boe_dye sez: Surprisingly, this is more like Batman 2.5

Rating: 4/10 (20 July 2008)

Let me first say that I myself am surprised for only giving it 4 stars. When I first saw this film, and first reviewed it I had given it 10 shiny stars...
However upon my second viewing of it, something turned me completely off to it.
Now, in all honesty this movie for me could be looked upon like a very expensive sushi dinner: Everything is beautiful: All the players involved were amazing. The scenery was incredible, the dialogue (with the minor exception of Christian Bales' 9000 cigarette a day Batman voice) we not over the top in any way. The story line was well thought out, and well played.
I mean from that standpoint you really can't say anything bad.
It had substance, and wasn't just all fluff. It really was a 10 star film! So why do I only give it 4 stars? Well, like any high class restaurant, appearance and presentation, and quality of the food is simply the the beginning. And this film had it all, really it did.
However, it lacked one thing for me, and that is...
Taste...
It simply left a bad flavor in my mouth and it took me the better part of a day to figure out why.
With a film that is so incredible on every level, it did exactly what so many films before it has done, and failed miserably at every single time.
Trying to fit in too much.
The "more bang for your buck" mentality.
I was simply enjoying Heath Ledgers performance, and honestly did not seem him on the screen anywhere. He was Joker all the way. Sinister, psychotic, mad. Simply amazing.
But where it killed it for me was with Harvey Dent and Two-Face. Yes he acted it well, yes the makeup artists were phenomenal. I mean everything about him was good.
Except that all of his character should have been saved for Batman 3! Partway through the movie, it almost seemed that The Dark Knight could have ended, and another film began.
It wasn't one particular point per say, but more of an overlapping of ideas. Here we are following the Joker, and then the Joker's story starts to overlap with Harvey Dents story.
Like Venom in Spider-Man 3, Harvey Dent while integral to the story became an after thought.
A very strong after thought mind you, but an after thought none the less.
They could have done so much more with his character and the end result of The Dark Knight could have very easily been incorporated more into a third film.
But instead they chose to cram as much as they could into one film, and there you have it.
Had I done it, I would have had the transformation of Dent as the cliffhanger to the Dark Knight, and made an entirely different story line based more on Dent/Two-Face in a 3rd film.
It is this reason that the film left a bad taste in my mouth.
Petty? Over reacting? Nit Picking? Maybe so, maybe not. However, as most avid film viewers know it usually only takes one thing to screw up a great film, and for me, this was it.