The Dark Knight

It's becoming somewhat of a fad to talk about this movie in the less than 24 hours that it has been out, but considering most of you know my comic book stance, and considering I love movies, I feel it's justified.

Let me also preface this post with the fact that I was OBSESSED with the original 4 Batman movies. My favorite is Batman Returns, and a close second is Batman & Robin. I knew every single line to Batman & Robin. I was SOOO obsessed with that movie. Okay, that was my attempt to give me some credit to this post because who the hell am I to just talk about movies like my last name is Ebert?

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED.

This movie is by far one of the best movies I've ever seen. I knew it would be when I found out that Heath Ledger was going to be the Joker. All the hype about his death and the remembrance aside, Heath definitely stole the show. He was in a class all his own the entire time he was on screen. Between the paranoid looks of approval he would give Batman, or the way he licked his lips in excitement, the acting was superb.

That being said I think that Gary Oldman takes a respectable second place in this movie. I was very impressed with how many different sides of Commissioner Gordon we saw. He was concerned, confident, scared, pleading for his life, all at once, and it was very exciting to see that coupled with the performance that Heath Ledger gave.

There were a few things that sort of boggled my mind though:

Rachel Dawes - Explain to me why Batman went to save Harvey Dent instead of Rachel. At first I thought that maybe the Joker gave him the wrong addresses. Then I was thinking, well Batman is a character that would do what's write for Gotham and for humanity, not what's right for himself. He's very selfless in that regard. That's the only thing I could come up with. Anyone else come up with some other reason that I clearly missed, let me know.

Gordon's Son - I didn't really research this much, but it seemed like the character of Gordon's son was alluding to some sort of development. In the comics, Gordon's daughter (whose face we don't see at all in the entire movie) eventually becomes Batgirl, until The JOKER shoots her in the back, and the bullet hits her spine and paralyzes her for life. Funny how they are sort of putting his son in the forefront with a handful of lines, and eventual Batgirl just kind of cowers in fear during that last scene with the family.

Batman - Was it just me or was Christian Bale INCREDIBLY boring in this movie? I understand just as well that Batman's character is very stoic, and non-emotional, he has to be to save Gotham from the situation it is in, but it just seemed very one-dimensional, and at times boring to watch. I think part of this might have been because The Joker was such a show stealer, and I was anticipating his screen time more than others, but I couldn't really feel sorry, sympathetic, happy or sad for Batman or Bruce Wayne.

What's Next? - There had been talks of the next Batman movie reprieving The Joker's role...but what actor would agree to pick up where Heath left off? His performance was amazing, and I can't imagine any actor would want to fuck up their careers by underperforming the Joker. There are rumors that the next villain will be The Riddler, which seems like the obvious segue in to a trilogy. Personally? I've always been a fan of the female Batman villains. There's that female Joker whose name I can't remember, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy...all of whom I loved in previous films. Though with the incredible disaster known as the feature film Catwoman, I doubt we'll EVER see that character emerge again. Uma Thurman was an awesome Poison Ivy...but I doubt they'll bring her back if they do that story line. One last thing to consider with this idea is, now that Rachel Dawes has been blown to pieces, a) who is going to be Batman's love interest (Poison Ivy maybe!?), and b) what are they going to do with a female lead? Maggie Gyllenhaal was a supporting actress in this film but the lead female. Seems like they might have killed her off to bring in some other female. Just my opinion.

In conclusion, this film is a must see. Apparently it has taken in over 18 million dollars JUST in midnight premieres. So, it's obviously going to be huge. Hope you guys liked it as much as I did!