The Dark Knight - [spoilers ahead, ye be warned]

[Ghoulish Delight]

I very much enjoyed it, but I think it fell short of the lofty heights of the first. It came together at the end, but lacked the cohesiveness that made Begins so brilliant. Plus, I fund myself thinking half way through, "Geez, this is reminding me of the Saw movies. Oh wait, that's right, Nolan's the Saw guy." While his brand of ever-more-complex clever traps certainly work for the character of the Joker, I felt Nolan put just a little too much of himself into it and it became more about how clever HE could be and less about the movies. Took me out of it and added tot he lack of cohesion as huge chunks of the movie felt like they weren't really serving any other purpose than to be clever. Contrasted with Begins where every moment of the movie served the purpose of the movie it was just weak.

But, as I said, it did come together in the end and overall it was great. Ledger ruled, Dent was great, better towards the end imo.

I never understood the Holmes hate in the first movie. It was a small role and she did a perfectly fine job with it. Gyllenhall bugged me quite a bit compared to Holmes.

Where Begins got 9.5 Girthies out of 10, this one comes in somewhere between 7 and 8.5, pending an eventual rewatch.