Surprisingly...disappointing.
I was just SO ready to love
The Dark Knight. Its predecessor,
Batman Begins, was fantastic in terms of characters and storyline, and I was very much looking forward to more of the same.
Didn't happen.
First of all, this movie is about 30 minutes too long at roughly 2h 20 minutes. Secondly, the direction was all over the place, the editing wasn't tight (checked my watch twice), and the sound editing was really distracting (really, how bad does it have to be for
anyone to complain about the sound editing???).
Christian Bale is wonderful as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and yes, Heath Ledger was impressive as the Joker, but the plotline involving Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes slowed down the movie. I won't give away any details in case you still want to see it.
I left the theater wondering what all the critics and fans had been raving about for a whole week. Seriously, the emperor has no clothes, folks. It's an okay movie (the scene with the Joker and the mob at the beginning was especially good, as was the one involving Harvey Dent and the Joker) but overall it dragged. And as my brother-in-law pointed out, there's a bit of an ethical dilemma there at the end. Again, no details.
This movie wasn't quite as disappointing as Hancock but it's not as good or as enjoyable as Iron Man. Too bad. Hopefully the next one will regain the momentum of the first.
