Dark Knight goes ...pftt....

Rating: 1/10 (31 July 2012)

Probably everyone knows the feeling of having a nice big box of fireworks, and there's this big impressive looking rocket in there, and you wait for a bit, the other fireworks are all pretty good, and then you light the rocket as a grande finale, and up it goes into the low clouds and pffft.... no light, no action, no sound. Well, there we have the unfortunate trajectory of the Dark Knight. It is a little difficult to believe that Dir. Nolan was actually involved in the film: perhaps bored at the necessity of finishing off a trilogy? There are none of the rapid changes of plot direction that have made even his lesser offerings good to watch -- just a thudding (by means of dramatic music even over somewhat mundane scenes, suggesting something big might be coming...) step-by-shuddering step from beginning to end. No pace, no surprise, no complexity. The only changes were, let us say, 'less than strongly' motivated by the film's development. Perhaps I got a bad deal and was watching just the outtakes (although 160 minutes of outtakes is, I guess, some kind of effort)? The predictability was mind-numbing, the acting wooden, the sound sometimes odd, some scenes with almost a filmed-for-TV feel to them, the set pieces working so 'set' that it gives a new low to the term. This was not only the worst Batman outing by Nolan by far, it is certainly the worst Nolan film I have seen. Derivative to the max. For me, his credibility as an interesting director has now been placed seriously on the line. Only good thing was that he didn't even bother trying to have anyone fail at outvillaining Heath Ledger. It is as a consequence difficult to understand the review scores for this hotchpotch. There are of course worse films: but adding up the potential and the financial resources that went into this one doesn't leave much excuse for what came out. That's the reason that this review doesn't need to contain spoilers; the film sadly spoils itself quite enough on its own. Perhaps some rather more thoughtful and accurate scores will come out when the dust settles.