It's okay to good. It's more consistently good than BEGINS, with no serious third act fuckery. Batman does some detective work, but it's mostly him doing James Bond shit, and there's one scifi element too far for me.
Bale's a guest star. The movie is all about Eckhart, Oldman and Ledger. The truth remains that Batman's the least interesting character in his universe. Ledger's Joker is very much his own creation. Strong work.
There are a lot of great scenes, but the movie's overstuffed. There's a trip to Hong Kong that adds almost twenty minutes to the movie total (including time wasted on Bruce Wayne's alibi) that should have been excised at the script stage. It's not a BAD scene by any means, but it's extraneous in a film that already feels too pudgy.
The Joker may be a little too supernatural - he's able to get huge bombs into places at the drop of a hat and without anyone noticing. You can get away with that once but the film has too many scenes pivot around that concept.
This is post release, so you're getting some spoilers here. Beware.
If anyone can explain why Gordon fakes his own death, I'd appreciate it. He says it's to 'protect his family' but he certainly isn't the only person around with a family, he's not on the Joker's hit list and the whole idea is so ridiculously complicated as to be silly. Doesn't kill the film, but is another element that really doesn't add anything but running time.
Bale's a guest star. The movie is all about Eckhart, Oldman and Ledger. The truth remains that Batman's the least interesting character in his universe. Ledger's Joker is very much his own creation. Strong work.
There are a lot of great scenes, but the movie's overstuffed. There's a trip to Hong Kong that adds almost twenty minutes to the movie total (including time wasted on Bruce Wayne's alibi) that should have been excised at the script stage. It's not a BAD scene by any means, but it's extraneous in a film that already feels too pudgy.
The Joker may be a little too supernatural - he's able to get huge bombs into places at the drop of a hat and without anyone noticing. You can get away with that once but the film has too many scenes pivot around that concept.
This is post release, so you're getting some spoilers here. Beware.
If anyone can explain why Gordon fakes his own death, I'd appreciate it. He says it's to 'protect his family' but he certainly isn't the only person around with a family, he's not on the Joker's hit list and the whole idea is so ridiculously complicated as to be silly. Doesn't kill the film, but is another element that really doesn't add anything but running time.
