Before we get out the balloons and champagne

Rating: 1/10 (18 July 2008)

Just like the joker, I am also a little curious about the primitive nature of human beings in our society. Not that I'm immune myself, but it always amazes me to see the exponential effect of hype... to watch humans horde into a frenzy of blissful ignorance.
Let me make myself clear. Heath Ledger's performance alone is worth the ticket price to see this movie. He is stunning and he destroys JAck Nicholson's performance... and I say this knowing that I had previously thought, no one can do joker as good as Jack Nicholson.
But Joker is only a third of this movie, and a shame in hindsight.
The rest of this film is a just mish mash of tension, pace, plot and action.
1. Christopher Nolan struggles with action scenes. They are confusing, chaotic, and illogical which culminates into an underwhelming visceral and cerebral experience. Somewhat boring.
2. Batman is a lifeless and dull character. In 'batman begins' this was OK because he was mostly swinging from the corner of the screen, like a predator, but given a more open role, Batman in a cape was distracting. His metamorphosis as batman was absorbing to experience in the first film, but the conflicts he faces in this sequel pale in comparison. Batman is too sensitive and too poetic in his choice of resolutions. Ready to reveal his identity too quickly and ready to become a dark knight based on the pompous premise... Dent must remain the white light.
3. Two face is an oddball. An oddball of creation, of reaction and of evolution. His arch is a forced effort by Nolan. It doesn't make sense for him to kill Gordon's family. Dent himself commented that he knew his job was dangerous. He knew that there were bad people after him. Why the sudden transformation when this happened? The transformation of Two face was based on the premise of his philosophical awakening.. That to believe in chance... is to believe in chaos... but i cant believe this would cause such an explosive change in him... willing to kill a child. It doesn't make sense. Two face as caricature was not near as engaging or entertaining.
4. The pacing of this film is poor. There are moments where it is too fast, and moments where the film is too slow. Effectively, I think the movie should have ended sooner. It dragged out, and I was mostly non-responsive to the conclusion of two face.
5. Ultimately for a movie to be amazing one must come out of a cinema and be amazed. I didn't like the movie in its entirety. And I truly believe that had Heath Ledger not been involved in Dark Knight, the general consensus would have been a lot different, and the flaws a lot more glaringly obvious. This was a 2.5 hour movie in which everything but Joker was underwhelming.
It was a good movie, but given the hype, its now everyone's favorite film of all time... as the IMDb ratings might soon suggest.