Take away Heath Ledger and this is a mediocre movie. Christian Bale's Batman seems bored with his role. It's not poorly done it's just completely average. And that voice changer they used when he's in the bat suit is so over the top it's annoying and at times hard to understand.

Harvey Dent/Two Face is basically a cardboard cutout and offers nothing dynamic. It's competently acted because Eckhart is a good actor but his character is blandly written. He openly tells you his traits and motivations, the 'show don't tell' rule is completely thrown out the window for his character.

Rachel Dawes is probably the weakest love interest in any movie considered to be "great". Maggie Gyhlenhaal isn't a bad actress but like Eckhart she isn't given a well written role, everything is tell don't show. There is no real depth to these characters, everything is surface level freshman philosophy class dialogue paired with a standard sappy romance. Also, she just doesn't look like someone who would be in a love triangle with those two men. I'm sorry to say it but if you're not going to give her an interesting personality the character at least has to be highly attractive. Maggie is not highly attractive.

Heath Ledger's Joker is what makes this movie seem more than it really is. He completely immerses himself in the character. But if you take away his interpretation the lines really aren't anything special. Just more freshman philosophy class pandering.

The movie itself is way to long at 2 and a half hours, the whole third act and secondary antagonist seems tacked on and rushed. Two Face did not need to be in this movie, it only slowed things down. This probably should've only been a 100 or 110 minute movie.

I don't think it's a bad film. It's very good if you're into the super hero genre but the rating this movie gets is way out of whack with reality. Probably because of Ledger's performance and the real life events that took place afterwards for him. Lets not kid ourselves, if he didn't pass away he would not have won an oscar for this role. This movie has been romanticized to the point of being highly overrated.