The Dark Nothing

Rating: 1/10 (29 July 2008)

This was one of the worst movies ever made. Never before have I witnessed a more confusing and convoluted mess. There were about ten subplots, but there was no main plot. The Joker existed to run amok and to represent the "honest villain", that is, he didn't mess around and play games like most villains, and he didn't do it for money, he just killed and wreaked havoc for the heck of it... okay, that's fine. But in having the Joker purposely ruin all the other subplots involving other bad guys, it basically made all the energy in having to keep up with the subplots involving these other people come to nothing. It was very tiresome realizing that everything you witnessed, after two hours of non-story action and hammy performances, really didn't mean a thing, kind of like when a movie shows that "it's all a dream". It might as well have been a dream. Because in this complete mess of a film, nothing mattered. The Joker had no purpose - which was intentional. But since the rest of the movie had too much purpose, or rather, tried too hard to have all the purpose in the world - it all came together like a big explosion... then, nothing. Just ruins. And two and a half hours of my life wasted. As for Heath Ledger, he wasn't terrific. He wasn't amazing. He was horrible. Weak. Sounded like a nerd. And he claims to have studied from "A Clockwork Orange" (please!), but he seemed more like he was doing a Johnny Depp impression, being silly and androgynous. It's just such a mess of a film. Horrible, simply horrible. And the reason I haven't mentioned Batman himself, is that he was so nothing, that there isn't anything to say about him. The main character seems more like a Vin Diseal character, and not a comic book hero. I understand trying to make the franchise more serious after being ruined by Joel Schumaker, but this film doesn't resemble a comic book in any way at all. It could have been a cop film, only the main cop had pointy ears, and the main villain had really bad makeup.