Gotham City no longer has an ethereal, poetic glow. In director Christopher Nolan's follow-up to his 2005 blockbuster "Batman Begins", Gotham is just another Metropolitan city full of embittered residents squirming under the stronghold of Mafiosos, psychopaths, blackmailers, and terrorists--namely the Joker, who opens the film robbing a bank owned by the Mob with his masked cohorts, whom he has no loyalty to. Heath Ledger won a posthumous Supporting Actor Oscar for his twisted portrayal of the Joker--playing the facially-scarred criminal mastermind as if he just escaped from a lunatic asylum--but it isn't a multi-layered, pleasurable performance. Christian Bale returns as billionaire Bruce Wayne (and his alter-ego, a flesh-and-blood Batman), putting his trust in Gotham's latest hotshot District Attorney who is dating Wayne's childhood sweetheart and going after the Mafia in court, if the Joker doesn't get to them first. Nolan stages an extended, fiery vehicle chase that is absolutely astounding, yet the rest of his film falls a bit short. The performances are variable, the mood is dour and depressing, and the illogical plot tied in endless, headache-inducing knots. Fans of the Superhero genre will no doubt revel in the sleek look of the picture, but the script (penned by director Nolan and his brother Jonathan) is a disappointment, not helped by the smash-and-grab editing which cuts off and mixes up sequences before the drama has even played out. **1/2 from ****