The Dark Knight is worth seeing for Heath Ledger’s bravura study in psychopathology, but as a movie it rarely strays from the confines of its comic-book origins.
Many are waxing lyrical on the “dark vision” and the portrayal of a flawed Batman, and this is true, but to say that the picture “is a straight-up gritty, dirty, soul-rending film noir crime drama” *, is pure hyperbole. In the film noir universe, there are no super-heros.
As a film it has also major flaws: confused editing with dis-jointed dialog, and an obsession with the minutiae of violence.