Once again, I fell for the hype. I went into the theater fully expecting another Titanic or Star Wars. Nope, not by a long shot. The Dark Knight is a routine noisy summer blockbuster with lots of explosions, gunfire, and car chases. Ledger's overly talky, Joker-meets-Hannibal-Lechter performance borders on the annoying; about two-thirds of the way through the film I just wanted him to shut up.

Christian Bale is wooden in and out of the bat suit--I can't think of a single scene he dominates as Bruce Wayne. Far from being the greatest comic book movie of all time, Dark Knight falls well short of the first Batman. Maggie Gyllenhaal is no Kim Bassinger, and modern-day Chicago is no Gotham City. Where's Wayne Manor? Where's the Bat Cave? Where's the friggin' gargoyles?