Today I have been watching : The Dark Knight

Chris Nolan's bat-follow up to Batman Begins is a film with much to admire but it is by no means perfect.

First of all let's look at what is good. Well, you have to start with Heath Ledger, his Joker is a twitching maniac with no apparent rhyme or reason and that makes him all the more effective. Here is the fully formed madman bowling in from nowhere with chaos in his wake. Ledger is the beating (albeit dark) heart of the film. Whenever he is on screen it is a vibrant and thrilling experience, his presence exciting and terrifying at the same time.

The second tier cast is also strong, Maggie Gyllenhall is given a lot to do but carries her corner of the love triangle well whilst Aaron Eckhart succeeds admirably in making Harvey Dent likable rather than insufferable. Plus of course Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman are quality in what ever you put them in.

The ferry sequence is excellent concept and executed well managing to really emphasis the gut wrenching feeling of having to choose between potential death and killing others while someone else makes the same choice at your expense. I particularly like the reaction of the 'cons boat.

There is some interesting discourse in the film over the nature of people, the nature of heroism and the sacrifices people must make to safeguard what they hold dear.

"We'll be doing this forever" is surely to go down as one of the great memorable film moments

So what are the weaknesses? For a start the film could easily bear to be at least twenty to thirty minutes shorter, the whole excursion to Hong Kong is unneeded for a start and a couple of scenes between Gordon and Dent, then Dent and the Mayor essentially cover the same ground as each other so one could easily be dropped.

I still don't like the structure in the last third, Dent feels sidelined at first and then takes center stage at the end without warning. I feel something could be worked out to dovetail the climax of Harvey's and Joker's storyline much more effectively.

Batman himself spends too much time reacting and Bale's gruff voice as the B-man still grates. And the few pieces of detective work he does are either non-sensical or fortuitous.

Harvey as Two-Face is wasted and I think he could have been kept around for the next installment that or the change needs to occur earlier in the film so we can really get a sense of him beyond he's pissed 'cos his girlfriend is dead.

Also the notions of boundaries and sacrifice that are raised whilst interest are never fully engaged with. For me it would have been much more interesting if Bruce has chosen Harvey over Rachael rather than saving Dent due to the Joker's misdirection.

And perversely Ledger's Joker is a big weakness as well as a strength. So strong a voice and performance from him means that once he's properly introduced you spend the time when he's not on screen waiting for him to come back, once again Bruce Wayne is the least interesting person around.

As it is The Dark Knight is good solid (if slightly over long) film with a memorable performance from Heath Ledger. With a bit more of tighter edit and look at the structure it could have been a classic.