I saw this movie at an early showing of 10 AM and was amazed at how few people were there. Yeah, it's early, but with all the hype, I still expected there to be more than like five of us at the showing, but you know, that's okay with me. Not having to put with a steady stream of the usual over crowded theater goers was just fine with me. This movie could have been on a bigger screen. I swore that this theater actually had a large screen upon which we saw The Two Towers, but now, after actually scoring a viewing "in the big room" I can say that it no longer exists. They must have cut it down to fit in another cinema.
This movie has been described as eating free ice cream off an ice cream truck. Once you get to the end, it's still great, it's still ice cream, but you're ready to be done. I think that comes from just how long this film is. I think it's about 20 minutes too long. The ending should have been the beginning of movie 3. Not that it detracts - it is after all ice cream and ice cream is still pretty good even after 2 1/2 hours.
The movie is loud, but unlike the first film, its loud in the right places with much better sound direction and music. The cinematography is much better in that the fights are not up close and blurry, you can see more of what is happening. I think the actual dialog is weaker than the first, but not by much. There is though some heavy lifting on the parts of Bale, Freeman, Oldman, Eckhart and Caine to keep the dialog from not falling into comic book parody.
In fact, it is the dialog that almost took me out of the film at it's opening. During what should have been a no dialog sequence, you have henchmen right out of the Batman TV show from the 1960's telling you what they are going to do in the hammiest of ham-fisted ways. It was almost, "Hey you mugs, get outta da way. Youse needs to be takin' care o' da bosses business!", in it's hokiness and it took a few minutes for the film to overcome it. I was now paying attention to the dialog and every time it slipped it made me cringe instead of just glossing over it to get to the next bit.
Once pass that, it's pure ice cream. As the comic book quality gives over to the dark knight you roll through so many emotions and changes that by the end you are sold on the moral tale they are trying to tell. It works. The morality twist of just who is crazy and what is crazy sells itself perfectly and gives new vitality and solid motivation to the Harvey Dent character and leaves it way open for a slam bang of a Batman 3, in fact it could leave itself open that Batman 3 is THE END of the series and the end of Batman. Of course they wont do that, but they seriously set it up that way.
It is violent and often frightening. You don't see the gore, for the most part, but you don't need to. Heath Ledger is amazing as the Joker. This is a fitting part for him to have as a final go out, but I can understand why playing this role disturbed him for sometime afterward. How do you unwind from having this character in your head? This is no fake laughing clown, this is a seriously deranged demon. One of the most telling moments is when Batman is battering him to get him to give up some information and he is just laughing and joking with him because he knows the one piece of Batman's psyche that is his to exploit. The audience also then realizes just what a menace both of them actually are. How many innocents get killed via Joker's capers? How many get killed because Batman can't save them all?
So this is the superhero movie of superhero movies. Yes. Better than Spider-man 2, better than Iron Man. Better than Hellboy. This is the new yard stick for these types of films. Once it got more into James Bond and police chief vs mobsters, it really started to come alive and not just resolve itself to Batman beating up on the Joker's henchmen. There are many holy crap! moments, tearful moments and several good scares and shocks. There is a Barbara Gordon in this movie and a potential Robin, but Bale is not just no, but OH HELL no, to there being a Robin or a side kick. I could see a punk vigilante that comes into the picture, but not a Robin. I agree with him on that.
I can only give this film a 4 1/2 *'s out of 5 due only to the poor, oh so poor, choice of dialog at the beginning.
