So much to offer, and yet so much still missing

Rating: 4/10 (27 July 2008)

This might be a useful review for other folks like me who saw the movie, but are not typical action/comic book movie fans. I went in not expecting this to be my kind of film; for fans of this genre, it will admittedly rate higher.
Firstly, Chicago looked great in this film. Gotham, and its look and feel, is as important as any character in the film. Chicago's architecture was wonderfully suited to this film.
Heath Ledger was brilliant. The rotting stench of human decay poured over his putrid yellow teeth and through the screen right into my seat. He brought an energy and interest to every scene he was in, and the other characters were made more interesting wherever they interacted with him. Watching his performance, I felt the tragedy of Heath's death all over again.
The movie is too long - I found that its extraordinary length ultimately diluted the impact of the story. And I was frustrated that with such a long movie, there wasn't more good storytelling, so much as there was a lot of complicated and over-wrought action scenes. The fight between good and evil is the oldest story, and I needed more to make it one I could really care about.
Here are my thoughts:
1. Heath Ledger's Joker was brilliant. The character, the costume, the atmosphere he created - he was completely engaging and completely repulsive at the same time. But who was he really? There is no back story, other than the Joker's various versions of his past. Did he truly spring into Gotham having never before made an appearance? I wanted to understand him as more than a plot device to forward the Batman story.
2. Christian Bale's Batman/Bruce Wayne feels wooden and heavy. We 'know' how he feels, but don't actually feel any of it. He seems overwhelmed with the burden of being the last defense against evil, and his character and the story are both suffused with this heaviness. I wanted to see more of his own spirit and conviction at work, instead of his inevitable resignation at being 'the Batman.'
3. So many philosophical/moral/spiritual issues were raised. Can you overcome evil without becoming evil? Can ordinary human goodness be heroic enough to combat evil? Is the ordinariness of people evil in its ordinariness? What is the impact of one agent of chaos on organized society? What do you lose by not destroying evil for the sake of goodness? Can society survive when the scales between good and evil are tipped in favor of evil? Lots of good questions, but questions that were overwhelmed with too many plot tricks and complications.
4. I was frustrated that the "truth teller" in the movie was so completely evil. The Joker speaks a wise and unfiltered truth without fear and is willing to lose everything (much like Hannibal Lechter in Silence of the Lambs). While Alred the butler, and Morgan Freemen are clearly the conscience of Batman, they speak openly only to him, and then they say very little. The Joker is the only character of complete originality and creativity, crafting a world of his own design. I wanted Batman to offer us the same depth and insight. I wanted him to be energized and excited by the fight for good, just as the Joker is by chaos.
5. Aaron Eckhardt/Harvey Dent was initially a warm and three-dimensional character, ready to take the helm from Batman, so his decent into evil felt contrived, too quick and too predictable. Clearly he was broken hearted at Rachel's death, but it's not clear why his integrity, which stood strong against every other opposition, suddenly collapsed. I wanted to see his struggle, not just the evil that followed.
6. The acting by all was generally solid, but mostly uninteresting. I wasn't really pulled into the story and the only character that felt 'real' was the Joker.
7. The directing was generally solid, but action sequences and story line got muddled and overdone. I got lost again and again in over-long action sequences and in the incredible plot twists...suddenly the police commissioner has come back from the dead! But how? No explanation of this miraculous occurrence, and so I just felt shut-out of the story development.
The Matrix proves you can mix action and philosophy, stories and special effects. I wanted to see a closer marriage of that here, but never felt the divergent elements of the film working together to truly support the underlying message.