The performances, especially by Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart, are what make this a great, "dark" Batman movie. The story is very good but not tight enough to hold the film together and most importantly, hold the audiances attention. Maybe the editing should have been tighter. Maybe they tried to jam toomuch story into one movie. It doesn't matter because Ledgers Joker is holds everyone on the edge of their seats. Ledger drives this film which makes his pasing even more dishearting. I was always impressed by his performances but never thought he was a "great" actor until now. Bale onthe other hand is someone I feel has turned in great performances in the past but not this time. In fact we would be talking about this batman being too Clooney like if it wasn't for Ledger and Eckhart. I was not impressed at all with Maggie G. She should stick to Indy films.