“You got your classic super hero in my crappy advertising campaign!” “You got your crappy advertising campaign in my classic super hero!” “They don’t really taste very good together.” “No, they don’t.”

First off, DK was very entertaining. So please, don’t get me wrong. I liked Heath Ledger’s interpretation of the Joker quite a bit. Christian Bale is always great as Bruce Wayne and Batman, and frankly, he’s perfect casting for both characters. Aaron Eckhart was pretty solid as Harvey Dent and Maggie Gyllenhaal did a good job of taking over for Mrs. Tom Cruise. Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are always good, so let’s just move on.

I won’t go into the things that I thought were good because everyone else is talking about those and I generally agree with what others like about the movie.

Here’s where this post gets a little spoilerific, so read on with care (it’s also REALLY long).

1) What’s the plot of DK? Give it to me in one or two sentences. Here’s as close as I could come:

Harvey Dent does his best to shut down the mob families that run Gotham City with the help of his Assistant DA, Rachel Dawes, ace police detective Jim Gordon and, the Batman. Oh and the Joker is the monkey wrench.

Sounds like a riveting plot, huh? Cop goes after mobsters who are being messed with by a backstoryless disfigured guy in clown makeup. OH yeah and Batman’s in it. Really, Batman is superfluous. You could have stuck John Ashcroft in there instead of Batman and largely you’d be able to get away with it.

2) Joker has no concrete (or even vague) backstory. That was fine in the comic, since eventually they’d have to get to it, but the movie never does and it kind of shows in Ledger’s performance. He’s good, but feels like he’s sprung from Chris Nolan’s forehead, as opposed to seeming like something specific made him like he is. I don’t need something spelled out–but I need more than the suggestion that he is a force of nature and that’s it. He can represent a force of nature, but he still should have a backstory.
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