The Dark Knight Review

Let's see. It's 3:03 AM as I'm typing this sentence. Perhaps you're wondering why I chose to put out a review considering the lateness and the fact that I work tomorrow morning. Well...I'll tell you.

The Dark Knight is incredible.

I'm not going to tell you the whole story, partly because it would definitely spoil a lot, and partly because it is quite complex and long and I do not feel like typing it out. In a nutshell, Batman keeps the city safe, but Harvey Dent, the new District Attorney, has begun to lock up a surprisingly high number of criminals. All of a sudden, the Joker bursts onto the scene, causing chaos and forcing Batman to face his own values. That's all you need. The rest is up to you.

The atmosphere of the movie is incredibly intense and at the same time chaotic. There's tension in every scene amidst all the chaos that the Joker provides. I loved the dull, muted yellows and blues that engulf the entirety of Gotham. You really get the sense of the crime that is taking over. Furthermore, director Christopher Nolan moves throughout the scenery with incredible grace and sophistication, bringing Batman out of just "a comic book movie" into something that approaches art. We really begin to question our own morality, making our own choices to answer the questions that the movie presents. I haven't felt that way about a movie in a long time.

And what better character to have us decide morality than Batman, the Dark Knight? Christian Bale fully explores the realm of Bruce Wayne and Batman and delivers the incredibly close second best performance of the film. He is amazing, portraying a character spawned out of revenge yet bound to moral code he himself created and abides by. Is it right to abandon our morals if it means taking down the villain? Or does that action turn us into the villain itself? Not for a long time has a movie presented these questions so seriously, and yet does not come off as pompous or, at the other end of the spectrum, gimmicky. These choices are sophisticated, and as close to perfect as you can get.

The other actors also deliver surprisingly deep and believable performances. Almost everyone has and builds their own character, whether it is Aaron Eckhart portraying a very convincing Harvey Dent and showing a deep descent (I won't reveal what happens for those not schooled in Batman lore), or Maggie Gyllenhaal acting quite ably her character, Rachel Dawes (taking over and upgrading Katie Holmes' forgetful performance in Batman Begins) having to make up her mind in the crazy love triangle while living with the secret of Bruce Wayne's night job. Michael Caine is once again a good and very wise Alfred, always delivering that perfect piece of advice without ever sounding hackneyed, and even Morgan Freeman shows that he too has a code of ethics as he is once again his amazing self, playing the CEO of Wayne Enterprises Lucius Fox. There really is no bad performance to be found.

Oh there was one more character wasn't there? Oh yes...The Joker, portrayed in a tour de force performance by Heath Ledger. He is, without a doubt, probably the single most memorable character since Johnny Depp's introduction of Jack Sparrow. Ledger gives The Joker a certain menace that, I'm sorry Mr. Nicholson, not even you could give. This Joker is probably the scariest character on any screen in a long time. A VERY long time. And at the same time, he is hilarious, witty, clever, and bloody brilliant. There really aren't enough praises to give Ledger. If Johnny Depp earned an Oscar nod for Sparrow, there is absolutely no reason why Ledger should miss one. He will be the character every one talks about this year. Cooler, more intelligent, and more menacing than anything you've ever seen.

So where are the faults? There is one. For me. Scarecrow shows up and then kind of vanishes, and we are left wondering what happened. Sure he got caught, but in the Batman universe, the big guys ALWAYS escape.

People will say it's too long, people will say it drags, and people will say the story is too complicated for it's own good. To them I say, the length is absolutely necessary and plays out as totally convincing, to me it never dragged and I never once thought about looking at the time, and the story is complex, not complicated; it isn't all that hard to understand, but it may be too deep for some to grasp. And isn't it time a movie has been like that?

I actually had doubts that the movie would deliver. These were dispelled fully and totally. There is no reason why this movie should be left unseen by anyone. It is, for all intents and purposes, not just a great comic book movie, but a crime masterpiece. You should, you need to, and you must see The Dark Night.

Let's put a smile on that face...

5/5

Musings

I kinda like that word. And no, it doesn't mean songs by Muse. Although they are awesome enough to warrant a word for their songs. Seriously go listen to them. You won't be disappointed.

Anyway, I've been sitting in bed, kinda sorta thinking about putting up a post, feeling like I wanted to, but then, out of laziness/video game...ness...I wouldn't. Well there's nothing immensely important that I needed to say; rather, as the title suggests, just some...musings (not Black Holes and Revelations, though).

Lately, as anyone who knows me will surely agree with, I have been playing a sport some people call golf. On many different days there are many different names for the game, "this stupid game," "fucking shit," "fucking asshole," "retarded" included, but it is all one simple game: golf. Get a ball in a hole (that's what she said WHOA that would suck if she did)...seems easy enough. Oh but by the way, a golf ball is like an inch in diameter, and the hole is just large enough to allow the ball to sink in when you are lucky enough to put it in (without it being a gimme, of course). Also, we're gonna put you anywhere from about 150 to 600 (PGA duh) YARDS, not feet, away from that hole, and then we want you to pick up that metal stick and hit it, hard, to try to get it there in the fewest strokes possible. So the game is a little more than meets the eye (Transformers...right right right). And as I have played, specifically in these past 2 years, there is one number that consistently becomes the bane of my existence:

79.

If you are a golfer (and if you aren't, you're dead to me...not really I know that's pretty morbidly obese), you know that this is a pretty significant number. If you break 80 and hit the 79 button, you are pretty legit in the golfing world. The average golf score is around 100 on 18 holes, but if you say "I shot in the 70's," you have some serious game. I have never accomplished the feat, shooting 5 80's and countless 81's and 82's. In fact, I recently was on course to break the 80 barrier, rather easily, having a total of 69 going into the 17th hole. In other words, if I could get 10 or less in the next 2 holes (the first of which was an average length par 4, the last a medium distance par 3), I would have done it. Easy...just do what you've been doing all day...play solid, you can go bogey-double bogey and do it. That's actually a bad score, but honestly it wouldn't matter. Of course, what happens, you start thinking about it, the "what if I do it?" type stuff, and next thing you know, you've made a 7, and have a putt for par (3) on the last hole. So it all comes down to this...you've just spent the last 3 hours grinding it out, you've gotten yourself to this point, just make the 10 footer. You hit the putt (well...I hit the putt), it's got a good line, looks like good speed, it hits the edge of the hole and begins to descend. This is when the Tiger creep to the side of the hole awaiting a fist pump begins. But alas, the ball menacingly lips out of the hole, and it's over. You can't do it. Not today...perhaps not ever. Then you start to realize...I shoulda, woulda, coulda done so many things differently.

And of course, you putt the same putt again, after finishing the hole, and you sink it dead center.

And THAT, my friends, is what golf is.

Next up on the musings is the romantic slice of life that remains empty...at least for me. It's not that I don't mind it...well that's not true...I do mind it...but more importantly, it's that thing of always having that one person. Sure you may flirt/date those other girls (or if you're a girl reading this, those other guys...or...girls)...but you'll always have that "This is the girl I want to be with" going on in the back of your head. Of course that begs a few questions: does this person feel the same way, will it ever happen, should I just get over it, blah blah blah. And I think that when you feel that way about someone, especially if you're talking to and are good friends with them, you get the feeling that they at least know you yourself feel that way. Or at least you want to believe that. But it's ok...because 99% of the time, it doesn't work out. Because of the situation, because of the personalities, whatever it is, the vast majority of the time, it can't work. Whether it's someone that you've known for a long time, or if it's someone you met but never really got the guts to go for, it is often hard for anything to work if you don't at least try. But naturally, you run into the whole ruining what you had, screwing up everything, making a mistake, and all that. But that person, that one person, they're always there, in the back of your mind. Perhaps you just need to spill your guts, or perhaps you just need to somehow get over it. Me? I have not yet decided which is the best. But I'm sure I will know soon enough.

Golf and girls. Is there any more to life? I think not.

79, you will be mine, and I know that rhymes so just stop...