Spoilers ahead.. Stop reading if you have not seen both movies:

Over the last few weeks I have heard many people state that Dark Knight is the best Batman film to date.
While I agree that it was quite good, I have to pause at the "Best Batman yet" statement.
Let me start by saying, Heath Ledger was awesome, but the story in Knight was not nearly as strong as the film that paved the path for part II.

The opening of Knight felt very jarred, choppy. The bank heist did not make much sense. Why would Joker kill all of his henchmen? He doesn't care about the money and he's going to need more henchmen later. The bank manager, why would he get into a shootout with multiple robbers? Yes, we understand that it's a mob owned bank but none-the-less, it's clearly a suicide mission. And the entire sub-plot of the Chinese money launderer was somewhat weak.

While the snatch and grab from China was cool, clearly, too many people would see Bruce Wayne and be able to connect him as Batman later on. Like the pilots on the cargo ship, etc.

Furthermore, I felt as though KNIGHT was much more about the villains, Joker, Two Face and the Gary Oldman character, Gordon, than it was about Batman.

I think Knight tried to institute a "BIG TWIST" in every scene. The corrupt police officers, the dead chief, Rachel's location and subsequent death, etc.
It seemed to me as though good old fashioned story telling was traded for spectacle and mid-act reversal's and reveals.

I felt the Bat Motorcycle was ho-key at best and you could even tell, that no one could really ride it and that it's size and shape served no real purpose other than as a emergency vehicle, for when the Tumbler got destroyed. But why did he keep driving it throughout the film. It was form over function.

The entire sequence of the passengers on the boats also left me feeling cheated.

In comparison to Batman Begins, which in my opinion, is to date, one of the best, if not THE best, superhero movies ever made.

I went back and watched it the other night and was reminded how amazing that film is. The story is all there, the dialogue is extremely clever and works on multiple levels. Even the bad guys, Sandman and Raz A Goul, were extremely well cast and acted.

I'd even go as far as to say that Katie Cruise was a much better Rachel than Gyllenhaal.

Everything about Batman begins was just "cool". Learning how Batman got his skills, his weapons, his objectives and obstacles.

And even while Ledger did an absolutely fantastic job playing Joker, I can't help but feel robbed that I never understood how his Joker came to be. What was the backstory? And I'm not talking about the monologue's where he says, my father cut me or I did this for my wife. But rather, how did this Joker come to be?

In my opinion, they easily could have sacrificed one of the 20 twist and reveals for in-depth reveal of the genesis of Joker.

So go watch Batman Begins again and tell me what you think..

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"When two people agree on everything, one of them is not necessary" - Arliss