Sunday, July 20, 2008

7-20-08: Dog Days; Dark Knight

Well, I am once again reminded of why they refer to this time of year as the "dog days of summer." It's been pretty brutal out the last few days. It's interesting to learn, though, that the origin of the term comes from the Greeks because of the star Sirius. Fascinating stuff.

I went in to Manhattan on Friday evening to visit a friend, and we ended up seeing The Dark Knight. The first challenge was obviously finding a showing in the city that hadn't already been sold out. One of my buddies saw it in IMAX on Friday (in Manchester, CT). He bought the tickets a month in advance and the theatre was already half sold-out. I was lucky to get two seats to a 9:20PM showing a place called City Cinemas on 3rd Ave. The place was absolutely packed.

There was tremendous hype for the film. I'd had it on my Google Calendar for several months. And, with the whole Heath Ledger issue, it added a bit of mystery to the opening. The film really had to deliver.

And so it did, and overwhelmingly so at that. I was in absolute awe at the story. I was very impressed, and pleased, at how Batman Begins turned out. The Dark Knight took it one step further. It's basically how The Godfather, Part II took The Godfather one step further. The real show was Ledger as The Joker, who was just so creepy, cold, and evil that you couldn't take your eyes off the character when he was on screen. Christian Bale did another fantastic job as Batman, but you really have to admit, he was showed up by Ledger. It's really disappointing that he will not be unable to reprise the role.

If you haven't seen it, you really need to. You don't have to be a Batman fan, or a comic book fan, to enjoy the story. It had a really great take on suspense, mystery, and even elements of horror. I'm surprised it held to the PG-13 rating, but that didn't hurt the overall spookiness and shear enjoyment. There are moments in the film where the whole theatre, which wasn't particularly large, went nuts. Sure, it would have been nice to see in IMAX, but I'm not worried.

This got me thinking. With Ledger dead, they have quite a dilemma. Do they bring some one else in to play The Joker? I think, though it would be interesting to see the continuation of the Batman v. Joker story, Ledger really made the role work. Jack Nicholson did a good job, but that doesn't mean some one can match that level of creepiness and criminal genius. Honestly, I hope they don't. I think they should bring in The Riddler for the next one to complete the trilogy. Do you think they'd bring Jim Carrey back? Ha. I'd hope not. You know who might work, though... Edward Norton. Now that would be interesting.



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