The Dark Knight is The Worst Film of Nolan’s Trilogy

I still remember watching the end of Batman Begins on an IMAX screen of the midnight Wednesday premier in 2005.  All I could think about after watching Batman flip over the Joker card was how great the sequel was going to be.  I was convinced that it would be nothing less than great.  In the end, watching TDK became my single most disappointing movie going experience ever. 

Nolan and his team went for realism in these films and the question I had after watching TDK was “how can this guy push for so much realism in a Batman film and expect me to really believe in this Joker?”  The Joker, in my opinion, doesn’t fit well into Nolan’s universe but most people would disagree because all they care about is watching him grin in purple, red, green, and white while reeking havoc on Gotham.  If most of those people would remove their heads from The Joker’s ass they would see the glaring flaws.  The most obvious is how does someone whose only goal is chaos carefully and tactfully orchestrate all of that destruction and then none of it is explained?  Did The Joker knock back a few with 2009’s Jason Voorhees?  You could say that it’s suspension of disbelief but then the whole point of suspension of disbelief is to sacrifice realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment.  So, if these films are based in a more realistic world, then why the hell is a character like The Joker going around infiltrating law enforcement and blowing up buildings like he’s some sort of mastermind and/or mercenary?  That’s not The Joker.

Gotham City.  Awful.  For those of you that don’t know, Gotham City is a character in itself.  I read somewhere that Alan Moore gave Tim Burton a piece of advice when he directed Batman and that was “get Gotham City right”.  It’s a little too industrial looking but it still has a dark and gothic feel.  More importantly a “Gotham City” feel.  Nolan’s is just another big american city.  How lame is that.  His Gotham City is one of the best examples of him taking the “realism” angle too far.

The dialogue and the attempts at humour are cheesy and downright embarrassing in this film. 

-Courtroom Scene

-Batman and Joker scene at the end(Joker hanging upside down)

-Every scene with Two Face

-THE BOAT SCENE WITH CIVILIANS AND CRIMINALS

So many other little lines here and there were really bad.  A lot of it was bad acting as well.  There’s no comparison to how bad the dialogue and acting are in this film, save for Heath Ledger, compared to the other 2 films.

One scene that never gets talked about that I want to touch on because it is so fucking stupid that I can’t believe a director like Chris Nolan wouldn’t recognize this.  It’s the scene towards the end where Batman, Gordon and his men are on the roof of a building looking across at another building where it appears that a handful of The Joker’s henchmen have hostages tied up and have guns(powerful) pointed at them.  Batman decides to ignore Gordon’s plan and bust through the glass and tackles one of the henchman.  He completely ignores the other henchmen standing there, WITH UZIS, and listens to Fox tell him about where the swat team and other hostages are.  Then he gets the idea and decides to look around, DUH, and notices that the other henchman are just standing there trembling.  He pulls the mask off the guy he has pinned and AT THAT POINT realizes they aren’t henchman but are actually the hostages.  So, he just sat there on top of the guy with complete disregard for the other guys with the semi automatic weapons even though he thought they were henchman when he crashed into the building.  Ok.

I think this movie is not only the worst of the three but just bad in general and I hope we don’t have to wait another 8 years again before we get someone elses take on Batman.  For what it’s worth, I actually still like Batman Begins a lot and appreciate Nolan’s take.  I just think he went overboard on the realism and it got stupid.  Also, don’t think that just because I can’t stand this movie that I hate every thing about it.  Heath Ledger’s acting was superb.  The mannerisms, changing up his voice, and the experimentation that he wasn’t afraid to do was awesome and he did it well.  As good as he was, it doesn’t make up for all the flaws that plague this film.  I’m consistently amazed at what hype can do to a cloud a persons perception of something and this film had no shortage of that.