**SPOIL ALERT WARNING! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!**”
“And…here…we…go!
I have seen the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, 3 times now. Saturday of opening week, the following Wednesday on the IMAX and then again last Wednesday night. I don’t normally watch movies more than once, let alone over and over again. But people, please, if you plan on going tonight, invite me along. Yeah, it is THAT good. One of the best movies EVER!
“And I thought my jokes were bad…” I liked the “original” Batman movies of the ’90s. A lot! But after seeing Batman Begins…it makes the old ones look like a joke! And the new ones just take Batman to a whole new level. Less child-like cartoons, and much more comic, graphic-novelesque. It is refreshing and it will mature movies based on comics. The kids will like it (little scary for the wee ones), but adults will LOVE it!
“Why so serious?” I was not one of the people that was caught up in the “Heath Ledger” hype surrounding this movie. I was a little judgmental and thought that it was huge waste to have a life senselessly snuffed out. BUT, as it turns out, Ledger may have ODed on doses of legal and illegal drugs-just by accident. It may have been his best role and performance yet. It is too bad he couldn’t experience the accolades. I heard a story that Jack Nicholson contacted Heath to warn him about the part-saying that it was a tough character to get out of your head. They say that Ledger was taking sleeping pills-struggling with the separation from the dark character. In that case it is just plain sad. I say all of that to say that I’ve wanted to see The Dark Knight-but not merely for the sake of a last performance.
“How about a magic trick?” The movie is fantastic! Christian Bale is back and plays the dualistic characters of Batman and Bruce Wayne superbly! Bruce Wayne is as suave and immature as ever and Batman is everything good and honorable in a superhero! The other supporting actors are just as great; Alfred plays a substantial role, Fox is cleaver and witty and righteous, Commissioner Gordon is human and cares about protecting the people and Harvey Dent, a.k.a Two Face is a man bent on being “fair” (what a great way to explain the “birth” of Two Face!). But Heath Ledger’s Joker steals the show. Hands down…I couldn’t wait to see Joker in the next scene and then the next!
“This town deserves a better class of criminal.” The Dark Knight’s Joker is amazing and perfect! There hasn’t been a bad guy like this in a very long time. The Joker isn’t interested in money, power or fame, he just wants to be an agent of chaos and turn peoples’ plans against them-for fun, for entertainment! He just wants to play with chaos! He wants to laugh! Joker was ruthless but with class, darkly funny but never silly, demented or insane and NEVER out of control. I found myself liking him wanting to see what he would do next! I never found myself despising him! I didn’t want to see him win, but I sure wanted to see him try! What a great character! He was definitely a better class of criminal.
“Now we’re talking.” I can’t say enough about this movie. I couldn’t get enough of The Joker. The action was great and the gadgets are cool, but they didn’t have to carry the movie; the acting and the story carried the audience along at a quick and entertaining pace! The themes were Hollywood and typical to superhero movies: Light shining in the darkness, good over evil, hero over truth, perception of hope over despair. I was disappointed that feelings of safety were more important than the truth-which involves the burden that is placed on Batman.
“What makes you think I want to hear you talk?”
Finally a few random thoughts…
- Brilliant not to name these movies 1, 2, 3, etc…I mean Spider man 4?!
Egads! Granted, NONE of the Batman movies were numbered,
still…brilliant.
- The Dark Knight is easily in my top 5 movies of all time. It is breaking all kinds of box office records (in part thanks to me!).
- I’ve been comparing this movie to The Empire Strikes Back for a couple of reasons…the caliber of bad guy and because the Joker kinda sorta wins in the end! The Empire Strikes Back is one of the only movies where the bad guy, Darth Vader, totally wins!
- This movie will be quoted like The Godfather! Joker had the best quotes (in bold throughout this post).
- Is Two face really gone? There was a funeral for Harvey Dent…but under false pretenses…so Two Face MAY be back!
- Did you catch the change of the Semi? The painted red “S” changes the logo from “Laughter is the Best Medicine” to SLaughter is the Best Medicine!
- Gotham is based on Chicago rather than a Gothic New York City-I liked this-the Gothic-ness shows up in the characters, not the architecture. That was a nice change.
- Batman is much more human and constantly becoming the superhero!
- This story continues the progression of the origins of Batman…it isn’t just “business as usual”. Wayne Manner and the Bat Cave do not exist yet.
-Derin-
