The Dark Knight review

So, I gave in and saw Dark Knight last evening. I bravely resisted for a long time, as I am not a fan of Christian Bale, and I wasn't terribly intrigued by Heath Ledger, either. I will admit, I succumbed to peer pressure...and my curiousity got the better of me.
The Dark Knight is too long, and there are far too many gaps that left me wondering what went on during that scene. There were no surprises for me in this movie; I become greatly annoyed when it seems that I'm two steps ahead of the scriptwriter. When I managed to stay awake, I found myself saying, "okay, here's the part where the Joker gets himself arrested," and explaining why to my husband. The backstory of Harvey Dent and Rachel was mundane. The changing story of the Joker's origin was somewhat interesting, and I thought it added to the paranoid, schizophrenic character.
As for the actors: I am still uninterested in Christian Bale onscreen. He is flat, unoriginal, and extremely weak as the Batman. His pronounced lisp combined with the attempted deep voice as the Batman just made him appear silly and ineffectual. Perhaps spitting on the villain is considered threatening; I was just distracted by it. Heath Ledger was somewhat more interesting to watch, but I felt jilted out of seeing the many more possible layers to his character. Though I predicted the outcome of the two boats scene, I was disappointed in the Joker's rather mild reaction to it. Heath Ledger brought brutality, gleefulness, and insanity to the role which I enjoyed watching. I felt no sympathy for the Joker, despite his many stories of abuse and abandonment. That's as it should be; I did not want the villain to be a misunderstood, abused victim. I disagree with many who've said that there should be a sequel with the Joker (despite the complications of casting another actor to replace Heath Ledger); the Joker's demise is fitting and compelling to watch. I think a sequel would water down his viciousness and his mystery.
Harvey Dent and Rachel Whatever-her-name-was didn't intrigue me at all. It was a tenuous connection, at best, between Dent and the Joker, and I was reminded of the line, "You made me, I made you," that Jack Nicholson uttered. I felt that the Joker really didn't need a reason to destroy lives and reputations; part of the fascination with this character lies in his absence of reason. He does what he does because he wants to.
A minor point here, but one that I found irritating enough to distract me from some of the plot: it became more interesting to count how many times Heath Ledger and Gary Oldman dropped into their particular native accents, than to actually hear what they were saying. And why was it necessary to change Barbara Gordon from daughter to wife, and the child from a girl to a boy? It added nothing, and for those of us who are fans of the comic book, it was a glaring mistake.
Overall, I give this movie two and a half stars. And that's only because of Heath Ledger.