A significant improvement over Nolan's first Batman movie, which I thought was an excessively gloomy, murky mess.
The new movie has some of the same problem. In fairness, that's not entirely Nolan's fault; dark and murky is hard to avoid when your hero only puts on the suit at night. But all of Batman's fight scenes are so underlit and shadowy that it's hard to follow the action.
The movie also suffers from Christian Bale's performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman, which is just as stolidly bland as it was the first time around. He's still throwing his voice into an unnaturally deep register in the Batman scenes, and the deep, rumbly quality seems to be electronically enhanced this time around, which often makes Batman's dialogue difficult to understand.
The returning supporting players -- Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman -- aren't asked to do much but play their usual personas, and if none of their performances are particularly interesting or exciting, they are as reliably competent as we'd expect from such veterans. Katie Holmes is gone from the cast, replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, which is unquestionably an upgrade; the role of Rachel Dawes isn't written as much more than a stock love interest, but Gyllenhaal brings a bit more depth to the character than there seems to be in the script.
New to the cast this time around is Aaron Eckhart as crusading district attorney Harvey Dent. He's perfect for the role; Eckhart's built a career on playing various shades of self-righteousness, and he gets all the different sides of Harvey's personality (which changes significantly during the movie) just right. Better yet, he makes the changes believable and convincing.
But of course, what everyone is talking about is Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. And yes, it's as good as you've heard. Ledger's Joker crackles with intense lunacy; every line reading seems just a bit off-kilter and unexpected. (He actually gets a laugh at one point with a simple "Hi.") Is he going to win the Oscar? Well, I think it would have to be an unusually weak year for nominees from more traditional award-bait movies, but I'd be surprised if he's not nominated.
Ledger is by far the best thing in the movie, which falls a bit flat whenever he's not on screen. The action sequences, even when they are well-lit, are shot so hectically that they're hard to follow; the lone exception is a chase through the streets and freeways of Gotham that does build up some genuine excitement. The movie's too long, at two-and-a-half hours; an early sequence in Hong Kong could easily be cut without doing much damage.
And worst of all, the last half hour of the movie turns into a sort of apologia for the Bush administration, as Batman uses his high-tech gizmos to set up an unauthorized spy network that can watch everyone in Gotham without their knowledge. It's justified, he tells us, because it's the only way to stop the Joker (and the movie has explicitly called the Joker a terrorist, so it would be hard not to make the connection to current events), and the forces of good must be allowed to break the rules under extreme circumstances.
If you're a fan of Nolan's Batman, then you'll certainly want to see The Dark Knight; even if you aren't particularly interested in Batman, Ledger's performance is worth seeing, but you could easily wait for cable or DVD.
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