Here’s my review:
The first thing that stuck out to me about the film was the pacing; this was especially noticeable during the opening hour; I found the dialogue frantic – though not without wit and substance. Ledger was great, no doubt, just great; his “magic trick” was downright golden. The strength of the film was the lack of explanation, we don’t need to get bogged down with yet another criminal’s back story – the Joker just is, he doesn’t need explaining, his motives just are. The interplay between Batman and Joker was brief (as I suspected) but impacting; and made the film. The action scenes were better than the first, but an occasional zoom out wouldn’t have hurt; Nolan did a better job this time out.
My bones are this: this movie was too long, about 20-30 minutes at that. I was not expecting to see Harvey Dent’s character arc in the latter third of the film; it felt crammed and like the Venom of Spider-man 3 should have probably been its own film. That is not to say I was bored, I wasn’t, but the film felt crammed, I didn’t personally care for the pacing of the climax. More Joker vs. Batman would have been a better resolution to this story. Oh, and YES the “Batman growl” was distracting this time – why is that? The look of Two-Face left much to be desired as well, he didn’t at all look as “realistic” as the other key players.
Still, probably neck and neck with Iron Man for my favorite summer film (I STILL haven’t seen Hellboy II).
