Good but not a 9.5

Rating: 8/10 (27 July 2008)

This movie was great but it wasn't the best movie of all time. Come on, 9.5 out of 10? I'm sorry but it just doesn't deserve to be put ahead of shawshank redemption, godfather, schindler's list, et cetera. The movie was well written, fast paced, directed wonderfully, and the acting was superb (especially Heath). That being said, there are several things that drop this movie to a good but not god-like rating: (1) Bad idea to merge two-face into the ending: Two-face comes into the movie almost at the very end and goes on a killing spree. When he came into the movie it felt forced and like an entire different movie. There is no characterization or subtlties in Harvey's transformation. Just there it is...he's two-face now. Sorry but if you know anything about telling a story that just shouldn't have been part of the story. If you insist on making two-face come out and start killing people, the movie needed to be another 30minutes to develop it and for it to make sense. As is, it's just some DA who's a really likable character who goes on a rampage because he gets burned. Makes no sense and hurts the strength of the movie.
Furthermore, it was very cliché to have two-face start flipping a coin before every killing. Very reminiscent of No Country For Old Men. I mean if that coin flip thing is really part of his character do it once and that's it. But to flip a coin every time. It was just very cheesy, hackneyed, and lame.
(2) What's up with Batman's voice: I understand that Batman has to mask his voice so people don't know who he is but his voice is just ridiculous. The voice that he uses sounds like Ken Kaniff from the Eminem CD. It's a voice that my friends and I use when we try to sound ridiculous. What were the directors thinking letting Christian Bale do this voice? He sounded like a complete clown, to the point where I laughed out loud in hysterics multiple times. It's embarrassing to have Batman sound like this.
(3) The movie starts and stops like 5 times: The momentum of this movie was really off. I feel like they weren't sure how to end this movie and they just kept losing and gaining momentum over and over again. It didn't have the proper ebb and flow.
CONCLUSION--> The movie is really a well done movie. Overall excellent job. But it loses points for a ridiculous clownish Batman voice which made Batman sound like a rapist, the movie didn't build and then climax appropriately, and the transformation of Harvey into two-face was forced and a bit hackneyed/cliché/rushed/poorly done.