I get really tired of hype. Things wear me down quickly. I think spending so much time consuming different types of media and having friends that haven’t ever experienced stimulus in their life that didn’t result in a long drawn out opinion could be contributing factors to this.
Naturally Batman is the flavor of the week. People are burning up my ear, tearing up the TV, and ripping through the blogosphere to talk it up. I can’t think of a single “Comic Book Movie” I have really liked a lot. The absolute best result has always been an enjoyable experience with some cool visuals. The fact that it seems you have to “check your brain at the door” to enjoy almost every single movie around pretty much pisses me off. I set out to the theater a block away looking forward to disappointing people that ask me about the experience with a “meh, it was alright…I don’t see what the hype is about”. Just because…well…sometimes I can be a dick.
The actual verdict?
A masterpiece…
Truly a masterpiece of a film.
Let me try to put this in context for those of you who don’t know me in real life and only read my ramblings online. I don’t do this. I don’t fall for every little popular movie that makes big money at the box office.
Dark Knight planted a fear in me like no movie I have ever viewed in the a theater. It wasn’t a “Holy crap that guy behind you just jumped from the dark with a gun” type of fear. It was a glimpse into the looking glass of chaos. A view of the structure of society being riddled with uncertainty and fear at its very core. And it adds to the classic story of good against evil like no other film I have seen.
There are a lot of other great elements that this film brought to the table. Ledger’s performance was as strong as billed while Bale did a fantastic job for most part (his voice as Batman was a bit annoying). The visuals were stunning and story had a great pace. Even with these bits of excellence the sense of desperation and anxiety that plague the society and its people won’t be something I forget anytime soon.
Go see it. Even if you are a pretentious snob when it comes to movies.
On a completely different note this is a bad movie to a be a dog in. Alot of dogs get their asses handed to them in Dark Knight. Be nice to your pets folks.