Batman: The Dark Knight (A-)

Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman.
Screenplay by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan from a Story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.

Rated PG-13 for strong violence, intense situations, and disturbing images.
NOT FOR CHILDREN, EVEN THOUGH IT'S MARKETED TO THEM.

You've heard it all. Dark. Brooding. Expansive. Heath Ledger rocks the house. Gary Oldman rules as a good guy for once. Aaron Eckhart is surprisingly competent.

This is an impressive movie. It will have a lasting effect on you, trust me. It's extremely ambitious in both its visual and thematic conception. It hits the target on the former. It has qualified successes in the latter.

But, again, you've heard all the raves. Why am I giving it an A minus?

Three things, and they all involve Batman himself. All are character issues and two figure significantly in the plot.

First of all, Batman seems to exist in the story mainly as a contrived counterpoint to The Joker. He's not developed much and he's not really that important to the movie if you step back and break it down. Eckhart's Harvey Dent is.

**SPOILERS** (For the twenty-three of you who haven't seen it.)

Second, he faces a false dilemma in this movie that drove me nuts as I watched him grapple with it. Essentially, The Joker announces that he will start killing people until Batman reveals himself. Batman/Bruce Wayne agonizes over this. "It's all my fault! People are dying because of me! He won't stop until I turn myself in!" He then shuts down the Batcave and destroys all his Batstuff.

Huh? Dude, the Joker was killing people BEFORE he made this little ultimatum. He will go on killing AFTER you turn yourself in. What's to agonize about? He's the bad guy, not you. Go catch him. Problem solved.

I hated that stupid gimmick and rolled my eyes as it played out. I didn't believe a minute of it. The only possible explanation I can come up with was that he was looking for an excuse to "retire" and The Joker gave him one. He'd calmly ride off into the sunset with Rachel Dawes as the Joker took over the city? Right. That ended up being a moot point, anyway. (And, btw, he sure didn't grieve very much over THAT development).

**END SPOILERS**

Thirdly (and I'm with Robert Downey, Jr. on this one), the epilogue makes no sense. Why does it have to end that way? Can't we just explain that The Joker drove Dent crazy?