Confusingly preachy yet strangely pointless. The most over-rated film of all time.

Rating: 6/10 (5 August 2008)

I've seen some good stuff from Christopher Nolan, including Batman Begins. With that on top of all hype surrounding this film, I was pretty excited about it. But, my word, is it a disappointment. Unfortunately, the film's far too long and I ended up getting bored, waiting for scenes to end so something new could happen. There's a whole unnecessary subplot involving a round the world trip which could probably have been cut out and worked around quite easily. It comes to something when, whilst you're watching a film, you're thinking of ways to make it shorter. The film likes to pose questions and get us thinking. This would be nice, but it ends up asking too many, not providing us with the material to draw answers from and then spitting out a tangled mess for us to pick through ourselves. It lacks a central, simple and coherent question or point for us to follow (remember this is supposed to be a children's film). Some characters' motives are confusing too. Particularly the Joker, I thought he reveled in chaos, then all of a sudden he's trying to prove a point to us about the corruptibility of men, then he's saying how he's just a wild animal obsessed with destruction, eh? make your mind up. And somewhere in the midst of this philosophical quagmire we really should have an action film. On the occasions there is action, it's actually quite confusing. I sat through most of the fight scenes not having a clue what was happening. And I'm not convinced this Batman can handle himself in a fight, maybe the suit's too heavy or Bale's just not the best action hero, but he fights like a fat drunkard in a bar, not the highly trained martial artist we saw in Begins. And then there's the last half-hour or so. What the hell is going on there? This is supposed to be watched by children; I know plenty who wouldn't have had a clue what was going on. With all that said, the film has some great points; mainly the acting. The Joker steals the show (everything you've heard about him was spot on), thanks due in no small part to the efforts of the wardrobe and make-up dudes; he looks great. Heath Ledger's depiction of the Batman's arch-nemesis is screen gold, but does he really belong in a 12A? Let's not overlook a solid performance from Gary Oldman. His overworked, stressed, under-appreciated and dedicated old cop is brilliant and strangely, in this, a film which (supposedly) gains it's drama from the emotional turmoil caused by Joker's games, the only character to show any believable emotion. Seeing this film make the number slot of the top250 was utterly stultifying. It's really not that good. x