Why IS it so serious?

Rating: 6/10 (4 January 2012)

Three and a half years after the hype, sycophantic reviews, and mass hysteria have died down I am now ready to review this film with a level-headed opinion. Is it good. Yes, quite. Is it the icon of intelligent summer movie perfect that the fanboys proclaim it to be? No, certainly not. The Dark Knight has faults, not the least of which is the unjustifiably bloated running time.
With criminals in Gotham now looking over their shoulders (or should I say to the sky) for Batman, the crime-rate is gradually falling. But when anarchic, nihilistic Joker appears to stir things up between the cops and crooks the fight against crime is cranked up to the max. The Joker is out to create as much chaos as possible, not caring for himself or others. Meanwhile District Attorney Harvey Dent tackles the criminals as honestly as he can with Rachel Dawes glassy-eyed and Bruce Wayne competing for her affections. This is spread out over 153 minutes, and in long stretches you'll begin to feel every second of it.
Much of this film's running time could have been trimmed and many scenes jettisoned. I know I am not alone in admitting that a sequence midway through the film involving dead bodies in an apartment and the re-building of a shattered bullet just confuses me. The sequence seems to come out of nowhere. I know Batman is supposed to be a detective but this was just nonsense. Nolan could have come up with a better method of leading Bruce Wayne to the trap with the window and sunshade. Also, there is a moment near the end when Salvatore Marone tells Commissioner Gordon that he knows where the Joker's going to be. Nothing becomes of this.
You'd have to be pretty stupid not to connect the dots when it comes to the corrupt cops who sell-out Gordon at every opportunity too. Real lazy writing there. I just couldn't get involved with Harvey Dent either. His story, struggle, and motivations did not interest me in the slightest and I found the character flat and boring. Gary Oldman as Gordon also bored me to tears. What exactly are we supposed to like about this character? With the exception of temporally faking his own death he never once proved himself to be competent. I longed for the Joker to show up and put them all out of my misery. Not much of the dialogue is memorable. It sounds as if the characters are talking out to the audience while none of the words actually gel and no eye-lines connect. Little of it feels like a realistic conversation. It's virtually all just perfectly rehearsed movie dialogue from over-written comic-book characters.
I wish that Nolan would stop shying away from violence. When you watch the movie closely you'll notice you never actually see anything. The pencil trick happens fast (and off-screen), no blood effects follow gunfire, few of the punches are seen connecting. I understand the need to keep it a PG-13 but come on! Aside from a car and helicopter explosion there aren't many deaths seen occurring on screen, most of the time leaving you wondering what happened (as with Gambol's death).
There are entertaining and breathtaking spectacles within The Dark Knight, but take away Bruce Wayne and the Joker and you're left with nothing at all that could identify this story or setting as something that truly belongs in the Batman universe.
Like Batman Begins, it's all so straight and brick-faced. I really ought to ask Christopher Nolan "Why so serious?"