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Ok, so here's the review I promised.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not familiar with the Batman comic books.  I know they exist in the general sense but I've never read one myself.  I preferred to pilfer my sisters' Wonder Woman comics, personally.  So I come from a place of ignorance.  

I thought the movie was "fine."  Hey! Quit throwing tomatoes! Allow me to explain.

The Dark Knight has that same super-cool feel of the acclaimed Batman Begins.  I really liked Batman Begins, actually.  Gotham City is a skeevy place where everyone seems to be a corrupt, tortured soul.  I dig.  From this evil ooze springs The Joker, a role that was masterfully played by Heath Ledger.  The Joker was, hands down, the BEST part of this movie.  Ledger creates a funny yet deeply disturbing picture of The Joker, complete with a unique voice, consistent body twitches, and a sick sense of humor.  Seriously, The Joker was fantastic.

The story is about how Batman sees hope in Harvey Dent, the new DA.  Harvey isn't corrupt and vows to clean up Gotham.  Batman realizes that Harvey can do what he can never do, because Harvey can be the face of change that everyone needs as Harvey doesn't have to hide behind a mask and fly around in the dark.  Very emo, I know.  Harvey also happens to be in a serious relationship with Rachel.  As we know from the first movie, Batman pines for Rachel in a strange, sixth graderish way.  Like, Batman thinks that if he reveals himself as Bruce Wayne Rachel will respect him or something, but he doesn't want to reveal himself, so he instead acts like a jerk towards her.  My eyes just can't roll enough in disdain for the Rachel-Batman subplot.  But, to get back on track, Harvey and Rachel are an item.  This results in Batman being conflicted over his need for Harvey (because Harvey will clean up Gotham) and his hate for Harvey (because Harvey's gettin' with his love interest, Rachel.)   The Joker appears on the scene suddenly and without backstory.  The Joker is essentially hired by the Gotham mobsters to take out Batman.  The mobsters, however, didn't really understand The Joker and his motives.  It becomes clear that The Joker isn't really out to kill Batman.  He just likes anarchy, chaos, and to prove that people are really all evil, deep down.  There is also a short but significant appearance of the villian known as Two Face.  I don't really want to get into it because it will give away too much.

So, that's basically what's going on.  The reason I only gave the movie a "fine" rating (on a scale of  boo, meh, fine, good, and super rad) is because of the following:

1.  It's really long.  We're talking looooong.  But more than it, it was needlessly long.  I found myself eagerly waiting for the movie to end because, well, I was getting bored.  Too many plot twists and extraneous characters can do that to a movie goer.  

2.  Rachel.  I already talked about this above.  I don't like her preachy, holier-than-thou attitude.  She also serves no purpose but to be an object of Batman's pathetic pining and, eventually, and object with which to manipulate him.  She's superfluous and all-around lame.  

3.  Batman's voice is laughably contrived.  Bruce Wayne's voice is normal while Batman's voice is excessively gruff and deep.  Oh, and spoiler alert- Bruce Wayne is Batman.  They're the same person.  Everytime Batman would speak my eyes would start rolling again.  It was just that terrible.  

4.  There's too much stuff going on.  This ties in with #1 above.  There's the Rachel subplot, The Joker subplot, the Harvey Dent subplot, the Two Face subplot, the Police Commissioner sublot, the guy who makes all of Batman's stuff subplot, the convicts on a boat subplot, the Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot, the mobsters getting played by The Joker subplot, the guy who steals the mobsters' money subplot, and the copy-cat Batmans subplot.  Not to mention the random appearance of the Scarecrow for three minutes.  

However, all of this negativity is neutralized by the strong positive points of the movie.  These include:

1.  The Joker.  For real, his character is just that good.

2.  Morgan Freeman's short appearances as the guy who makes all of Batman's gadgets.  He seems like a real person.  He also engineers cool stuff.  When he's on screen, you will be entertained.  Also, Freeman is part of the "Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot" and has a very funny couple of lines.

3.  The convicts on a boat subplot that mirrors The Prisoner's Dilemma.  In the movie, there are two boats.  One has a bunch of convicts on it and the other contains regular citizens of Gotham.  At a certain time, both boats will blow up.  The only way to save your boat is the blow up the other boat.  There's a cameo by Tom Lister, Jr.  who I really like.  He's best known for his portrayal of Deebo in the Friday movies.
 

So, there's my review.  Has anyone else seen it?  What do you think?