Good movie that's been way overrated

Rating: 5/10 (11 August 2008)

So here we are a month after this films release and we're still talking about it. Actually by talking about it i mean it's jaw dropping box office performance and recently ranked best film of all time on IMDb. Thankfully as of today it has dropped from #1 to 3 and probably will keep dropping. Let me get this off my chest i thing it's a good movie not a great one and it sure as hell is not a masterpiece or even the greatest comic book movie of all time that dubious honor belongs to the Fantastic Four followed closely behind by the first Spider-Man. I know this to many is blasphemy so crucify me fellow comic book fans but this is what i truly believe. My main problems with The Dark Knight stem with the fact that it's way to friggin long, is a little hard to follow, and at times felt rushed with scenes either missing or suddenly appearing with no flow to them. For instance (one of the awkward scenes i'm talking about occurs at the beginning) after the joker puts his calling card on the table next to Gotham's most notorious mobsters while they have their therapy session meetings (as the Joker puts them) in a anonymous kitchen. The moment the joker bolts out the kitchen's swaying doors suddenly we're treated to a scene with Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes sitting at a table having dinner in an expensive restaurant. This may not seem as bad in my review but trust me in the movie it's really awkward like there's no built up to it it just shows up. one of other problems i have with this movie is the way scenes seem to go on forever just to have the film run two and a half hours where they could have been resolved much faster or cut out entirely. (Spoilers)
Example: The ferry scene. Toward the end The joker has 2 ferries rigged with explosives one carrying innocent civilians the other convicted felons and convicts (One of the convicts happens to be played by Tommy Tiny Lister Jr. from Friday and The Fifth Element). The reason their on the ferries is because the joker has threatened to level gotham and cause chaos and anarchy in the city. Gotham officials order the people be evacuated some choose the ferries. The joker puts one detonator on each boat and plays a game with his victims he tells them that at the strike of midnight one will decide whose lives are worth living more the civilians or the convicts. Than when midnight hits whoever puts the detonator together the fastest lives and in the process blows up the other ferry killing everyone on board. However, in the end everything gets resolved by Tommy Tiny Lister Jr. simply throwing his ferries detonator thru a window into the water and turning to his superior and rightfully proclaiming "You should have done this a long time ago".
My words exactly had Tommy Tiny been the one to decide the fate of everyone on the two ferries instead of the warden who was stupid enough to believe that the ferries were rigged the scene would have lasted mere seconds cause he would have known that the whole thing was a charade. Cause convicts know when they're being played. So this lengthy scene for nothing had one character gotten control of the situation. The movie would have ended 15 minuted earlier.
My big last complaint against this movie is the way it treats two of Batman's other villains. (Spoilers)
Scarecrow is horrificly underused in this movie to the point where it's anti-climatic. Scarecrow appears for about 2 minutes in the beginning as a drug dealer selling his hallucinogen drug in a parking garage only to be ambushed by fake batmen and then batman himself before he's tied by batman and left in the garage probably to be used again in the next movie. We never find out his fate whether he's arrested or put in arkham asylum. Then to top it all off Cillian Murphy himself who plays Scarecrow only says one line in his deep raspy voice (a mere three words) while the rest of his dialogue sounds like willem dafoe crossed with a young child. Talk about weird.
(Big Spoiler)
However, the greatest sin this film commits is the killing off of Two-Face. Yes, people two face dies in this movie. i thought he was being built up for another movie but i guess that was beneath Chris Nolan so he kills him off. The problem with his death is it's so damn weak he simply falls over a ledge with Batman after holding Jim Gordon's family hostage and breaks his back. What a waste of an iconic villain. Why aren't more comic book fans upset about this? Way to forgiving.
I know i'm making this review sound like i hate it i don't i'm just pointing out it's hugely glaring flaws that everyone seems to be looking over.
The good things about the movie are a great performance by Heath Ledger (tragic what happened to him) Great chase/ambush scene with armored trucks, helicopters, the batpod, eighteen wheelers, and police cars all vying to get harvey dent who's being transported to prison, and a couple of well timed out of left field plot twists.
So overall good to watch once but more of an experience than an entertainment.