Despite the reprised roles of favorite characters from Batman Begins (2005), and the astounding performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker, The Dark Knight (2008) lacks the satisfying entertainment value of the previous movie.

Reprised Roles
Christian Bayle............Bruce Wayne/Batman,
Maggie Gyllenhaal......Rachel Dawes,
Michael Caine............Alfred
Morgan Freeman........Lucius Fox
Gary Oldman............. James Gordon

Gyllenhaal, Caine, Freeman, and Oldman remain as likable as they are in Batman Begins, but they aren't in enough scenes to suit me.

Bayle's performance in the first film satisfied my idea of both the irresponsible playboy and the clandestine superhero. This time Bayle's acting seems awkward and self-conscious, constantly bringing me out of the dream. His deep "Batman voice" is especially distracting.

The Joker
Heath Ledger is receiving plenty of posthumous praise for his portrayal of the maniacal Joker. The crouch, the outlined eyes, and the constant tongue-flicking work together to suggest the Eden serpent. Sometimes a bit of Jack Nicholson comes through as well. An unfortunate side-effect of Ledger's genius for immature viewers may be to lend glamour to raw evil.

Reflection of contemporary Issues
Writers Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (also the Director), address serious contemporary issues in this movie, among them terrorism, international crime, drug-trafficking, money-laundering, political corruption, codes of morality, public safety, and government propaganda.

The corruption and insatiable greed of the fictional Gotham City low-lifes is reflected in our own daily news.

Every day another Senator, Representative, Governor, or Mayor is caught in a lie or arrested for misusing elected office.

Bernie Madoff is only the worst of what may be an army of money handlers who betray the trust of investors every day without any evidence of remorse.

The movie suggests that the actions of the Joker are so outrageous as to repel even other criminals. A prisoner (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister) has mercy on a boatload of ordinary citizens, and crime boss Maroni (Eric Roberts) informs on the Joker out of disgust. However, the Joker has his real life equivalents. What he does to his cell mate is not much different from what terrorist leaders, some of them educated in the United States, do every day to their brainwashed followers.

Nolan does a tremendously successful job of conveying the paranoia of being unable to trust anyone. I spent most of the movie unwilling to believe in the honesty of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).

Deconstructing a Hero
The reason that I don't like this film is that it deconstructs the character of Batman as Superhero.

According to my definition, a Superhero is good. Because he is "good," he does not kill, at least not deliberately. Although he conceals his alter identity, he's not a liar. He does not use his strength or super powers for personal gain. He places the public good above personal desires. He works outside the law, but he does not break it (except maybe when it comes to speed limits.)

The only attribute from this list that the Nolans permit Batman to retain is his reluctance to take a life. This Batman is willing to give up his calling for the love of a woman. He chooses the woman's life over that of a man he believes can be the saviour of Gotham City. He savagely beats a man in order to obtain information. He abducts a foreign national from his home country for the purpose of interrogation by officials of another government. He sets up a spy system that infringes on the privacy of millions of his fellow citizens.

Questionable Moral
In the end, Batman continues in his secret identity, not because it is his calling, but because his replacement didn't work out.

This film seems to depict a belief in goodness as a kind of Opium for the Masses.

The big ferry stand-off is probably intended to show that people in general are inherently decent. Neither the loud-mouthed bigot nor the mean-looking criminal in the prison jumpsuit is willing to murder hundreds of strangers to save his own life.

People in general, however, according to the reasoning of Batman and Commissioner Gordon, are not mature enough or intelligent enough to be given all the facts.

Rather than "disillusion" the public by revealing that the once good Harvey Dent lost his mind and committed murder, Batman takes the fall and Dent is memorialized as a "White Knight" in whose goodness the "public" can continue to believe.

Is the moral of The Dark Knight that people in office have the right to keep the truth from the public for their own good? Is the general public some kind of childlike entity that needs to believe that its elected leaders are saints?

Was one of the consultants on this film by any chance Dick Cheney?