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Ever since The Dark Knight was first released, it has been hailed, not just as the greatest Batman movie in history, but as the greatest superhero movie ever made. It is also frequently listed as one of the greatest films of all time. And yet, when I first saw it back in 2008, I sensed that something was off about it. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t explain why.

Over the years, I’ve re-watched The Dark Knight several times to see if my tastes have evolved enough for me to finally be able to enjoy and appreciate the movie, but all it did was confirm my first experience and strengthen my dislike for the film.

But, with each viewing, the reasons why I disliked the movie became more and more clear to me, so in this article, I’m finally going to make my case that The Dark Knight actually sucks, and is one of the most overrated movies of all time.

This review contains spoilers. Also, I would like to remind you that this is just an opinion! If you like the movie, please don’t take anything personally!

1. The Joker

Everybody loves Heath Ledger’s performance in this movie, and I am no exception. Ledger’s acting skills are by far The Dark Knight’s greatest asset, and his presence in the film industry is greatly missed.

But, my issue is not with how The Joker was played, but with how he was written, and that is the Nolan Brothers’ fault.

The Joker is supposed to be, not only the most recognizable Batman villain, but probably the most recognizable villain in comic book history. This, however, shouldn’t apply only to his clownish outfit. He is also supposed to be recognized for his personality traits, but, let’s face it: If Ledger didn’t wear the costume and makeup no one would be able to tell which Batman villain he was supposed to be playing.

The Joker should be a master of dark humor and instantly recognizable by his hysterical laughing. Casar Romero and Jack Nicholson knew this well, but the Nolan brothers turned the Joker into this… “dark… edgy… pseudo-philosopher.”

It’s clear that Christopher and Jonathan didn’t know how to write dark humor, and so, they just had the Joker tell different versions of how he got the scars, philosophizing endlessly without ever getting to a point, and overall trying to impress us with how “edgy” and “dark” he is for two hours and thirty minutes.

Also, the Joker is supposed to be a criminal mastermind and ruler of Gotham’s underground. But, can someone tell me what the hell was Ledger’s Joker trying to achieve in The Dark Knight? “It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message,” the Joker says as he burns a pile of cash. But, what is this “message” exactly?

Well, as far as I understood, the Joker is just trying to prove that when people’s existence is threatened, and society collapses, everybody abandons their moral values in order to survive, and therefore, deep down everybody is as messed up and freaky as him? Seriously, this was the reason for all the chaos and mayhem?!

First of all, the fact that most (not all) people are capable of doing things that they would consider morally reprehensible so they can survive, is supposed to be common knowledge, and there is no need for the Joker to “educate us” on this. Hundreds of philosophers throughout history have pointed this out, and if you study philosophy or basic human behavior, you would already know this.

The annoying thing is that the movie pretends that this is some “terrible dark truth” about mankind that only the Joker has recently discovered, and the entire film is basically him trying to tell the rest of the world about it. This is why he was always trying to turn the “good” characters into “bad” ones, and, in the case of Harvey Dent, he was successful.

Ledger’s villain had very little to do with the Joker we know from previous films and comic books. Many people think that the direction the Nolan brothers took with the Joker is groundbreaking and refreshing, but if we take a closer look, we will see that Ledger’s Joker is just Tyler Durden with makeup. And I already consider Tyler (Fight Club) to be the most overrated character in cinema history. Still, great acting from Ledger!

2. Harvey Dent (Two-Face)

Harvey Dent (Aaron Echart) was easily the worst-written character in the entire movie. His story arc makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Before Harvey’s face got burned, he is Gotham’s white knight in shiny armor, fighting for justice and putting all of the mobsters and criminals behind bars. But, after the Joker kills his girlfriend and deforms his face he… goes after Commissioner Gordon and his children for some reason?

“It’s not about what I want, it’s about what’s FAIR!!!” Harvey yells as he points the gun at Gordon’s son. So, according to Harvey, “fair” would be letting the guy who killed his girlfriend (the Joker) go because the coin turned out to be heads instead of tails, but the guy who tried to save them both (Commissioner Gordon) needs to… have his son killed? Who the hell wrote this guy? Oh, yeah… the Nolan brothers. Now everything makes sense.

3. Technology

I know that it’s a Batman movie and that we are going to get some freaky nonexistent technology to make the movie more fun and exciting. The problem is when a piece of technology so unbelievable is introduced, that even though we know that we are watching a comic-book movie, it makes us go “Ok, this is just too much!”

For me, this happened when Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) planted his cell phone in Lau’s building in Hong Kong and turned it into some kind of a sonar device that can tell him the current location of everyone in the building, even though we are talking about a 100-floor building. It was like having a spy camera in every room, but without a physical camera actually being installed.

Whether it’s a Batman or a James Bond movie, the technology shouldn’t be so ridiculous for us to not be able to suspend our disbelief. Seriously, couldn’t the Nolan brothers think of some other, more believable, way for Batman to locate Lau?

And if this was not enough, at the end of the movie Bruce Wayne hacks every cell phone in Gotham City and turns it into one of these sonar devices and he can basically see and hear everyone in the city like he’s… well… God! And all of this because Christopher and Jonathan couldn’t think of another, less ridiculous, way for Batman to locate Lau and the Joker.

4. Scenes That Made Me Cringe

From the very beginning, it’s clear that the Nolans don’t know how to write good dialogue or deliver a great one-liner.

During the bank-robbery scene, for some strange reason, the bank manager (William Fichter) takes it upon himself to stop the robbers and goes after them with a shotgun.

After he’s shot, (again, for some strange reason) he lectures the Joker on the values that Gotham’s criminals used to have in the past and asks him “What do you believe in, huh? What do you believe in?!” to which the Joker replies “I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you… stranger.”

We can see one of the best examples of how to deliver a great one-liner in the classic action film Die Hard when Hans asks John “Do you really think you have a chance against us Mr.Cowboy?” and McClaine replies with the now legendary “Yippee Ki Yay Motherf#cker.” In this example, Hans has a very good reason to say this to John because he has an actual interest to demotivate him and get him to surrender.

The bank manager, on the other hand, has absolutely no reason to ask the robbers about their personal life philosophy. It’s ridiculous. And what the hell is this guy trying to achieve anyway? Stop the entire crew of armed robbers by himself?! With one shotgun?!

It’s obvious that the Nolans didn’t know how the Joker can effectively deliver the “I believe whatever doesn’t kill you…” line, so they conveniently had the bank manager go berserk and ask the Joker about his beliefs, regardless of whether it would make any sense for him to act this way.

Also, what’s the point of the Joker wearing a mask during the robbery, only to reveal his face while he is still in the building? Seriously, the writing here is terrible. Christopher Nolan puts way too much emphasis on surprising face reveals and edgy one-liners, but very little thought is given to whether it would all actually make sense in the given situation.

We get another scene with abysmal writing when we are first introduced to Harvey Dent. Nolan tries so hard to portray him as the most badass character ever, that he fails to see how nonsensical everything turns out in the end.

After the witness whom Harvey interrogates does not identify Sal Maroni (Eric Roberts) as the new head of the Italian Mafia, Harvey seeks permission from the court to “treat the witness as hostile.” The witness (who is also an active mafia member) replies “Hostile?! I’ll show you hostile!” and then pulls a gun on Harvey and tries to kill him.

When the mobsters are planning to kill someone, they would always first look for a place without any cameras or potential eyewitnesses. The last place—and I do mean THE LAST PLACE—the mafia would try to “whack” somebody would be in a crowded courtroom with the judge and the jury present and the cameras rolling. But hey, this is a Christopher Nolan movie, and the rule is: as long as it shocks the audience, it doesn’t have to make any sense at all.

But, the scene is not done being a total trainwreck. After Harvey takes the gun from the mobster and gives him a knuckle sandwich, he inspects the weapon and remarks: “Carbon fiber, 28 caliber, made in China. If you wanna kill a public servant, Mr.Maroni, I recommend you buy American.”

Let’s say, for the sake of the argument, that the Mafia would attempt something as stupid as killing a district attorney in a courtroom in front of everyone, including the press. To do this, they would have to use every connection they have, and they would also have to spend tons of money bribing the security in the building.

Now, after they go through all this trouble, do you think that they would have given the assassin some cheap Chinese gun with a high chance of malfunctioning? Again, in a Nolan movie: as long as it shocks the audience it doesn’t have to make any sense whatsoever.

One scene that boiled my blood was when Harvey Dent (now Two-Face) kills Sal Maroni. The scene begins with Maroni entering his car with his henchman and is surprised to find Two-Face sitting in the back next to him.

After Maroni gives Harvey the information he wanted, Harvey flips a coin to decide whether to kill Maroni or let him live, and it turns out it’s Maroni’s lucky day. But, then he flips another coin for Maroni’s driver, and it turns out he’s not so lucky.

By killing the driver, Harvey also kills Maroni, which raises the question: If he was about to kill him anyway, WHAT THE HELL WAS THE POINT OF THE COIN TOSS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!!!

Just out of curiosity, if it turned out to be “heads” again, would Harvey have flipped the coin for the third time, this time for Maroni’s hairdresser? But hey, as long as it shocks the audience… well, you know how it goes by now.

If I have to single out the most difficult-to-believe scene in the entire movie, it would have to be the “Joker escape” scene. After the Joker is arrested and kept in the police station, another prisoner (the one complaining about stomach pains) is brought into the same cell the Joker is in.

Then, after the interrogation scene, the prisoner collapses and the Joker manages to take the cop who was guarding him, hostage, by holding a piece of glass to his throat. Then, the Joker demands a cell phone to make his “call” and by making it, he activates the bomb that is planted inside the stomach of the aforementioned prisoner. The bomb goes off and somehow kills everyone in the police station except for the Joker, and then the Joker escapes.

Ok, there is a lot to unpack here. Firstly, it would be physically impossible to plant a bomb large enough to blow up an entire police station in someone’s belly. Secondly, how is it possible for a guy to have a major surgery performed on him, and for him to not know that he is carrying a bomb and a cell phone in his stomach? Those are not exactly small-sized devices.

Thirdly, how did Joker’s men know that the prisoner would be arrested and brought to the exact same police station the Joker is in? I’m assuming that, being a city with millions of people, Gotham would have more than just one police station. And lastly, how did the bomb kill everyone in the station and left the Joker without a scratch?

I can already hear the fans telling me: “Dude, it’s a Batman movie! Not everything is going to make perfect sense!” I realize that, but still, there are so many difficult-to-believe events happening one after another, that it’s very hard for me to suspend my disbelief. I’m not asking for the Nolan brothers to have the most logical explanation for everything, but I do want SOME explanation, and they are not providing any. This is just lazy writing on their part, plain and simple.

5. Conclusion

I remember watching a “Screen Junkies” video on Memento (here’s a link if you want to watch it), and they called Christopher Nolan “the Michael Bay for people who’ve read a book in their life.” I burst out laughing because this was both the most hilarious and accurate description of Nolan I’ve ever heard, and probably the best example of this is The Dark Knight.

Harvey Dent’s character arc doesn’t make any sense at all, and the Joker is trying to… well, to be honest, I don’t even think that he knows what the hell he is trying to accomplish in this movie. Just two and a half hours of: “blah blah blah… chaos… blah blah blah… anarchy… blah blah blah… look how edgy I am.” Again, extremely well-acted by Ledger, but terribly written by the Nolans.

The movie has Ledger’s acting skills and well-directed action/explosion scenes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the film itself is a masterpiece. As a movie-lover, I’ve always put a lot more emphasis on a well-written script and good character development because, essentially, that’s the foundation on which the director is building.

Fancy explosion scenes are only supposed to add something to the movie, but not BE the movie. If we look past Ledger’s acting talent and the well-directed action sequences, we might conclude that The Dark Knight doesn’t have much else to offer. I know that I’m in the minority here, but if I’m 100% honest: The Dark Knight actually sucks!

So, that’s the review! I hope you enjoyed it, and if you are a fan of the movie, I hope you didn’t take anything too personally. So, have a nice day, and always remember: don’t be so serious, and don’t wear hockey pads!