The Dark Knight

Wow. That was quite a movie. I'm definitely not going to give anything away for those of you who haven't seen it, but it was an experience. Quite unusually, I didn't see "The Dark Knight" until Monday night so I heard four days worth of comments and reviews from co-workers and friends. This may have helped because my expectations weren't over the moon. I'd say they were realistic...I thought it would be good but not great. I still don't know how I feel about it. It was better than I thought it would be. I guess it was definitely a great movie but it's so hard because it was certainly not fun nor full of any sort of joy. In fact, it may be one of the bleakest movies I've seen in a long time. But, yes, it's really fantastic and probably deserves a Best Picture nod in what will probably be a weak year. That being said, there were some good things about the movie as well as some flaws. Some thoughts....

The Good

- Heath Ledger is awesome. I had heard the rumors about a Best Actor nomination and was fairly skeptical. I, like many others, assumed this was because he is no longer. That's actually not true though. He is damn good in this and deserves all the attention. Wow. He certainly disappears into the role. No hint of the guy that's in "10 Things I Hate About You".

- The action sequences. I won't name them but there are some set pieces and explosions and chases that are just really badass and well done.

- Gary Oldman. I mean, most of the supporting cast is fantastic (Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart) but Oldman is so understated that it's kind of cool to watch.

- The writing by director Christopher Nolan. Not many action franchise directors could write their own movie. In fact, that would be fairly frightening. But Nolan is so damn talented and this screenplay holds it's own. Really well written.

- Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. I love Christian Bale. Look no further than 1992's gem "Newsies" when I fell hard for him in a cowboy hat and getting on his song and dance. And I love it when Bale is just Bruce Wayne and gets to put on this rich boy bravado and offer the tiniest bit of humor in this otherwise dark movie. Of course, that leads me to the bad...

The Flaws

- Christian Bale as Batman. Sure, that sounds huge but really it's just his goddamn voice. And it pains me to say this (see aforementioned love of Bale.) I don't know why no one has the balls to ask anyone in an interview why in the hell Bale is choosing to bark his Batman lines in a gruff voice. In this sequel it's even more exaggerated than the first movie. I just don't get it. Seems ridiculous.

- Eric Roberts miscast as an Italian mobster. Ouch that hurt.

- It's long...but not too long like most most movies where it ends up being painful and making the movie bad. No, this is just long like "why in the hell isn't this two movies?" There's certainly enough plot to go around. So no, it never dragged but there was just a lot stuff in there.

- The damn out of focus shots. I won't go too into this but Nolan always uses the same DP and every one of his goddamn movies has a lot of shots that are out of focus. I don't see how this is acceptable at this level. It is not on purpose and is distracting. It's actually slightly less distracting in a crazy movie like this but it also happened in "The Prestige" and "Insomnia". Sure, the guy can light which is maybe why he keeps getting work. But he should fire his focus puller because it's lame to have so many shots out of focus in a $200 million dollar movie.

The Unexplicable or why I hate this goddamn country

After almost 3 hours of really tense action and horror, I emerged from the theater with two thoughts. One, man that was great. And, two, how in the f*&$ was that rated PG-13?! I don't think I've ever seen a more egregiously rated film. PG-13?! This movie was scarier and more violent than most rated R movies. Sure, there's no blood because they always cut away but that doesn't mean the audience doesn't know what in the hell just happened. And so many scenes with terrorism and hostages and psychopaths that revel in violence. An American movie has tits in it and it's slapped with an R rating and yet this is okay for kids? My cousin is 13 and I wouldn't let her watch this movie. Way too disturbing. Very very frustrating.... argh.....

In short, a fantastic movie that is no fun at all. :-)