Well done but way too over the top

Rating: 5/10 (17 February 2013)

Just re-watched "Dark Knight" (2008), from the purchased Blu-Ray trilogy. I had rented this once years ago but had not seen it since then. My opinion about this movie has not changed. Sure, it was well done, but I still am mystified by the incredible adulation this movie gets.
The single thing that I hated the most was the incredibly ridiculous, over-the-top effectiveness of the Joker. Come on. Even if he was connected like, say, someone in the Trust from 100 Bullets (a comic book reference), he couldn't have pulled off the grandiose schemes that he executes flawlessly again and again. Then, add on top of that, he's supposed be a psychopathic mad dog, and it becomes utter nonsense. "World's greatest detective" is transformed into guy desperately trying to stop someone who's so much better than he is that it's not even funny.
Some of the basic themes of the movie were interesting and well done, like the idea of the Joker that everyone is just one bad day from being like him (the same basic theme in "Killing Joke"). But really, if the Joker could pull the stunts he did in this movie, he could have had the entire country on its knees in days. Sheesh. Sorry, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief that far. Not only would one need to have incredibly meticulous planning, one would also need inconceivable resources, of the sort that a derelict like the Joker would never even come close to having.
This bothered me so much that I just couldn't enjoy the movie.
I agree, though, that Ledger's performance was quite amazing. He stole the show.
I thought Batman Begins was very much the better movie. I haven't yet seen "Dark Knight Rises" so I'm hoping it's more in the vein of the first movie than the second.