The Dark Knight

I didn't really like it, to put it lightly.
Although it was a lot less boring than "Batman Begins".
And Maggie Gyllenhall was a great replacement for the ditzy Katie Holmes.
And Heath Ledger was BRILLIANT. Who knew he could actually ACT? The Joker is many things - sadistic, sick, twisted, deranged, etc. - but also completely believable and hilarious. Even while he was threatening gangstas with a knife, he managed to make you laugh at his little jokes.
But the movie itself wasn't worth watching. Well-made, well-acted (I hate Christian Bale with a fiery passion, but that's just me), but the ending seemed...lame.
They killed Gary Oldman...but he wasn't really dead??
I was so confused as to how that happened.
Even if he was wearing Kevlar, we saw the bullet hit!! Flesh FLEW!! There was a bloody hole in his BODY!!!
Did they allow only one person to look at Gordon, pronounce him dead, and then put him in a body bag with no complaints?
How did he get out of the body bag? How did he get out of the morgue?
Harvey "Two-Face" Dent's hideous burned face was SO FAKE!!
Directors don't realize they can do as much with makeup and costumes as they can with CGI...and the former sometimes works better!
He looked like something out of "Pirates of the Caribbean", which was scary...in 2003.
Why did Batman go for Harvey? He could've saved Rachel. He SHOULD'VE saved Rachel.
In fact, none of the things that happened in the entire last half of the movie would've happened if he'd FREAKING SAVED RACHEL!
And I thought maybe it was a trick. Maybe she was really wearing Kevlar...because Kevlar totally protects against a bomb blast.
But Christopher Nolan wouldn't pull that trick twice in the same movie.
Wait...he did that in "The Prestige", though, didn't he?
But she was dead. And if I were Alfred, I would've given Bruce Rachel's letter. Then he could've stopped his pouty, self-absorbed, "She was going to wait for me" mourning and started saving people.
The social experiment with the two ferries was weird: it showed one ferry where the decision to kill a boatload of people was decided fairly, democratically, fairly peacefully; on the other ferry, it was chaos, with prisoners yelling, screaming, and trying to take the detonator by force.
Then both came to the same decision: throw the detonators away. Rather than kill others to save their own lives, they saved themselves and the others by deciding not to kill.
But it also seemed like they were equating anarchy with democracy: both have their purpose. They can both work to the same good.
What?
After a whole 2.5 hours of telling us anarchy is bad, you're promoting it now?
Then again, it could also be seen as relatively "good" people and "bad" men believing in good, which I believe was explicitly stated in the movie.
So, in essence, even bad guys deserve a second chance. Still...
Or maybe I'm reading way too far into this. Like with Beatles songs.
And then Batman runs away into the darkness, claiming to have killed the people Harvey killed, and taking the now dead Harvey's place as a criminal.
What?
Sure, that's noble...but also kind of stupid. And a little self-righteous.
"Oh, now the police will hunt me, because I took the blame for Harvey even when I don't deserve! What a dark knight I am, hence the title of the movie! *wink wink*"
Well, yeah, but they were going to chase you anyway for beating up everyone on the SWAT team, and stealing millions of dollars in order to create Bat-gadgets.
Now you're a murderer? If they ever catch you, you're screwed.
Ugh, and stop believing Rachel loved you so much. You were a jerk. You slept around and humiliated her in public as Bruce Wayne. And now she's dead...and it's your fault.
Well, really, it's the Joker's. But still.
So we should lie to the people that really matter so they can believe in a better tomorrow.
Everyone deserves a second chance...as does every form of government (or rather, anti-government).
And the hero we believe in is a selfish, pretty boy billionaire who has a weird way of saying his S's (just watch his mouth; it's so bothersome), because he's really British.
That's comforting.