I will never understand the praise for this sorry

Rating: 5/10 (22 October 2019)

I admit I'm not a comic book (or comic book movie) fan. I prefer more realism or something resembling reality so maybe I'm not the best person to review this but since there are other folks like me out there, I want to warn them.
First of all nothing is believable in the film and the casting is horrible. It is full of eye rolling silliness and over-acting. Even Christian Bale, an incredible actor, is dreadful in this. Truly cringe worthy. I can't focus on anything but that ridiculous voice he did for the character. It's like an SNL skit. What was he thinking? And why did the director allow this to continue?
Second, Maggie Gyllenhaal is so poorly cast it's distracting from the movie. I'm not going to say she's a bad actress, she's not, just poorly cast as a love interest for Batman. And juggling two dudes? I'm sorry, she's cute, but she just does not have enough going on for all that.
And third, I know this is an unpopular opinion but while Heath Ledger was great as the Joker (he was always great), it was hardly his greatest role. It's almost sad to me that this is what seems to define his career rather than Brokeback Mountain or Monster's Ball. I guess it's just a reflection of the popular culture of today and how over the top super heroes and villains are appreciated more than realistic character studies. Heath was a fantastic actor, so is Christian Bale, but these roles certainly do not showcase their actual talent. I blame that on the director not the actors. The director should have yelled CUT as soon as Bale spoke and halted production until it was fixed. Heath did the best job humanly possibly with the script and character he had, no doubt. But I personally never believed this character and I never felt scared or anything. I blame it on the directing. But then again, I don't get the comic book thing. But the overall role and film can't be compared to what Joaquin Phoenix did in Joker. Sorry. I know Heath has passed on and he was one of my favorite actors....but truth is truth.
The Dark Knight is probably amazing to younger people who like fantasy storybook kinda stuff but it's hardly the kind of movie to fulfill a middle aged adult. The film actually annoyed me so bad I had to fast forward through parts. I just don't get the raves to be honest.