Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Rating: 1/10 (30 July 2008)

The Dark Knight is not a good movie, by any measure. I will now proceed to provide reasons for this statement, in the process of which SPOILERS will abound.
In this film Batman (The Batman, as the characters refer to him) possesses superpowers rivaled only by Superman: he bends gun barrels using his bare hand (yes, only one hand) and falls from ridiculous heights, not deploying his cape, and lands without as much as a scratch to his body. The Batman is apparently not aware that it is not the fall that kills you, it is the quick acceleration at the end, and no matter the quality of the Batsuit, that acceleration cannot be reduced.
On the other hand, his kevlar Batsuit which, evidently, is impervious to bullets of small hand guns fired at close range, is unable to withstand dog bites.
The Joker, whose obvious insanity is the only light of the movie, is well-played by Ledger who flares with his eyes and mouth to give him an almost rabid portrayal, but other than being a dark menace to society, his odd manners and, at one time, drag outfit, provide comedic relief in the film.
Apart from being just a regular killing maniac, he also possesses superpowers of his own: in the film, he is depicted with an apparent and sporadic invisibility to police forces. That they do not notice his deformed face without make-up in their own ranks during a salute may be pardonable, but when blowing up an apparently unsurveilled hospital on prior warning and then leaving, in full make-up, in a school bus (his escape vehicle of choice, also from bank raids), his failed apprehension seems unpardonable. Unless, of course, all the cops had their lunch break, as the sun indicates it is around noon.
The plot is so thin at times, you expect it to crack at any moment. It is like there are many small plots, in all of which Batman, the purported main character, plays but a small role. Whatever the Joker has been doing all his life, before going on a murder spree, is pardonable to omit, but when he breaks into Bruce Wayne's penthouse (probably using his cloaking capabilities), the same locale that a few scenes later will be referred to as "the safest place in town" by the same person who was tossed out a window during this same brief encounter, it is an interesting question just how the maniac and his armed gang are persuaded to leave the party full of Gotham's economic elite, something they must have done without causing much further harm as it goes largely unnoticed by the other characters.
Batman speaks with a deathly voice, that is so ghoulish it could scare off any foe, would he just make more use of it against his enemies, and not blather like that to his friends. That he finally tracks the Joker down, is not due to any superior detective skills, as he gets good help from prying on all of Gotham's mobile phones that he immorally and secretly has replaced with his own brand, all in one night's work. More ridiculous plot element is hard to come by.