very weak, unfortunately

Rating: 1/10 (7 August 2008)

I'm very disappointed and this rating reflects my disappointment. It could have been so much better, easily. First, it's as if there's no obstacles the characters couldn't overcome by snapping their fingers. It's just too easy for the Joker and Batman to do all what they do. It seems the writers didn't want to be bothered by realism and it's one of the main reasons I didn't feel involved or excited at all. Batman pulls out technological rabbits out of his hat to move the plot forward - it's contrived and not entertaining. The Joker sets bombs anywhere he wants without facing any obstacles. His team of super terrorists can fill a whole hospital with explosives in a few minutes after it has been evacuated - or was it before? Anyway we don't see them setting up anything, everything is done off-screen and it goes into action without any kind of dramatic buildup. How did his gang do this or that? Doesn't matter cause there's an explosion coming soon. *YAWN*
The Joker starts with a small gang but in only a few days or so it seems he builds a big organization capable of operating rapidly without flaws - a group we are told made up of many schizos and psychos from Arkham Asylum, as if they had all been released all of a sudden to join him and moreover in doing so became hyperobedient and hypercompetent robbers / explosive experts / terrorists / etc. Yeah. Right. As if running a criminal organization made up of Arkham inmates would be a piece of cake. It would have been so much more REALISTIC and ENTERTAINING to see the Joker having to deal with nutty and sometimes incompetent henchmen and we the viewers doubting whether or not he would succeed and yet pulling it off and laughing all the way up to the last confrontation. Instead he surfs on the action, survives all kinds of explosions and crashes and moves around as if Gotham City was butter and he a hot knife. *YAWN*
Second, the style & editing of the movie was mediocre at best. You would think the Joker's first meeting with the mob would have something of a tension. Here we are introduced to Batman's no.1 enemy and he tells them they have to kill the Dark Knight. But the way it was shot the scene was cold, he simply goes in, makes a few enemies and leaves. And next The Joker invites himself to Bruce Wayne's party to kidnap Harvey Dent and he simply comes in, Voilà!, without facing any obstacles, there's no buildup, no dramatic crescendo, the pace stays the same, we get lots of quick shots, a constantly moving camera and even one or two 360 degrees around Joker and Rachel as if this was some kind of music video. There's nothing, no tension. And it went downhill from there, like a typical dumb action movie. Explosion, car chase, car chase, explosion, fight, car chase, explosion. Can't you guys come up with something original? And those action scenes aren't even well made. *YAWN*
Why? After all you had an ace, The Joker, he should have had some cool crazy ideas to cause mayhem... but he didn't. He lacked the charisma that should be in such a character. Not that Ledger is bad but the character he plays has nothing special. He's cold, predictable and not funny. In Tim Burton's movie the man isn't just some psycho killer, you know early in the movie he's going to do his crimes with style and that he has surprises in his bag. He's a bit silly but you don't know what to expect from him - he's fun to watch. In TDK he neither has style nor surprises, HE JUST BLOWS THINGS UP WITH DETONATORS and he's not even having fun. Bbbooorrriiiinnnggg.
I think a lot of people don't see all the big flaws of the movie because they like the characters and the themes. I like Batman, the lone vigilante fighting crime in his city and his struggle to retain his morality while confronting the worst criminals, I like Harvey Dent's character and the Joker trying to turn Dent into a madman like him to ruin his crusade against crime and I liked the Joker trying to corrupt the people of Gotham and turn them into murderers ...BUT THE MOVIE STINKS
I really wanted TDK to be good, good at least like half of Batman Begins is, I wanted to leave the theater with a big smile on my face but I left the theater feeling cheated because I wanted to see a cool movie and I didn't, I saw a lame piece of crap. There was no climax, no great scenes, no drama, no tension, no substance, only over the top action scenes we have already seen elsewhere. This movie itself isn't a 1 out of 10 but I'm so disappointed by it that it deserves its 1