Bombastic, dreary and poorly edited! It did NOT feel like a superhero film! The Dark Knight felt like a gritty, realistic crime film set in Chicago, but with a man in a batsuit and a killer clown thrown in. I'm sorry, but this film's realistic realistic atmosphere and setting did not complement a guy in a batsuit. The film took itself very seriously and it had a very depressing and realistic atmosphere with rather annoying, poorly acted extras and mediocre action sequences, on top of so many other unpleasant and aggravating flaws that I will go through. Batman and the Joker prancing around in this film's realistic environment was as bitter and dissonant as chocolate mixed with pizza. And everyone's has said this; This was not Batman's film. It was more about The Joker.
Let me start with the lousy, ridiculous editing. During the action scenes and other rousing scenes when the characters are being physical each other, there are always the dreaded "quick-cut" edits where, if you blink, you'll miss what just happened. I got quite furious with this editing habit. Because half of the time I had no idea what was going on. In the theaters I was left confused with this and I went "um, what just happened?". Only in my second and third watching, I finally knew what was going on, thanks to a few rewinds and repeats. What was Nolan thinking here? And he knew what he did was silly here -- That's why in TDKR his editing was vastly improved.
Now to the laughable opening scene. Again, full of quick cuts and you have no idea what is going on. Several men in clown masks are robbing a bank and are gibbering amongst each other, and they begin to shoot each other? Um okay, but why? I had no idea what has happening, and the quick-cuts weren't helping either! Then the sinister Joker appears, played by the late Heath Ledger. Sorry, as much as I like Ledger, I just didn't quite enjoy him as the Joker. I find it ironic that his catchphrase is "why so serious?" when his Joker is the most serious, ominous Joker there is. And I don't mean that as a compliment. The Joker is supposed to be comical and amusing. That's why he's The Joker. And is it just me, or did Ledger base his character on Depp's Jack Sparrow from POTC? He was merely a villainous, dark version of him!
Joker's henchmen were also risibly realistic in appearance, like something out of a mafia film. Guys like that would kick the Joker's ass for being a flamboyant freak. In the comics, his henchmen were zany wackos in quirky costumes, much like the Joker. They did not look like something out of Goodfellas. What was with the scenes of Batman in Hong Kong? The movie tried to squeeze in unnecessary subplots. I mean, this movie had such a boring, bleak and dull and uninviting atmosphere that even Christian Bale was bored, particularly as his Bruce Wayne character. Speaking of dull and bland, Hans Zimmer's music was a lackluster - The Joker's theme has to be one of the worst theme music ever written for film.
Now let's move on to Harvey Dent. What a rushed character. One minute he's the perfect hero of Gotham and the other he is a serial killer. He should have had his own movie, really. What I found really pathetic is the motive. So he became evil here only because the love of his life Rachel wasn't saved? That was just juvenile to me. So this gritty crime film also wanted to be a romantic tragedy? Sheesh. But setting that aside, I just could not take Dent as Two-Face seriously. No one can turn evil this quickly. And I thought this film was going for realism? Yeah, didn't work. Oh, Joker tells Harvey that he is a man without plans. And yet the Joker is the most scheming and conniving character there is. He's full of plans, alright.
In the film's climax, the Joker expects that one of the ferries will blow up the other, because he complacently thinks that most people are like him, selfish and evil. Well, sorry Nolan, because most humans are actually like that. We fight to survive, one way or the other. Realistically, I don't think a ferry filled with nasty criminals would "sacrifice" themselves. A very naïve way of storytelling here. This movie is basically saying that only Joker is the completely bad person, and the rest are all equally good. No nuance, no middle ground. So if you rightfully wanted a boat filled with felons to blow up to protect your innocent family, you're as evil as the Joker, according to Nolan. Utterly pathetic.
To the last annoying gripe with the film - I still can't ponder why the blame was put on Batman for Two-Face's rampage. That was the cheapest, most absurd gimmick put in film. Why not the Joker? Hell, why not just Harvey himself? Call out the mass murderer and let the world know about the heinous things he did (funnily, Nolan & Co this was wrong, that's why Gordon revealed the truth in TDKR). Again, a gritty crime drama that verges on the unrealistic and the ridiculous. Of course, to romanticize this absurdity they had to write a fancy statement, uttered gallantly by Gordon and backed up with uplifting music, about Batman being the culprit and why they should chase him off. This foolish contrivance did not work for me.
And this is coming from someone who enjoyed Batman Begins - A movie that actually felt like a superhero flick and had a followable, straightforward plot.