This movie was LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. Seemed like 4 -5 hrs., but was actually 2/1/2 hrs. long - still a (unnecessarily) very long movie. As stated in the title, it was about 45 minutes longer than it had to be and would have garnered another star had it spent more time being whittled down in the editing room to 100 minutes as it was meant to be. I have a suspicion that after Ledger's untimely death, they put more "Joker" scenes in to sensationalize and capitalize on the free publicity, rather than editing the movie for the most artistic impact. While Ledger's interpretation of the character was good, he started becoming predictable and monotonous after the first 15 minutes. His portrayal was marred by self- importance and desire to "break free" of the inevitable Nicholson comparisons. His death was the only way to avoid that, and was achieved precisely because of it. Also, way too much time spent on boring "reflection" and "introspect" by Christian Bale's "Bruce Wayne." By midpoint of the flick, I was visibly squirming and the long, unnecessary, "introspection" scenes became unbearable and I had to leave and stretch my legs to endure and break up the monotony. Had they cut out the boring "reflection" scenes by Bale, it would have gotten yet another star. Everyone did a good job overall, except for Michael Caine being horribly miscast as a smarmy, swaggering and sarcastic "Alfred" and Freeman's obligatory "moralist" heavy-handed and completely superfluous role.

Summary: lost stars for long, boring stretches and loathsome tokenism. Bring a video iPod for something to keep you busy for the unbearable boredom during the tiresome scenes, the rest is pretty good.