Good but extremely overrated, or unfairly hated

Rating: 7/10 (11 December 2009)

There are already 3000+ reviews for this film, but I thought I needed to add mine since most reviews either rate it too high calling it a "masterpiece", or others, annoyed at this movie being overrated, rate it far too low (one star?) as if this was that bad.
The fact of the matter is the Dark Knight is an impressive movie, mainly for the special effects, the atmosphere and especially Heath Ledger who gave us this impressive psychopathic impression of the Joker which in my opinion greatly surpasses the eccentric Nicholson/Burton one.
Unfortunately I was disappointed. The trailer and the hype surrounding this movie had me expecting something great when actually it was simply above average. Its flaws include its running time. Now I'm not against long movies so much as they stay interesting from start to finish. In the Dark Knight, many parts are not and although every one of them seems important to the story, some are simply a bore. There are also just too many different things happening all at once, the pace is too fast making it all seem too much (I realize it was to reflect the criminal genius of the Joker, still too much). The Dark Knight is a great example of a movie which should have followed the "less is more" principle. I'm not against unrealistic movies either, but that mobile phone X-ray technology was simply too much for me.
The atmosphere is good, but in my opinion it certainly is not the "darkest Batman movie". That to me would be Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" (or "Batman 2"), which consequently is my favorite Batman film. Unlike many fans of this film, I totally understand why The Dark Knight didn't get a best film Oscar. It didn't deserve it. Its an impressive action-packed movie, yes, but no masterpiece. On the other hand, Heath did truly deserve the best supporting actor award.
***Spoiler warning after this*** Another great disappointment is the short-lived Two-Face. While the change from Dent to the tortured Two-Face is pretty good, this villain is far too interesting to die off after 10 minutes or so of on-screen time. I'm glad the Joker doesn't die since he's too important a villain in the Batman universe to appear and die in one movie, but Two-Face being that short-lived is a shame. Nonetheless I enjoyed the conclusion of the film and I am eager for another sequel.