporting players and wide-ranging locales. This offers a dynamic landscape and an unpredictable quality to the production that is riveting. Nolan's direction is expert.
Once again, he demonstrates a fine feel for character development and how to have action spring naturally from the proceedings rather than feeling inserted. The film is incredibly exciting in some stretches and never less than thought-provoking in others.
Christian Bale returns triumphantly as Batman/Bruce Wayne. He still creates an appealing, multi-layered hero, but the real dominant element this time around is the story. Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman are all back and in top form. Oldman, especially, continues to find new terrain in a character all but reduced to nothingness in earlier incarnations.
The film gets a lot of mileage out of two new additions. It took some real chutzpah to use the Joker in this film - a role which was virtually owned by Jack Nicholson in 1989s Batman. When word came that Heath Ledger was cast in the part, jaws dropped at the lunacy. Amazingly, it became the performance of the year and left people wondering Jack Who? Ledger's approach to the Joker is almost a polar opposite to Nicholson and it not only works - but succeeds gangbusters. We learn almost nothing about this character and Nolan uses him only as much as he needs to, but every moment he steps on screen it becomes impossible to tear your eyes away. Ledger crafts a character of maniacal brilliance. This is truly a chilling character for the ages and the posthumous Oscar was more than deserved.
By contrast, Aaron Eckhart gets far less credit for his turn, but he also creates a compelling character in the upright, yet morally flawed Harvey Dent - destined by tragedy and chance to become the unbalanced Two-Face. The film sets up his character as the emotional soul of the new Gotham and then puts him through the ringer. Eckhart is appealing and charismatic as the righteous Dent hinting at shades of gray beneath the surface. Later, he cuts a dramatic and sympathetic figure as the broken former hero of the people whose spirit and psyche become casualties of the Joker's manipulations. A further thumbs up to the convincing make-up for Eckhart's late film transformation as well, which is far more amazing than anything handed to Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever.
What prevents me from rating the film as a perfect 10 are two quibbles. One minor and one not so minor.
Once again, the character of Rachel Dawes is a stumbling block here. The critically drubbed Katie Holmes from the original has been replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Although I found Holmes lacking, I will chance being in the minority here when I say Gyllenhaal is not an improvement. The character remains a wet blanket, but this time she gets an entire subplot - a romantic triangle with both Bale and Eckhart. Like Holmes, Gyllenhaal is not remotely convincing as an attorney and shares no chemistry with Bale (nor Eckhart). However, Holmes at least brought some sex appeal to the part - Gyllenhaal by comparison seems downright pallid and often uncomfortable. She gives us no good reason why the two most eligible bachelors in Gotham City would be even minimally interested in her - much less entranced. When she keeps going back and forth between the two men, she brings all of the emotional heft of a woman deciding her grocery list. As such, the romantic subplot is a washout and lacks the emotional punch needed in the later moments.
Some of the late plot twists are a bit overly manipulative. The film's insistence to turn Batman through circumstance and by his own martyrdom into a tragic pariah in the final scenes smacks of needless melodrama. The characters and film's insistence that Gotham City could not stand to know the truth about the deterioration of Harvey Dent seems a manufactured philosophical crisis that comes out of left field. Truthfully, the citizens of Gotham are oddly fickle and cynical, and we have only the pontificating of the heroes rather than anything concrete that we have seen that forces the final conclusions drawn by those on screen. So while the ending has a certain power, there are far too many mental and emotional jumps required by the players to realize it, and even then it is not 100 percent convincing.
Yet I feel that the film's biggest flaw is that one would think no matter how serious the proceedings, a film based on a comic book should have some elements of fun. As amazing as all of Nolan's accomplishments are, this film is not a fun watch by any stretch - it is dark, despairing, emotionally wrenching, often nasty, unpredictable and ingenious. However, the fun element is completely A.W.O.L. As such, while I stand in awe of its successes, I could easily go 10 years without wanting to sit through it again, which I am pretty certain is not the hallmark of a perfect film.