I have to be brutally honest here... Maggie Gyllenhaal and her ugly, "hang dog" face completely wrecked this movie. I thought Katie Holmes was bad in the first one (who coincidentally ALSO has a "hang dog," unattractive face... which the producers of the newer Batman films seem to like for some reason), but she is a regular beauty queen next to Maggie! Compare them both to Kim Basinger in the original Batman movie, for example, and you'll see what I mean! The only reason this matters is because the whole premise of her being in this film is based on a LIE... that she is this beautiful, desirable woman that these rich, good looking men all want. It's just not believable and proves it's ALL who you know in Hollywood (because she isn't even a good actress either!). Christian Bale, while not unattractive, is a very wooden actor and his ridiculously low voice as Batman is silly. Heath Ledger clearly made this film what I was, but I still prefer Jack Nicholson's Joker to his. The problem with the newer Batman films is that they are too dark. Tim Burton's Batman movies were more light-hearted... even the villains were FUN! I think back to Batman Forever and how beautiful and well cast Val Kilmer and Nicole Kidman were. Jim Carrey was excellent as the Riddler too. But no one took themselves so seriously, and Tim Burton's films looked like the comic books had come to life. Yes, The Dark Knight and the other newer Batman films have lots of special effects/action sequences, but they lack something special... at least to me.