The Dark Knight-mare

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2009)

When this film came out, I initially expected it to be just as good as its predecessor, or better. I found Batman Begins to be a very enjoyable movie, with likable characters, terrible adversities, and a fittingly dark atmosphere.
After seeing The Dark Knight, I don't see how it can compare.
The main problem for me is that this film turned out to be another mushy, woe-is-me pseudo-epic in which the hero does little more than gripe about his problems. Granted, every hero can and should face problems of all sorts, as that is what a story is all about. But all Bruce Wayne does in this film is monologue about how his alter ego has become a new villain (which I never understood) and how he is considering hanging up the cape. So much whining and so little crime-fighting makes Batman look weak.
Heath Ledger did a fine job portraying a crazed psycho-killer, but I have to ask the question why he bothered to play such a deranged character at all. I saw the Joker as a villain with a sense of humor, who did terrible things to the citizens of Gotham while throwing off rather lame one-liners and laughing crazily. Ledger's Joker has no sense of humor as far as I could tell, and there is not a single one-liner (lame or otherwise) to be heard. The only time Joker ever laughs is when he is about to cut into another victim or when the Batman is kicking him around the interrogation room: one of the few scenes in the film where the Batman really does anything.
Heath Ledger's Joker is also all-powerful. He engineers enormous schemes, almost all of which involve rampant use of explosives, and pulls every one of them off without the slightest snag. He's always at least ten steps ahead of his enemies throughout the movie. The police mindlessly fall into every trap he sets for them almost as though he could see into the future and therefore act accordingly. The Joker is never really stopped, either: in the end, the writers really leave his character hanging... literally.
In between Batman's depressing homilies and Joker's demonic mischief, the rest of the film's uncomfortable length is packed full of purposeless explosions, graphic deaths and a cool but needless car chase, all of which do nothing to further the almost nonexistent plot. And to top it all off, in the end Batman flees from the police into the shadows in one of the most confusing endings I've ever seen. The film plays out like a nightmare, not only because it is filmed in such a manner, but because it leaves the viewer with the depressing message that, at least in Gotham City, evil always triumphs over good.
In summary, it is a nightmarish and overly long film that could have been a lot better. Great special effects, no plot.
3/10