The Dark Knight

Let me first say that Fandango is fucking garbage. While one movie listings page displays available tickets, clicking on a link directs you to another page saying all that was a load of bull, please pick another time. I wanted to see this with Qarly (

) rather badly, since this weekend was time off for her, I planned on getting tickets for said time. I was also recommended to only watch this title in an IMAX theater. The combination of release weekend, IMAX only, and the trash that is Fandango, lead me to purchasing tickets for a 3:30 AM showing at the Metreon. Suck.

None the less, we got up and made it to the theater on time (riding down hill on a bike at 3 in the morning with someone you love is rather nice), sadly we missed the Watchmen trailer, I’ll need to grab that for Q. As it turns out, 3:30 AM is a popular fucking time for folks to see a movie, theater was packed except for the first two rows. We took our seats right as the movie got started.

It’s time for a quick review of the old Batman movies…

Tim Burton:
Batman – Great, realistic for the late 80s. Gave out a good tone of grunge to the whole thing.
Batman Returns – Holy crap awesome dark. True light of why you throw the word “evil” into evil villain.

So, this is the part where a bunch of piss ant parents go and cry to Warner Brothers, demanding that their movie adaptation of an extremely dark and sinister comic book series was too violent and scary for kids. WB tossed Tim Burton out of the director’s chair and opted to go with a more comically entertaining script for the next two movies.

Joel Schumacher:
Batman Forever – Villains start to upstage the super hero. Emphases on the novelty that is a superhero.
Batman & Robin – What the fuck, welcome to Batman the goofy ass cartoon.

As it turns out, families aren’t the main demographic when it comes down to Batman, WB lost big with the last movie. It took them about seven years to turn around and push for a more realistic, harsher, intense script.

Christopher Nolan:
Batman Begins – Batman, the way he should be, in the present. The sort of thing where if you sat down and thought about it, the events that took place (with the except of Ra’s al Ghul) could actually be something happening today.

Any how, pretty sure most of you know all this. Begins really stepped up to the plate, right next to the Tim Burton movies. It wasn’t as dark as the old ones, but really pushed towards a vision of how messed up Bruce Wayne’s predicament is. The Dark Knight drived that point into the ground with an iron fist. The movie isn’t about Batman being a total bad ass, punching dudes in the face then taking names. It’s about how twisted villains can be, and how Bruce Wayne’s life is completely fucked. As far as any past superhero/comic adaptation movie I’ve seen, nothing compares to the Joker’s role in this movie.

The only thing I disliked about the movie was the new helmet, makes him look like a bug. I’m sure others will agree.

Watching it in IMAX was well worth it. Many shots were done in full frame, and the switches between the two formats for the most part was unnoticeable. Audio was grand, I really enjoyed the track with the single cord whenever something bad was afoot.