Decent effort. Ledger outstanding, but Bale lacking

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2013)

One of the best efforts at a batman movie which I've seen (though i still hold a special place in my heart for the Adam West version). As the joker, Heath Ledger is outstanding, the best villain of the trilogy by a mile. His manic personality is intermingled with shows of wit and ruthlessness while never going totally over the top. Morgan Freeman is solid, but seems to be coasting a little bit in this film when you compare to many other films he has done. The directing and screenplay remain consistently good throughout, though never outstanding. Sadly, for me at least, the movie fell down with the partnership between Bale and Caine. Neither convince me in anything they do and their chemistry together is very poor. Caine has always seemed overrated to me and Bale usually only shows flashes of his talent. Overall a decent watch, but probably not deserved of all the praise it has received. In my opinion though, I could watch it just for Heath Ledgers performance.