Christian Bale is horrible. He sucks as Wayne, he sucks as Batman, and his stupid bat voice just really takes away any credibility he might have had. I'm surprised the criminals don't laugh at him as soon as he opens his mouth. The way he's written is bad enough, but Bale just isn't great when it comes to acting. Writing wsie, Bruce didn't have the commitment that Bruce usually has, he was constantly questioning and whining. Its ok if he sometimes wonders if he's doing the right thing, but in the end batman is committed to crimefighting. He doesn't need to spend so much time being so indecisive. Rises just took that as far as it could go. Also, h is relationship with Rachel just annoyed me, and never seemed that interesting.
Alfred sucked. He was totally unsupportive of Bruce, and I just wanted to see him die everytime he was on screen in TDK and Rises. He spent all his screen time trying to get Bruce to quit being Batman and went even farther in Rises).
Making Batman a "villain" to the people just to protect Dent's reputation is still stupid. I've read a lot of arguments for it, but in the end it doesn't make that much sense and was just really annoying.
The plot was slow, and boring. The parts with Bruce were really slow and usually noring enough to put you to sleep, and the batman/Joker parts were either irritating, or just a waste of time.
I have a lot of misc. aesthetic problems, which are the least important complaints but include things like the stupidity of the Bat bunker and my eternal hatred for the Bat Tumbler. The actual Batsuit isn't horrible, although there is something I dislike about the cowl I can't quite put my finger on.
Heath Ledger was an ok psycopath, but a horrible Joker. All the philosophy stuff was so not Joker it wasn't funny. There was a good line in the Injustice: gods Among Us tie in comic with Joker, explaining his motivation. Batman asked why Joker had done what he did (I won't spoil what happened).
- Joker: Why? You need a reason? Its probably the same reason I beat that puppy to death with a kitten last week. When the howling and the meowing stop, and all you're left with is a mess of fur and blood and brains--well, you can't beat the warm glowing feeling inside.
Joker's reason to do what he does is, basically, because he's crazy, and has a sick sense of humor (another thing Ledger's Joker was lacking). We got a pencil in someone's eye, but no joker gas? No exploding rubber chicken's or electrified hands? I know Nolan's Batman takes itself too seriously anyway (not that Batman shouldn't be serious, just that his went way overboard) but its Joker. He has his own personality and flair when it comes to the crazy stuff he does. Ledger just didn't have "it". He made lame speeches to Batman (the scene in the police department is just painful, and is the best example of them just not getting Joker right).
Nolan wanted an overly dark, brooding Batman world that was "realistic", something which is also stupid. Its a superhero movie, it should seem like a superhero movie. Men can't really fly or stick to walls, yet people don't try to make them "realistic". You don't need to go totally ridiculous (like 60's Batman), but you can't forget that Batman is an emotionally scarred billionaire in a Bat costume. His villains have personality, and they aren't always completely realistic. You need a good mix. If you go too far in the unrealistic direction, you get people like Burton who made Penguin a freaky guy raised by actual Penguins or go in the direction of Batman Forever and batman and Robin (both of which were better than TDK, although still bad movies). On the other hand, they need to let the villains personalities show through, regardless of wether its an exploding rubber chicken, clues leading toward the villains crime, a suit in two different colors split down the middle, or a man obsessed with Alice in Wonderland kidnapping people with hypnotic hats. Burton's first Batman is great, and the best live action Batman movie. It could have been better (it has flaws), but it did hit a pretty good mix or being dark but not too dark, and not going overly goofy. Nolan's Batman tries to hard to be like something that would actually happen in the real world, and really overdoes the brooding. Batman has emotional issues, but he's not a crybaby constantly questioning his mission or being depressed because his childhood friend isn't with him/is dead. Batman himself should act serious, and he can definately be dark, but he also has personality, and doesn't constantly whine and complain. To me, Batman TAS had the definitive Batman. If you want to know specifically how I think Batman should act, and the tone of the movies should be, watch a few episodes of that. It has the best batman, the perfect joker, and is overall the best of batman.
I could go on forever, but this is a decent list of some of the things I hate about TDK.
I have the feeling that Superman 4: The Quest for Peace is no longer going to be the worst Superman movie.
