Spectacular film, but not the best

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2008)

I have been a huge Batman fan since the young age of 5. I was a little girl dressing up as batman for Halloween and destroying all the boys with Batman trivia.
So you can imagine that my life-long obsession of Batman makes me a rather critical Dark Knight movie-goer...and it has. First, I would like to state that critiques of this movie in IMDb should not be silly comments praising the movie while never giving certain proof but they should actually be critiques. Yes, I know that is difficult. This movie was simply put, spectacular. The screenplay and story were nearly flawless. Performances by Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, and the every solid Michael Caine were unbelievable convincing. But if you want this movie to be considered "perfect", above the works such as the Godfather and the infamous "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", you need to reanalyze your movie judgment.
Gotham City first and foremost is a dark city. The architecture is and always has been dark Gothic-esquire and HAS NOT been located in Illinois. This leads me to my greatest issue with the movie. Illinois license plates. Yes, this small little factor is something that a die-hard Batman fan would notice and would despise. Though Chicago is one of the cities Gotham City was based off of, we never know where exactly Gotham city is nor should we ever know. This is a minor factor Returning to the cityscape of Gotham City director Nolan destroyed the dark, eerie outlook that Gotham City once had. Even though Burton and Schumacher may have made less than worthy Batman sequels, they still captured the shadowy, comic book style city that Gotham City truly, truly is.
The hype that this movie has gotten has been due in part to the performance by Heath Ledger. Yes, amazing performance. Yes, I may actually have nightmares about his character. Yes, leagues ahead of Jack Nicholson. His performance does not however, make a whole movie.
Finally Words. Harvey Dent never dated Rachel Dawson. His face was ruined by acid. His eye wasn't falling out of his socket. His face as a whole was far to ridiculous...far. far. far too ridiculous. Hopefully Nolan's next film can finally grasp the true essence of Gotham City and use both his cinematic talent to translate this phenomenal comic book to the big screen.