In Which I Urinate in Everyone’s Cereal Bowl
So, The Dark Knight.
Likes:
* Heath Ledger, who was really the highlight of the whole movie, and who probably deserves an Oscar even though he’ll likely get a pity one anyway. If someone without his capabilities is running this role in this film, it’s a travesty.
* It’s a well done movie - the pacing, the filming, not bad at all, and miles ahead of Batman Begins.
Dislikes:
* Everything else.
I’m on record as not being a Batman fan, and Batman was not the problem. He was a problem for me, which I’ll explain in a moment, but not really the issue at hand. Instead, the broader picture is that you have an amazing crime drama that’s trapped in a universe it doesn’t belong in, that is ultimately stuck in superhero mores and otherwise disposable constructs. Thus, what would be a neat and clean two hour movie about the police trailing an absolute psychopath who has zero regard for human life and is fully willing to play tricks on everyone along the way becomes a nearly 3 hour behemoth that’s stuck with a superhero unnecessarily (and unconvincingly) being made a scapegoat and an incompetent mob who’s forced to play along with whatever comes along because of the Batman issue.
Batman himself is only an issue for me because I feel his existence drags the whole thing down - I get *why* he’s there as a matter of plot and all that, but it’s not necessary. There’s no reason to engage him or root for him, and I say that having seen (and hated) Begins. Ann felt the same way, knowing only the two Michael Keaton Batman flicks. Compared to Iron Man (which I absolutely loved) or Spider-Man (which I didn’t like), there was still no investment for me, and that’s probably where it’s weak. Yeah, things go sour, Batman sometimes shows up and saves the day, people get mad about it. Great.
I dunno. I feel like I’m missing some sort of major life experience with this one, but there you have it.