I was less than impressed by The Dark Knight

Yes you heard me. Apparently it's tantamount to heresy, admitting such a thing, but I did not think the Dark Knight was particularly good.

I would even go one step further and say... *gasp* it was a BAD film. Why? You are probably shaking your head and cursing my stupidity from your chair/desk/bed, not entirely unlike all of my friends who similarly thought I was delusional for disliking this film.

Plot spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

Beginning. Middle. End.

This film was boring. For an action film, it was slow and dry. And not, as many people seem to be suggesting, because it was developing characters or, heaven forbid, developing an in-depth storyline (I worry for those who consider this a "deep" film, and would suggest they watch Citizen Kane before using such an adjective for something derived from Hollywood). There was no suspense, we the audience just sat and were hustled through 2.5 hours of meandering plotless events, which rendered many things that happened meaningless and forgettable. Haven't these people heard that the basis to a good story is.. er a good story?! With a beginning, middle and end? Not a vague start, an hour of pointless plot contrivances that we could easily have done without (the Chinese businessman?), a few jumbled clashes with the joker and a anticlimactic ending that was long overdue.

Yes, it was dark. Deliciously dark. I LOVE dark. I go out of my way to seek out dark and challenging films. I like to be rattled and I like films that fire the imagination. I like to think over a film for days or weeks after I saw it. All the rave reviews suggested that Dark Knight was exactly this sort of film, so I decided to see it. I couldn't miss it of course. Nor could millions of other people around the world. We're not all Batman fans. Most of us aren't, really. The reason why this film is making absurd sums of money, the reason why everyone I know has seen it already (some more than once), the reason why we had to see a later showing because the cinema was full already, is Heath.

Oh Heath...

He makes this film. I'll go even further than that- Heath saves this film. Quite honestly his performance and presence on screen is so captivating, so engrossing, so horribly unsettling, I am not surprised by all the calls for a posthumous Oscar. While watching the Joker, I was blown away just like everyone else in the cinema. I laughed when he made the pencil disappear. I laughed when he fiddled with the bomb detonator outside the hospital. I sat open-mouthed when the lorry (truck, for any Americans) flipped over with the Joker in the front seat (I was surprised by this, given that it was shown in the trailer and we all had seen it before- but knowing that the Joker was in the cab made it altogether more dramatic). I sat, eyes open and completely silent, when he confronted Harvey in the hospital. In fact, on reflection I realise that during the whole film I was thoroughly disinterested in Batman, I was bored by Harvey (at least for the first half when I didn't realise what was happening to him). I sat, like everyone around me waiting for the Joker to come back onscreen and relieve us. The interesting thing, and just about the only satisfaction I got from this film, is that the appearance of the Joker did not relieve me. Instead of feeling glad he was in that scene, I felt nervous. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat wondering what he would do or say next. This frightful character who murders people at the drop of a hat. Who holds lives and fates in his hands, and only cares for anarchy. It was exhausting to watch. The Joker could be funny, even hilarious, and he could be dangerous. All the while, we watch the Joker circle death, play with death, even hand a gun to a man who fully intends to kill him. We see him get beaten to a pulp by Batman, laughing the whole time. We watch in horror at his apparent disregard for his own life. We watch, and we are drawn to it, and we cannot look away, because of course this all comes down to the parallel between the Joker and the man behind him. We are so drawn to the joker because he, like Heath, spiralled towards self-destruction.

That's why everyone is raving about this film. That is why this film is "so good". Had Heath not died, the Joker would not have held such an ominous presence onscreen. Yes, he acted well, yes the Joker was convincing, but I have seen better performances that slid by without Oscars or even nominations. I do not think so many people would by crying Oscar had Heath not died. This is demonstrated most poignantly in the scene when the Joker (though not actualy dead) is brought into a room in a body bag and we see a close-up of his face. The cinema went silent. I looked away from the screen. I noticed other people turning their heads or gasping in horror. That scene hit the nail on the head.

Wasted talent, and not just Heath's

Gary Oldman was shamefully wasted in this film. But he must be used to that after Harry Potter. What else? I was surprised by how upset I was that Rachel was blown to bits. I hadn't really expected that (although I suspected the joker had lied about the locations, I assumed on some level that someone would save her). I suppose that added something to the film, another level of nastiness. Which was definitely necessary, because this is not a film about a hero. It's a film about a man doing what needs to be done for the greater good. So yes, he f*cks up, he gets hurt, he crosses moral and legal lines, people hate him, but he, Batman, has to.

While I'm at it I may as well point out that Bale and Eckhart also get short changed here, and unfairly. This is 100% the Joker's film, but there were plenty of parts we could have done without. I thought the "sonar mobile phones", especially how they were used at the end in the fight scene, was insultingly silly and needless. This film was trying to be a more mature take on the comic book series, so why introduce silly technology and digress from the interesting plot? I'm sure there was another way they could have created a moral conflict between Batman and Fox. It was important for the plot to create something which Batman would have to do for the good of Gotham which went against decent morals. Other blogs have explored this plenty, so I shall move on. I do feel somewhat sorry for Bale, who is not only outshone in the script (Batman is to all intents and purposes a secondary character), but now after Heath's death he has lost the film to him completely. What a turnaround after the first film... Poor guy. He has no choice but to stand back and politely agree that Heath's death was a tragedy and this film was Heath's final masterpiece. No wonder he looked so p*ssed off and sallow at the premier.

The only other good thing about this film is Harvey Dent, played to perfection by Eckhart. I mentioned that I liked dark films- well, I really enjoy watching the darkness within everyday characters, watching "good" characters become dark. I like to see the bad side of our supposed heroes. This was superficially explored with Batman, of course in many ways that was the whole point of the film... The "Dark Knight"... But beating the Joker up in a police room, and throwing a man off a fire-escape so that he breaks his legs is not enough. Especially when Batman keeps talking in that ridiculous voice. OTT. Why didn't they fix that after the first film? With Harvey at least the storyline was developed a little more... The Joker, who "doesn't plan", has meticulously orchestrated from the start (although we, like Batman and everyone else, do not realise until it is too late) the steady downfall and descent into madness of the hero of Gotham... How quintessentially evil. How absolutely awful for Harvey and how fantastic to watch as our new Hero (a real man, fighting crime face to face in the courts, a decent guy with a family and normal life) falls and loses everything. How much more they could have developed this tragic storyline, possibly the most interesting part of the story (at least for me), in favour of however long we wasted jumping out of windows in China.

One final point. I enjoyed the finale with the two ships. I am a sucker for Derren Brown (don't fret, I will be making a post about him soon). I am completely intrigued by psychology. While I think the social experiment at the end was a little naïve and simplified (let's be honest, people would be beating sh*t out of each other to get the detonator or hysterically jumping overboard, or at the very least all talking to their families on their mobiles or capturing the drama with cameraphones), I couldn't help but think that this was the kind of thing Derren would be doing. If he were insane, that is. What a fantastic climax (although handled incorrectly in this film, so that somehow it just flops without suspense). I was sad in a way, to see the Joker proved wrong for once, but that is the curse of the "bad guy" I suppose. But what a wicked idea! What vastly superior fodder this was, compared to the usual offerings from Hollywood, especially in this genre (Spiderman 3 anyone?).

All things considered though, this film did not live up to its potential. Even the score, which is fantastic, missed the mark (some very dramatic scenes had no music at all, which in some places worked and other almost seemed like a mistake). It could have been so much more, and I was hoping for much more, and in the end I realise my expectations were probably too high for what is, in the end, yet another Hollywood comic book adaptation created purely to generate profit.

Oooh poor choice of words!

So that I don't go out on a total downer, I thought I would post one of my favourite lines in the film (followed by inexplicable lack of death on the part of Rachel, it seems everyone falls off skyscrapers in films these days and survives!). Enjoy!

To Heath.