When I went to the cinema to see Indiana Jones 4 I remember seeing a trailer for 'The Dark Knight'. It was dark, full of explosions and looked really cool. Being a huge fan of Batman and the two Burton films I couldn't wait to see it. While I never saw it in cinemas, I remember my friends telling me it was amazing and one of the best films ever. Fast forward to when I finally got to see the film and it was a different story.

Two and a half hours of the most pretentious, boring and disappointing film I had ever seen. Lets start with the plot(s). Basically, the Joker (atleast that's what they call him) starts killing people and causing mayhem, meaning Batman has to stop him. Sounds simple but the film spoils this by having too many plot lines, most of which have nothing to do with the actual plot, don't last long enough to be interesting and could have been easily cut out to make a shorter and easier to follow plot.

Now for the hero and villain. Batman is played by Christian Bale and comes complete with an over the top gruff voice, which sounds like he smoked a entire packet of cigarettes while doing a cross country marathon. He's nowhere near as dark or as intimidating as Keaton's Batman and isn't very engaging as Bruce either. Now for the reason the film is considered to be so great, Heath Ledger as the Joker. Ledger is the main driving point of the film and the most interesting character. He plays the role very convincingly and I'll admit is the best part of the film, even though they could have called him anything else instead of 'the Joker' and it would have been the same.

And that's my biggest problem with this film, it doesn't feel like a Batman film. Batman has always been a surreal franchise, meaning it walks on a line between the real world and a fantasy world. Why does Gotham City just look like and regular city? Why does the Joker not have any comical death contraptions? Why does the Batmobile look like a tank? Where are all Batman's unique gadgets? The problem is Nolan doesn't understand that a man who dresses up as a Bat and fight crime can't be taken completely seriously. Burton made a surreal world for Batman and Batman Returns, creating a perfect environment for his films. But with Nolan, all I think of is just a crime drama with Batman in it. The Joker could have been just a psycho with makeup.

The pacing is also a flaw. Sometimes the film moves too quickly for us to digest what's going on and other time it goes to slow that we lose interest. Only reason people loved it was for Heath Ledger's amazing performance and his unfortunate passing away before the film's release, and even that doesn't fit the bill for a 'Batman' movie. To sum up, 'The Dark Knight' will go down in history as the most overrated film ever made.