This film is NOT the greatest film of all time.

Rating: 1/10 (6 August 2008)

Truthfully, it's not a "1" either, but I feel compelled to balance out all the people who are giving it a "10". If I were able to give it an honest rating, it would probably be a 5 out of 10, which is still pretty awful, but well-deserved.
This film is a pathetic sequel to a promising re-invention of the Batman franchise (Batman Begins). I have huge respect for Christopher Nolan, mostly for "Memento", which has an HONEST rating of 8.6 on IMDb and justifiably ranks in the top 250 greatest films. I make the distinction because I don't think "The Dark Knight" is being rated honestly. The current rating of 9.4 is so obviously a sympathy-vote for Heath Ledger (who does a fantastic job) that IMDb should disqualify the rating as tainted.
I won't give anything away, because there's truthfully not much to give away in the first place. The story line is as schizophrenic and chaotic as the Joker himself. The internal logic of the film is all over the map and leads to a very unsatisfying conclusion. If the result was an "art" film, then a disjointed story might be forgivable, but that's not the case. This is a pedantic, boring, formulaic summer "blockbuster" film masquerading as a piece of art.
As I said, Heath Ledger's Joker is a great characterization, even if it does draw noticeably on Nicholson's portrayal. Ledger is undeniably fun to watch, which is more than I can say for Christian Bale. Bale is a passable Bruce Wayne, but, in this film, he's an extremely dull Batman. And what's with his voice? Was that his idea, or Nolan's direction? If you're going to utter dialogue sounding as if you've just gargled battery acid, it can be effective only as a brief, energetic exclamation, preferably monosyllabic. However, if you try to speak for 5 minutes in this manner, it becomes not only distracting, but comical. Any time Batman distressed his vocal cords for more than 10 seconds, spontaneous laughter broke out all over the packed theater. I'm sure this is not the response that Nolan envisioned for these parts of the film.
To sum it all up, seeing this film would be a complete waste of time if it wasn't for Heath Ledger. Wait for it to come out on video. If you want to see a really good comic adaptation, then go see "Ironman". Even "Fantastic 4", which was a big disappointment to me, was a better comic adaptation than "The Dark Knight".