Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Dark Knight and other movie musings...

So this weekend, like thousands of my fellow mass consuming Americans I braved the treck to my local AMC and navigated the madness of the crowds to FINALLY see the visual spectacle that is "The Dark Knight." It was (to me, a simple comic book dork) a visually stimulating movie with mostly superb acting (I am still not convinced that Maggie Gylenhall or Katie Holmes were sound choices for the role of Rachel Dawes though.) Heath Ledger was a fantastic Joker and as always Christian Bale was not only fun to look at, but a great performer to watch.

All of this aside, I was disappointed by a few things (and luckily this is a blog, so no one can throw tomatoes at me for saying this…) I was NOT happy that they killed Two Face. I happen to be a BIG fan of the Harvey Dent character and his story line and it seemed a bit unfair that they just killed him off to preserve the "White Knight" and to keep the dichotomy of Batman (The Dark Knight) vs. Two Face (the fallen White Knight.) In fact, I thought Aaron Eckhart's performance was fantastic and I was a bit upset that I didn't get to see the character's hate and resentment build to a phenomenal battle between Batman and Two Face. As any Batman fan knows, Two Face's anger and seething hatred of Batman is developed over a very large story arc and I guess I was kind of sad that I was being spoon fed this 20 minute secondary plot to Heath Ledger's Joker.

I was impressed by Heath Legder's acting, but I am not sold that he deserves an Oscar. It's not that I don't believe that Heath has the talent, I just don't think we should immortalize someone by bestowing a hallowed award on him just because he "accidentally" over dosed and didn't get to live to see the movie finalized. I realize that I might loose some friends over this statement, but to be honest, Christian Bale (who is also a method actor) has been subtly introducing more and more to his interpretation to the Bruce Wayne Character and if you watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight back to back (which, yes, I will admit I did) you can see the nuances that he brings to Bruce Wayne as he descends into the lonely world of Batman while he truly realizes his isolation. Sadly, we will not be able to watch Heath develop his characterization of the immortal Joker in a second movie as he is now gone. It's like the guy who replaced Brandon Lee in The Crow…yeah, you don't remember his name either. The producers must be kicking themselves that they killed off Two Face and kept the Joker around for a third movie…and now they have to start from scratch with another actor. Oh well, at least if they put Joker in the third movie they might actually bring out my FAVORITE Batman character of ALL TIME…Harlee Quinn (I can dream right?)

Lastly, I was vary happy watching all of the stunts. But you truly realize that you are in another generation when all of the 12 year-olds around you and their Dads are "ohhing and ahhing" over the stunts and special affects…and the only thing I could think was "He is going to get his cape stuck in the wheels of that motorcycle and have cause a big 'ole accident, that's just not safe!"

…man I'm old.

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