Convoluted farce

Rating: 1/10 (5 August 2008)

I loved Batman Begins. It advanced from Burton's shallow fun and brought him reality. Naturally I expected yet more from Goyer and Nolan. Boy was I wrong.
This "movie" is a nerdy fanboy jerk fest. The hype it has received is so unjustifiable that it can only be the product of Warner marketing and fanboy Internet manipulation; no film can go to #1 on IMDb in 48 HOURS without prior orchestration.
While a final reckoning between Batman and Gotham's lowest is inspired the story becomes a mess of plot lunacy. The Joker's great but I was dumbstruck to watch the camera suck off Ledger's performance to wallpaper over plot chasms, generally shallow characters and a complete lack of the Dark Knight himself. Where is Batman in this movie!? He is nothing, a playboy billionaire on a yacht who wrecks Lamborghini's in a vain attempt to prove he's a hero. He didn't prove it to me one shred. Batman Begins reveals Wayne as a tortured soul making the world a better place for the memory of his mother and father. His moral code here was impossible to track. He mocks other vigilantes with high school quips about hockey while they get murdered (along with many) for what they believe. Isn't what they believe what he believes? Claims he mustn't kill (comic lore) as its immoral but happily jams shut a police interrogation door so he can beat six bells out of the Joker. It seemed to me that Gordon and Dent with the placid Ms. Dawes were in the moral front line while Batman lurks in shadows. All Mr. Wayne contributes are ridiculous gizmo's for epileptic action scenes. Batbike's tripping trucks like Skywalker tripping an ATAT, cell phones become security cameras, Gatling guns that rebuild bullets so we can scrutinise fingerprints for no good reason, another bat-suit, Lamborghini's & yacht lounging, need I go on?
The worse effect of this is do you even need Batman? Consider a film with Gordon and Dent fighting alone against the Joker's criminal nihilism. They battle and win only for Dent to be consumed by his war against evil. Sounds good? I was watching that fine movie until they wrote Batman into it! And when the Batman spoke at all it was digitised alligator gruff tone that made me laugh. The story ricochets everywhere. Hong Kong, a Gotham come Miami and through multiple plots until you're just enjoying the cinematography during another action yawn. After two hours I could not care who did what or why, least of all Batman. This film resembled an over hyped episode of "24", complete with real-time "waronterror" inspirations, to such a degree I wondered if Jack Bauer would make a better Batman. At least he would have been at the forefront of events a little more. For a superhero the Dark Knight was an amoral superflop. The culmination of this movie's propensity for absurdity it the arrival of Two Face. His injury from some of the Joker's mountain of bombs is ridiculous. No human being could come close to surviving this let alone check out of a hospital to roam the streets for revenge. But it was done for the comic owner's need to make the silly real for fans and ultimately that's what this film is about.
Dark Knight's biggest error is its script editing. It seems most of the writing is done by the Nolan brothers with just minor input from Goyer. Has the studio let the Nolan boys run amuck? Every idea they have come up with (or stole from "24") is crammed into this film until it explodes. Some don't rate Goyer but he has more experience writing and may have controlled (a few must be his) the absurd elements and kept pacing sensible. This film is also far detached from Nolan's previous work (Prestige, Momento) and is either a poorly conceived sortie into action adventure on his part or the studio's yanked the rug from under him. It does appear Warner's sponging off Ledger's unfortunate demise with him receiving TRIPLE screen time from Batman. Bale also seems bored when he performs. He has always liked deep complex characters to play so I suspect he was also unimpressed with the script.
Batman Begins was outstanding but IMHO The Dark Knight lets its predecessor down in spectacular fashion. I won't say don't see it. Do and make up your own mind. If you are one of the happy, brain washed masses that love The Dark Knight because Warner/DC says you should then enjoy. However, I am not one of them. Sorry Bat fans.