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I watched The Dark Knight, and I thought I'd let you know that you should be wary of all the hype because it is a mediocre movie.

The main source of hype for this movie seems to be Heath Ledger dying. While that's too bad, it doesn't really make his performance special or anything. He does a good job in the role, but it isn't mindblowing or spectacular or anything. He is probably the best actor in the movie, but he's sort of limited by the script. People often get super excited about actors, but they really don't realize that acting is only about the third most important thing in a movie.

It's like this. If you give a good actor a bad script, you will get a bad movie. If you give a bad actor a bad script, you will still get a bad movie. If you give a good actor a good script, you will get a good movie. Direction is more important than acting, but I digress here.

So, anyway, Ledger does a good job with what he's given, and the script really isn't too bad. They do a good job of making the Joker into a crazy criminal mastermind, and his plans, especially the one that opens the movie, are pretty brilliant. They are the most fun parts of the movie to watch. The only problem with the way they handle it is that they basically remove all the humor from the character. Not to get too fanboyish, but...

The Joker is generally thought to be one of the best villains in comic bookery because he acts as a wonderful foil to Batman. Batman is the dark hero, and the Joker is the evil clown. You are supposed to laugh at his antics and hate him at the same time. He's pretty much the worst person ever, but when he breaks in with something like "Never rub another man's rhubarb!" you can't help sort of cheering for the guy. Unfortunately, The Dark Knight's Joker has essentially no funny lines. He's just crazy and a criminal genius. Ledger also way overuses this weird breathing/tongue smacking thing which gets really annoying.

That being said, he is still the best part of the movie. His acting does not make it, but some of the other actors' performances almost break it.

Christian Bale is terrible in this movie. He's not given as much to do, since the focus this time is on the villains, but he manages to mess up just about every scene he's in. He only appears as Bruce Wayne a couple times and does nothing really remarkable. There is absolutely zero chemistry between him and Maggie Gyllenhaal (?), or him and Aaron Eckhart. When he appears as Batman, he is laughably bad. As in, every time he was on screen, I burst out laughing at his terrible performance. He's not helped by a suit that makes him look like bloated old Elvis, but he continues to do the completely inappropriate and childish deep-talking voice. I was seriously hoping that somehow they would bring back George Clooney or Val Kilmer or even Adam West because even those guys were better at this.

Michael Caine makes Christian Bale look like a pro, however. He is so bad that any time he came on screen I almost stopped watching. He does a completely inappropriate cockney-like accent the whole time and really just comes off as obnoxious. If I saw him today, I would punch him right in the face for being as awful as he is.

Gary Oldman does a good job of playing Gordon in the sense that when he is onscreen, you think, "oh, hey Gordon," not "oh, hey, some moron with a mustache doing a terrible accent/goofy voice." If actors are doing their job, you won't think of them by their names. Think about it.

Aaron Eckhart does a serviceable job as Harvey Dent. I had to look up his name, but that probably has more to do with the fact that I don't really care about actors and just didn't know it than with his amazing transformative ability. When Dent becomes Two-Face, though, he stands out like a sore thumb. He seems completely wrong for the part. Fortunately he doesn't do some goofy voice change, but he could have done something. He isn't helped by makeup that makes him look like Harvey Dent with some fake plastic thing covering one half of his face. It's also pretty much a throwaway role, as he doesn't get transformed until the last third of the movie, then basically just flips a coin and shoots people without any style or anything until he gets killed.

I should say that the last third of the film is a disaster. It is incredibly boring despite being the part with the most action and I found myself doing something else to keep entertained during this part, so I don't even remember how Two-Face gets it. Also, for some reason, the Joker's plan in this part is much less clever than his previous plans and is really just annoyingly obvious. We also get to see a bunch of unclear action scenes where a bloated Batman stumbles around in the dark fighting a bunch of no-name guys. Woohoo. A good way to watch this movie would be just to watch up until Dent becomes Two-Face and then leave. You'd be ultimately more satisfied, and I can't help wondering if this part was tacked on for marketing purposes or something.

Some good things, though. They certainly cut down on the techno crap from the first movie. When will people learn that Batman is not James Bond and giving him James Bond-like "Q" scenes is akin to adding five minutes of blank screen with Revolution #9 being played over it? The new Batmobile is still an abomination, eclipsed only by the awfulness that is the new Batcycle. Fortunately, we get to see the demise of the car, and the cycle (machine guns?) appears only briefly, though even that appearance is far too long. Since there is less focus on Batman himself, we also get less focus on the stupid gadgets aspect, which is wonderful. The reason that the gadget thing works so well for James Bond, for instance, is that he is a ridiculous hero living in a ridiculous world, so dart gun cigarettes, inflatable protective coats, and zip line watches just come off as awesome. You always see the gadgets introduced and think, what stupid way is he going to use this? With these new Batman movies, it's like, "I need some kind of [meaningless techno babble] to [achieve objective]" and Fox makes it, and Batman uses it just like he said he would. And we are supposed to be amazed by this? It's a movie, do something fun, people.

All in all, though, not awful. Not amazing. Mediocre. überschätzt