The Dark Knight

I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about seeing The Dark Knight. Try as I might, I couldn't avoid the reviews pouring in from people that said it didn't live up to the hype. So, trying to keep an open mind, I went with my wife, brother and wife's best friend to check it out.


After we prepared my wife's purse for the movies (that is we roasted up some hotdogs in the toaster oven, wrapped them in foil and stowed them away, along with some candy), we ventured out to our trifling local movie theater. My wife and I moved about a year ago, and we were definitley spoiled with the 24 theater mega-plexes. This theater has 9 screens and was last updated in any way, shape, or form about 15 years ago. Beggars can't be choosers, so since we didn't feel like driving half an hour to see a movie, off to the ol' moving picture house we went. We were all excited to see the movie, and once we stopped in at the concession catastrophe to get some popcorn and sodas, we were ready to get down.


I guess the easiest way I could sum up the movie is...WOW!


Now granted, I'm a geek for superhero type movies (I even was stoked for Superman Returns), but this movie was awesome for what it was: a blockbuster summer popcorn movie. It wasn't "The Greatest Movie of All-Time" like I've seen some people say. It also wasn't a "letdown" or "overhyped" either. It was basically awesome.



I don't want to spoil for anyone who still hasn't seen this movie (although, I can't believe that there is anybody left), so I won't get into plot points or specifics. The only thing you need to know is that Heath Ledger's Joker is probably one of the funniest, creepiest, and all-around best performances that I've seen, possibly ever. The kid created a character that just stays with you. It's THAT good.


Besides feeling bad about Ledger's death, I REALLY feel bad for the rest of the people associated with the Batman franchise. Christian Bale was good (although the way he talks as Batman made my wife laugh out loud a couple of times), and Aaron Eckhart did a great job as Harvey Dent. Gary Oldman was solid as Lt. Gordon, and Michael Caine was his usual English self as Alfred. But the Joker was so good that I didn't care one bit about anybody else...I couldn't wait until he came back on screen! This movie would've rocked you just took the Joker out of the story and replaced him with a random supervillain. Then maybe you would appreciate all of the awesome FX stuff, and the fight scenes and Gotham City goodness. For me at least, I was just so riveted by the Joker, that everything else was just filler. Really, really good filler, but filler nonetheless.


When we left the theater I felt bad that we wouldn't get to see the Joker's story continue (to me, it felt like there would've been more to follow if not for the tragedy), and I wondered to myself "What can they possibly do for the next one?"

I guess we'll have to see if it's possible to reinvent a reinvention of a franchise....