Batman disappoints

Dear Editor:
Having sat through a 2-hour and 30 minute summer "blockbuster," THE DARK KNIGHT, I came away with a sense of befuddled awe. How could such a turkey ring up the money it has? As a comic strip, BATMAN earned strong credit among aficionados of tripe. The Caped Crusader gave his fans the vicarious joy of crushing evil-doers in a way that would turn George W. Bush green with envy ... if he would but read.
Imagine the story conference that gave producers a Green Light to do this comic strip farce of a film!
Lots of heavy music ... mystifying dialogue buried under it. Random shootings and lootings plus explosions every 30 seconds, and maniacal cackling by the Joker. Gangsters in clown masks! Chase scenes with exotic vehicles racing against garbage trucks! An 18-wheeler actually somersaulting! How exciting can it get?
Batman, in contrast, is sedated to a hoarse whisper when you can understand anything he says.
How did actor Michael Caine get into this script? He has been a fine actor! Has been.
And the obligatory cheese cake? The female lead had to have been hustled off the street. The implied romance by which so much violent action is motivated has all the electricity of dead batteries.  All bumps but no grind.
Thugs galore!
Not a rock band, but hoodlums on both sides of Good and Evil in Gotham City. When thunderous music wasn't burying throw-away dialogue, one got the impression there was  a preponderance of both inherent in the script. The Good Guys were actually the Bad Guys .. or was it the other way round? A memorable line: "Live long enough as a force for Good in the World and you become a Villain!"
Take that all you suckers out there working for worthy causes!
The unfulfilled promise of two ferry-boats full of innocents blown up while underway in Gotham City harbor was meant, (it was implied) to signal that everyday folks who turn a blind eye to civic corruption (or maybe Darfur?) are as guilty as Hitler's Willing Helpers: "Either you is with us ... or with them!"
Surround-sound shook theater walls with thunderbolts of exclamation! Thunderbolts were needed to persuade the audience into accepting explosions ... especially the demolition of an entire hospital by the diabolical Joker ... as meaningful mayhem. Oh my!
And the pathetic hostage scene: A crazed and mutilated district attorney, (once mistaken as the Caped Crusader) now dedicated to revenge his fiancé’s pointless and untimely demise at the hands of ... who? Or whom(?) A distracted mother pleading with a monster to spare her child ... right out of 1890's melodrama: "Fireman, save my child!" Except in this film the firemen seemed to be the same guys wearing clown masks in the opening bank robbery scenes.
Ah! at last ... an end-the-show scene in which someone turns the DA's mutilated face to show Good on one side ... Evil on the other.
Who was it who said, "No one ever went broke underestimating public taste?"
Bill Sollner
Arma