I have to agree. I watched both Nolan Batman movies back-to-back yesterday and I actually think the first one has a lot more substance. The second one was still really good, but what stood out most was the Joker performance. I'm almost wary of them doing a third movie... between the well-executed plot of the first movie, and the incredible acting of the villain in the second movie, they're going to be hardpressed to make a 3rd movie that can even compare.
I finally got to see it yesterday and re-watched Batman Begins a week ago. I think I set my expectations too high, the movie was great but seemed to be missing something. Joker was awesome, but I agree that there were parts where it was hard to understand what Batman was saying because he was using that low gruff voice. Still 10x better than that old batman crap with the governor and the penguin...
Overall the movie was an A+. I find that the hype for the second movie kind of ruined it over all for me. I was very pleasantly surprised by batman begins so I was expecting the dark knight to be ridiculous. There was a part of the movie where my fiance and I looked at each other and were like: damn it sucks Heath Ledger is dead.
I absolutely loved this movie, the only thing that really sucks about it is, them trying to replace Joker. Heath did the best joker every imo. Best part is the Part when Joker is outside the Hospital with the remote lol enough said " Why so Serious!!!!"
I think I can say it for everyone that when we all exited the movie theatre while loving the movie we all felt a level of disappointment knowing that none will be able to top heaths performance.
I have to say it's a close call with Jack's. Jack's is closer to the comics while Heath's is more "realistic" but too much of a terrorist.