The Dark Knight

We went to the midnight showing on Thursday night and all I have to say is...WOW! Seriously, words cannot explain the awesomeness of this film. The thing is a masterpiece. Genius. Two thumbs up to the brothers Nolan for superb writing and directing (and if I had any more thumbs they could have those too). The movie was action packed, featured a nice little complicated love triangle, and had a complex, yet never confusing plot. But what I liked best was all the moral and ethical questions raised in the movie. What would you do in such a situation? The Joker revels in putting people into lose-lose situations, pitting their inclination to do good to their fellow man with their darwinistic, survival of the fittest tendencies. So good. And Heath Ledgers version of the Joker is unmatched. I agree with one reviewer who said that as amazing as Jack Nicholson's Joker was, this new Joker makes it look like "child's play" in comparison.

BJ dressed up for the show. Did you expect anything less? With his talent why would you not?? Here are some pics.




He was turning heads all over the theater, and even scared a couple of girls so bad they nervously giggled and told him to "Stop looking at me, you're creepy!" The only thing that makes me sad is that he never really got a chance to show off his mastery of the voice, he's been working on it since the first preview came out.

More about "the voice": I read one review that gave excerpts of an interview with Christopher Nolan. Nolan said Heath Ledger came to him and said he'd had an epiphany about The Joker character:

"The key to the demented killer, Ledger said, was his voice. Without a menacing hiss, it would be a retread of Jack Nicholson's satirical turn when he played the character in 1989.

"He said he found the perfect one," Nolan recalls. "He had been studying ventriloquist dummies and thought they had terrifying voices. He was going to emulate one. I remember saying, 'Yeah, that sounds great.' When I hung up the phone I thought, 'God, I hope that's going to work.' "

Well I'm here to tell you Christopher Nolan...It worked!

But enough about The Joker. I definitely don't want to downplay the other characters who were just as brilliant in their own right. Batman is a much deeper and more complex character and Christian Bale definitely delivers. Aaron Eckhart is perfect as Harvey Dent. He's so like-able that at the end you don't know whether to fear him or sympathize with him. And newcomer Maggie Gyllenhaal pulled off the part of Rachel Dawes without a hitch. As always, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman gave flawless performances. Basically, GO SEE THE MOVIE! I often worry about hyping up a movie too much for fear someone will be disappointed. Not a problem with this movie. You will NOT be disappointed. I can count on probably one finger the number of movies that have actually lived up to all the hype. Well, The Dark Knight not only lives up to the hype, it exceeds it.

(Read a good review here)


Here's a sample of Heath Ledger as the Joker.:



And just in case you haven't seen it, here's one of the trailers:



BEST.SUPER.HERO.MOVIE.EVER!!