People who slam Spielberg obviously don't understand movies. The guy is one of the most efficient directors in Hollywood. And for a mainstream film director, he is far less obsessed with special effects than pretty much every other director.
I believe
Minority Report was the film of his that had the highest special effects count -- only a little over 400 -- although maybe
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had around 500, which is still a small amount by today's 1,000-shots-and-beyond standards.
Jurassic Park had a little less than 60 effects shots, which was a small amount even for that time.
The way the guy manages action sequences is ingenious once you educate yourself about the actual process of making movies.
Anyway, what else sucks?
Pan's Labyrinth was extremely overrated. (Although it would have probably been slightly better if it was in English.)
I also don't get what people saw in any of
The Matrix movies. It was basically
TRON for the MTV generation.
The movie
300 was also totally overrated. The only reason people liked it was Gerard Butler's sex appeal. The technique of creating it wasn't even innovative, yet people are dumb enough to believe it was.
The Lord of the Rings films are also overrated.
I think it's just a matter of what different people value in a film. You've consistently demonstrated that production values and visual effects are the primary means by which you judge a film. In that case, Batman and Robin would be a natural choice over The Dark Knight, because it was visually showier. I think the people that prefer The Dark Knight value storytelling, subtext and a restrained but well-defined visual style. I think it's unfair to the film to tie its popularity to the Heath Ledger situation, although I agree that his untimely death has caused people to view his body of work through rose-colored glasses.
The Dark Knight is merely the new
Titanic. Everyone loves it now, but in a few years, no one is going to care. Look at
Titanic, everyone thought of how great it was when it first came out and now practically everyone hates it. (Although, personally, I thought
Titanic was a well-made movie.)
And
The Dark Knight had a story that was probably even more ridiculous than
Batman & Robin.