So Much Potential...

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2009)

I will admit, when I first saw The Dark Knight, I was blown away. However, after repeated viewings at parties, I noticed things that were corny or unnecessary, and some things that didn't make sense at all. I will explain exactly why this film deserves almost none of the ridiculous amounts of acclaim it has received since it's release.
I will start off by saying that Heath Ledger gave a career-making performance in The Dark Knight. Though he was an incredible actor, I sincerely think that he never would have been able to top the Joker. This role stands out to me along with my other personal favorites, such as Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs), Andy Dufresne (The Shawshank Redemption), Annie Wilkes (Misery), etc.
The opening bank heist scene was the last real interesting moment of The Dark Knight. Seeing goons with clown masks robbing a massive New York bank definitely grabbed my attention. When the Joker was revealed, with his face-paint and devious smile, I was drawn in. But, after that moment, the film mugged me and left me standing in the rain.
The Dark Knight was an involving, but not an overtly moving film. The story was nothing more than an amalgam of action/superhero film clichés, bland supporting characters, and weird technology, snowballed into one, giant of a Hollywood blockbuster, fueled by one great performance and a few cool fight scenes.
Harvey Dent has earned himself a full paragraph in this comment. I... Hate... Aaron Eckhart. This mediocre actor does not look like, sound like, or act like a person that could be associated with a film such as The Dark Knight. He simply lacked the morally twisted personality of the Harvey Dent that the film depicts. Also, what they did with "Two-Face" as far as character origin really irked me. I realize that Chris Nolan wanted to stray from the original batman films, but leaving the scarred by acid concept untouched wouldn't have hurt the film any. Harvey's resulting injuries were unrealistic and ultimately unbelievable. (His eyes and teeth were not discolored or mutilated in any way, which is impossible for the amount of flesh missing from his face, and he would have succumbed to crippling infection within an hour of leaving the hospital.)
The line at the end of the film, spoken by the Joker, really hit me on a physiological level. He said, "This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object." This is a reference to Gotham's blaming of Batman for murders and accusing him of being a menacing vigilante, and also their turning to him for help when the Joker overruns the film. This message is a deep one indeed, though I think that Mr. Nolan had wasted it, along with his superb directing talent, on an utterly stolid film.
In summation, The Dark Knight was not a terrible film, it is just vastly over-hyped. In the technical aspects, such as cinematography and sound, it excels tremendously. However, to say that it is a masterpiece of American cinema is highly inaccurate, and to place at number SEVEN on the top 250 list is both ignorant and disrespectful to all of the great films that it outranked. I recommend you watch The Dark Knight, as you will probably like it much more than I did, but, if you are like me, you will walk away remembering nothing but the Joker's demented laugh and a plethora of explosions.