does NOT live up to the hype

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2008)

Having had to wait for 2 weeks before I had a chance to watch The Dark Knight, I was thrilled when the time came. After the first week of IMDb votes I kinda guessed there was some hype going on. But after 200.000 votes the grade was still 9.4. Was this still a hype or was the movie genuinely good? Also reading very positive movie reviews and hearing people go on and on about how great Heath was as the Joker, this meant the movie just had to be great, right? Well it's NOT. It's a good movie, but people who compare it to history's best cinematic productions are just out of their mind.
Let me get to the first point of the hype: the Joker. I read reviews of this character being the most evil, terrifying, psychotic and creepy villain they had ever seen. I must agree that Heath does a great job of playing the Joker. But this just isn't living up to what I read and heard. The biggest problem with the Joker is that this is still an action hero movie, not a thriller or horror for that matter. What the Joker does made me laugh most of the time. I mean his opening with jamming the pencil through a guys eye may sound creepy when you hear or read it, but in this movie it's just hysterical. The Joker isn't scary or creepy at any point. He is psychotic, he is unpredictable and he is played with great depth (for a character that is flat in the script). But he can never compete with the great villains like Hannibal Lecter or even Jigsaw. Those are just out of his league. I would love to have seen the Joker develop more. The screen time for Heath is just way too low for him to carry this movie (although lot's of critics claim he already caries the movie, which would be a sad conclusion if you ask me). It's a shame Heath died.
With that hype out of the way, the rest of the movie is pretty plain. It has great special effects and make-up, for which it'll surely compete for awards. But the other actors really can't deliver, even great ones like Freeman. Characters are not developed. Which brings the viewer in an awkward situation when we have to feel the pain that both Dent and Wayne feel when the lose Rachel, but we just can't feel that pain. That's just a result of poor script and poor character development.
Good film, entertaining, but surely not great or superb. Get real people, look past the hype!