The Dork Knight - unbiased edition

Synopsis of the Storyline
I completely fail to understand WHY a trillionaire would not have a care in the world about his endless riches (which he's trusting his butler with) and global business empire (that he's left to a guy anyone can shoot right in the brain-ball anytime anywhere), and instead, he stays up all night hang-gliding from apartment-building to apartment-building, bullying petty thugs.

This is anything but my idea of a hero.

If you were left with a GILLIONAIRE DOLLHAIRS, and you knew very well that you have no one watching your back because all this money is yours and yours alone - which makes you the most targeted person in the State - and your parents have been long gone so you have no one except your butler, who could very well poison you tomorrow and make off with all your money ... my question to you is ... would you simply go work out and learn ju-jitsu for 3 years straight, then go beat up the guy who just robbed the local 7-11 of $29.99?

Would BILL GATES ever want to strike fear into the heart of a pickpocket?

BATMAN is the hero who believes in bullying petty thieves. And doing spinning kung-fu chops on their shoulders. With the worst-ever criminals, what he does is tie them up in a nice package and leave them for the police to arrest.

The police on the other hand is shown to be corrupt. They are all easily bought by the badguys who have money and power thru their connection with banks and politicians. BATMAN, being the guy who knows everything, should already know this - but he trusts the police anyway, which basically makes him an accomplice and equal bad-guy.

So basically, everyone in this movie is a bad-guy, except for the bat-butler Alfred, and bat-employee Lucius.


Performances
I have to confess, I went to watch this movie only because I heard Heath Ledger and Christian WAYNE's performances were over-the-top.

But over the top of what? They didn't say. And let me tell you why: because they weren't. I wasn't blown away by anything.

But this isn't to say that the acting was bad - no, not at all. Everyone gave real good performances: from BRUCE WAYNE to JOKER, and HARVEY DENT to COMMISSIONER GORDON, and EVIL WILD DOGS to A BUNCH OF EXTRAS IN CLOWN MASKS.

Aaron Eckhart (WHO?!) plays the best role in the whole movie as HARVEY DENT / TWO-FACE.


THE JOKER
Quite honestly, the hype of Heath Ledger's JOKER is exaggerated beyond reality. Heath played the role of the JOKER just like the JOKER should be played, and that's that. Any good actor who has actually read the comic-books should play the JOKER's role just like it should be played.

It's the character who is the JOKER that in fact deserves a righteous applause.


"Outrageous Car Chase Scene!!"
There were just two car chases in the whole movie. And neither was outrageous. And the second one ended with BATMAN driving full-speed into the JOKER, and missing him completely. More like BAD DRIVING, MAN.


Summary
To say that THE DORK KNIGHT is the action movie of the year would be technically incorrect, because this movie is more of a drama / commentary on politics and crime. With two car chases.

It is not a romantic movie. (Well, his butler did say that he knows him better than anyone else. But that's just wrong.)

It's not a comedy either. The JOKER's truck had a line saying "Laughter is the best medicine" with an 'S' written before Laughter, making it "SLaughter is the best medicine." How funny is that?

As a BATMAN movie, this is right up there with BATMAN BEGINS as the best BATMAN movie ever made. It is exactly what a BATMAN movie should be like, especially compared to the other BATMAN movies like.. all of them.

And in no way is THE DORK KNIGHT the "best comic-to-movie adaptation of all time".


Final Score
As the totally hyped MOVIE OF THE YEAR, I found it to fall quite short: 6/10

As a MOVIE, this movie gets a totally unbiased 7/10 because I actually enjoyed IRON MAN a lot more.


THE DORK KNIGHT makes IRON MAN look believable.