But to each his own – I guess my point was really that I struggle with the suggestion that the film isn’t emotionally engaging at all. Not Rachel? Okay, what about Gordon’s family being told that he’s dead? Or the great big sense of triumph at the end of the truck/batpod conflict? Or that rousing sense of hope when the guy on the ferry chucks away the detonator…?

Oh, yes, certain emotional bits definitely worked - especially the Gordon stuff. (Gary Oldman is amazing.) But when the big moment leaves you cold… it’s something that cascades down through the rest of the movie, making the whole second half not really work that well for me. Which is a shame.

My main problem, I guess, is that I didn’t really like either Maggie Gyllenhaal *or* Christian Bale. I’d need to see it again before I figured out whether it was the performances, the script, or both. But I just didn’t warm to either character they played… which leaves a gaping hole for me at the heart of the film. Filled in around the edges by Heath Ledger being fucking great.