Absolutely not dark. Hardly Batman-like.

Rating: 1/10 (27 July 2008)

I wasn't so much excited about "Batman Begins". Simply pseudo-intellectual "philosophy of fear" was rather painful than interesting to me. Techno-futuristic Batman surrounded by oh-my-god cinema stars that have nothing to do with traditional Batman characters was nothing special to me. But this time I got excited. 3rd trailer was absolutely great, interesting interpretation of Joker (though vocally not so good as Mark Hamill but very original), a little bit of darkness, "The Dark Knight" reminding me of "The Dark Knight Returns" (that then I found out has absolutely nothing to do with the movie). It was great. But then... then come the movie...
Movie that is absolutely boring, artistic-like weird and is so full of light that calling it "dark" is an abomination. If you want to hear the voice of Batman who apparently sings in a death metal band, go for this movie. If you want to see Gotham probably built and designed by IKEA (especially interiors), go! If you want to see "bat cave" so full of light that I had to dive under my chair to bring my eyes some darkness, it's the movie for you. But if you want to see anything really dark, atmospheric, Gothic, simply batman-like better remind yourself of things like "Batman The Animated Series" (1992) or Burton's movies (1989 & 1992) as you will find a lot of what Batman really is there, the real Dark Knight where word Dark means something and Knight is not meaningless as well. "The Dark Knight" is absolutely soulless like IKEA furniture and even Heath Ledger do not save the movie as his Joker is enjoyable for first 40 minutes, then becomes simply boring and all the same. What's funny, myself and audience around laughed much more when Batman spoke with his "dark" voice (death metal band vocalist, here...we...go!) than Joker laughed through the whole movie. It doesn't surprise me much as Ledger had the biggest problem with learning the mad laughter and although he did pretty well, lack of it during the movie, lack of single smile on Joker's face made it all look very pathetic. And then, here...we...go... with the plot. Batman decided to give up twice in the movie. Of course because he was afraid of what people think and self-critique. He apparently forgot that he started his obsession thanks to his parents death (oh well...). Alfred is dull and absolutely boring (I start to believe that it's just good to have "Michael Caine" name on movie posters). Lucius Fox is ohmygod-another-star-to-have-bigger-commercial-impact. Gordon was and remains not even close to what Gordon suppose to be, in my opinion. Etc. Etc. Finishing this counting-out rhyme with the Batman himself. Personally I love the way Ch.Bale acts. I admire his role in Prestige very much. But here... I don't see Batman, all I see is Christian Bale pretending he is Batman. Sad :(
My conclusion is simple, Nolan's vision is far from what I consider as "the dark knight" and lack of darkness, lack of dark Gotham (not to mention that Gotham lacking of criminals who are too afraid to do their job instead of overwhelming Batman with number of crimes is simply a blasphemy), lack of darkness in Batman's soul and then lack of taste and common sense in the movie are something that made me yawn and look on my watch for nearly whole movie. Apparently audience thought the same as nearly every Batman's line produced fine amounts of laughter and maybe 10 people stayed to see first lines of credits (just like they would hear "here...we...go..." and decided to evacuate as fast as possible, literally).
I know that the future will be completely different but I have high hope that Nolan will never, ever do another "Batman" again. Please... for the dark knight's sake.