Good story, great production, BAD Batman!!!

Rating: 7/10 (30 August 2008)

My one big gripe with The Dark Knight is...well, the dark knight. Sure, there are a couple of other faults but as far as Batman goes, the movie is lacking. Worst of all is Christian Bale.Jesus! The guy does nothing but scream, snarl, and yell every line he has! His over-the-top Batman reminds me of my P.E. teacher! The costume is also got problems with too much circuitry and gadgets, it looks like a power rangers uniform. Even in the story line of the movie, Batman is less than important. But other than that, it's actually pretty good. Heath Ledger turns in a great performance as the Joker, although it isn't very accurate to the comics version. The vehicles and action scenes are well done although they are way too "Rambo/Terminator 2" for Batman in my opinion. Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face could use some work as well. His Harvey is okay, but the Two-Face is lacking any personality and comes off pretty stiff. The face prosthetics are excellent and is way better than the Batman Forever make-up. I love certain aspects of the story, like the Joker's social expiereiment with the two boats and the humor is great, but alas, it suffers from the same mistake Batman Begins did (although it isn't nearly as bad): the sad fact is the movie tries too hard to please the non-fan by wrapping Batman up with ridiculous action scenes and Die-Hardesque pacing. Basically the movie isn't a comic book movie, it's a second-rate action movie. It's the Lethal Weapon of Batman films.