What do you dislike about The Dark Knight?

[jbrinegar]

I liked everything but Dent dying.

Is there any possibility/good reason dent survived and his survival was kept secret?

[captcalhoun]

not according to Eckhart. Aaron says he's dead.

[nx1701g]

^ Though Aaron is contracted for a sequel, then again Maggie is too.

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I like the Bat-Pod I think it's much more befitting of Batman, but I also think the Tumbler is stupid. It just doesn't fit this Batman to have such a "brute force" tank device crushing and rolling over cars. See how sleek and smooth the Lamborghini Bruce drives is in the movie, the way it weaves in and out of cars, silky smooth. That's what the Batmobile should be imo.

The other thing is once you watch the movie a few times (and I've seen it more than a few, I do love the movie dearly), it starts feeling like linked set-pieces. Upon skipping around on my iPod (digital copy that came with a DVD), i came on one scene, and thought "oop, this is the hospital set piece", moved the cursor, saw another scene, thought "ooh the tower set piece" , this becomes particularly apparent in the 2nd half, the first half moves much more smoothly through the plot,the 2nd half is more of 'lets just link a few impressive set pieces together'.

I'd say from the beginning of the film... to the "Joker hangs out the police car" scene, I was thinking "This is the greatest movie i've ever seen". By the end of the movie I was thinking "This is one of the best movies of the year, and maybe in my Top 5 movies". To me that's an indication that the 1st half was stronger than the second half.

The sonar device is also preposterous. I could buy the original one that Fox had because he said "R&D made it up", ie they made a special phone which emits that pulse, ok not really believable but possible. The idea that ALL THE EXISTING PHONES IN THE CITY could be used that way without being built that way is preposterous. How exactly is my little red sprint phone supposed to emit this radar pulse when its not built into the hardware?

it's all degrees though. The film overall was pretty awesome.

[nx1701g]

iguana_tonante wrote:

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Wayne Insurance, Inc. obviously. They are cheap and very reliable.

There is a great line in the novelization of The Dark Knight where Bruce laments the damage he's caused to the city and says that Wayne Construction would take care of it. And that he feels guilty to be profiting from destruction he caused, but that they'd lowball it that they basically made the repairs at cost.

[crouteru]

Probably that The Joker steals the show from Batman. Begins was all about Bruce Wayne and Batman, but I felt that wasn't really the focus in The Dark Knight. Still a superb film, but I just prefer Begins.

[davejames]

I wasn't a fan of the Tumbler, but I loved the Bat-pod. Unlike all those generic "batcycles" we've seen in toy stores over the years, this was actually a cool, badass design they came up with.

Otherwise, my main complaints are:

-- I just didn't buy Harvey Dent's turn to the dark side. BTAS came up with a much better justification by showing that he already had a multiple-personality disorder to begin with, and all it took was a little push for Two-Face to take over.

But no matter how tragic Rachel's death was, I just couldn't see the noble and righteous Harvey of this movie becoming the cold, vengeful killer we see so quickly-- even to the point of threatening to kill a little kid at the end! I mean, come on now.

-- Way too many forced and contrived situations for my taste. For instance I didn't buy that a city like Gotham-- which is supposed to be the crime capital of the world-- would be in a complete state of panic because of a few assassinations and the destruction of an empty hospital. Or that there would be a rush of people hunting down that dweeby lawyer guy. And the whole ferry sequence was the most contrived of all.

I like the ideas Nolan was trying to get across in the movie, but the execution just didn't convince me nearly as well as it could have.

[Trekker4747]

The only thing I hate is Bale's Batman voice. It's just way too damn intense and it doesn't need to be. Sure he probably needs to "disguise" his voice so he's not identified but I'm sure there's a middle ground between his natural voice and sounding like a constipated Clint Eastwood with a severe cold.

And there's just times it's not called for. When he's trying to intimidate Joker or the mob boss he drops off the fire-escape, sure maybe some intensity is called for. When he's just talking to Gordon and Dent on the roof or in a crime scene? Maybe not so much for the intensity there, Bats.

And the final line (one of) to Joker with the "These people just showed you..." bit is just to intense a bit gentler with his vocie would've gotten his point across just as well if not better. Yeah. That's my biggest problem.

I'm still not a big fan of The Tumbler but at least it wasn't featured a whole lot in this movie and, a plus, it was destroyed so maybe we'll get a more Batmobile-like Batmobile in the next one and, yeah, the Batpod was kind of OK but dumb in how it was intergrated into a vechile designed to build bridges and the part when Bats turns it around on the wall is dumb-looking.

, but from Batman and Rachel surviving that ridiculous fall

You'll recall fromt he first movie that the cape has properties in it that allows it to stiffen to serve as a glider. It's "possible" it's rigid/billowy enough it acted as a bit of a drag-chute for their fall or maybe even Bats "activated" it's rigidity at some point or just in time to save their fall. There's also the movie staple (and, granted, this is a weak excuse, that if you're in something that can protect you from damage it can help you survive the impact of a fall -forgeting that it's not the fall that kills you it's the stopping. See "Iron Man" for more examples of this "logic" when Stark survives many devestating falls/crashes in his suit but somehow survives.)

[SiorX]

davejames wrote:

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-- I just didn't buy Harvey Dent's turn to the dark side. BTAS came up with a much better justification by showing that he already had a multiple-personality disorder to begin with, and all it took was a little push for Two-Face to take over.

But no matter how tragic Rachel's death was, I just couldn't see the noble and righteous Harvey of this movie becoming the cold, vengeful killer we see so quickly-- even to the point of threatening to kill a little kid at the end! I mean, come on now.

So much word. Fridging Rachel was a ridiculously lazy way to turn Dent and made very little sense based on what we'd seen of Dent to that point.

As you say, even BTAS managed better than that. Or hell, they could have done something along the lines of the backstory from The Long Halloween.

I like TDK, but I didn't think it was sensational. I thought the pacing was a bit rough at times - a few too many crescendos with no pause to get ones breath.

Also, I will never understand why, in a film which foreshadows things like people emulating Batman, the Joker targeting families and the morally ambiguous nature of spying through technology, the end of the film focusses on James Gordon Jr when Babs (albeit unnamed) is right there. WTF? Nobody's given a toss about James Jr since Crisis, and Barbara's right there.

[suarezguy]

I was also bugged by Joker leaving the party (I didn't get the sense that he was losing) and disliked the look of Gotham City.

Hirogen Alpha wrote:

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what really gets me is the ending. Batman taking the rap for those murders doesn't do any good. For a while, yes, the criminals might be extra cautious, fearing Batman now uses lethal force. But after a while, they'll realize that he won't, because Batman doesn't use lethal force. And the whole ruse will be for naught. Worse, the police will remain after Batman, and pissed at Batman, for a long, long time.

davejames wrote:

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For instance I didn't buy that a city like Gotham-- which is supposed to be the crime capital of the world-- would be in a complete state of panic because of a few assassinations and the destruction of an empty hospital. Or that there would be a rush of people hunting down that dweeby lawyer guy. And the whole ferry sequence was the most contrived of all.

Indeed, those elements and others (Gordon deciding it was so dangerous he had to fake his death, Bruce & Lucius deciding to be unethical this once, Bruce thinking he had a pretty-forthcoming chance to quit and then feeling he had to, Batman & Gordon deciding to lie to protect the reputation of this one particular public servant, and the real-life hype about the themes) made the drama feel way overblown but unconvincing; these issues should have been dealt with in Bats' year offscreen, and will almost certainly happen in the future, so treating the underwhelming events of the film (I was impressed by the hospital explosion, maybe the attack on the mayor and the Joker's messages to the city, there could have been more of those) as exceptional was annoying.

[Lapis Exilis]

Haytil wrote:

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For the same reason you mentioned - Batman would be ridiculous in broad daylight. Remember, even without the suit, he's still a ninja - if he wanted to go unseen as "Bruce Wayne," he could have, blindfolded cops or not.

And I believe a ninja would have more options besides Big Scary Suit and Walking into a Room as Himself. My question wasn't - why didn't he go as Batman, it was why did he not disguise himself in some other way? Had the room been occupied with non-blindfolded people (which, really, was the most likely situation), they would have said, "Hey, Bruce Wayne! Why are you breaking into my apartment?"

[HRHTheKING]

I felt that "Two-Face" was tacked onto the movie.

Harvey's story should have ended after being scarred, and his full Two-Face persona developed in a third movie.

[T'Baio]

I forgot about Joker's omnipotence.

Guy is fucking God the way he gets shit done.

[zakkrusz]

Only the sad fact that it wasn't longer and had to end, awesome movie.

[iguana_tonante]

Scrooge4747 wrote:

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The only thing I hate is Bale's Batman voice. It's just way too damn intense and it doesn't need to be.

Yeah, and the Italian dub is just as bad. I just wanted to give the man a spoonful of cough syrup.

[the Batpod] and the part when Bats turns it around on the wall is dumb-looking.

Yet, at my theater people actually cheered out loud at that scene. So I believe it works.

Also, I will never understand why, in a film which foreshadows things like people emulating Batman, the Joker targeting families and the morally ambiguous nature of spying through technology, the end of the film focusses on James Gordon Jr when Babs (albeit unnamed) is right there. WTF? Nobody's given a toss about James Jr since Crisis, and Barbara's right there.

Yeah, it felt almost like a running gag: "When are they going to give hints of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl? Oh, they won't."

HRHTheKING wrote:

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I felt that "Two-Face" was tacked onto the movie.

Harvey's story should have ended after being scarred, and his full Two-Face persona developed in a third movie.

Agreed. Worst mistake of the movie, in my opinion.

T'Baio wrote:

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I forgot about Joker's omnipotence.

Guy is fucking God the way he gets shit done.

I actually liked that. It gives the sense that the Joker is not just a weirdo in facepaint, he's a genius weirdo in facepaint, with a mind both brilliant and twisted.