I finally watched this movie last night and thought it sucked pretty hard. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but there has to be some basis in reality.
Given the way the Joker treated his henchmen I found it impossible to believe he could get anyone to work for him at all much less woo the kind of skilled people it would take to pull off the impossible pranks he mounted. Do you have any idea how long it would take to rig an entire hospital with explosives... in secrecy? And we are to believe he did it in an hours time? How did he do it? Did he use his super crazy power?
That's probably the worst offense, but pretty much every scene had me shaking my head. I just found it impossible to believe that these characters were capable of doing the things they were doing.
I mean c'mon, nobody noticed that the police honor guard had been replaced by hoodlums, one of which had a clowns face? 's funny 'cos after watching TDK I watched Von Ryan's Express in which a group of American and English prisoners in Italy during WWII were being transported by train. They were able to kill their captors and take control of the train. One of the most tense scenes in the movie is when they had to pass through the train station in Bologna.
Now that was some good story telling. Not like some bullshit movie that asks you to completely give up your power to reason in order to enjoy it.
I did think Heath Ledger was good. Not Oscar worthy, unless this was a particularly weak year for the supporting actor category, but I enjoyed his performance.