“One more example of Chris Nolan‘s squeaky-clean ineptitude [is The Dark Knight‘s] Hong Kong subplot that culminates, after much zigzagging between HK and Gotham, with a corrupt corporate executive being hauled back to the states by Batman (Christian Bale), then kidnapped by the Heath Ledger‘s Joker, who sits with him on top of an enormous pile of money the Joker stole from a bank in the opening sequence.
“The Joker slides down to the bottom, douses the cash with gasoline, and there isn√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢t so much as a cut from Nolan√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s camera back up to the man who√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s going to be burned alive. No reaction shot, no futile attempt at escape, not even an off-camera scream, lest we be made aware a life is being taken. The Dark Knight, with its sanitized, hollowed-out approach to the most outre violence, would seem to be the movie that Bush√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s Abu Ghraib America deserves. ” — a portion of the most scathing Dark Knight review I’ve so far read, written by Movies Into Film‘s N.P. Thompson.