At the end of the movie, it wasn't so much about Batman versus the Joker; good prevailing against evil; black versus white. It was about our struggles in negotiating the many shades of gray especially when something in the system breaks down; when our very immediate world is threatened. I think Heath Ledger's acting made the character not only unpredictable and menacing but it exposes some of the darker sides that everyone possesses within. I left the movie quite unsettled and rattled by the reminder of the darker sides of human nature.

A lot has changed in the past decade, but one thing’s still certain: people love Batman. The 1995 production Batman Forever was hot…when it came out.

A recent look at Bruce Wayne’s (Val Kilmer) Oliver’s People glasses and power ties sent me running back to Christian Bale and The Dark Knight. But not everything is dated; set director Elise ‘Cricket’ Rowland kept Bruce’s office spacious and sleek. Neutral color palettes are the smartest choice for an office, but all the gold shades were a little too glitzy for me. I think the light shades of Bruce’s office and corporate life were meant to contrast with the dark, cavernous bat world. This contrast in interior designs is subtle but important in setting the mood. It’s a little more obvious in the disparity between the ritzy, uptown sections of Gotham and the rundown back alleys: Wayne Enterprises’ ball versus Robin’s joyride and street brawl mishap. All the neon lighting used in the city, especially the glow stick creations that the city-people wore, reinforced the contrast between the uptown corporate and downtown worlds.

In Dark Night they made Gotham look more like normal Chicago, but the design inside Wayne’s inner sanctum had this wonderful minimalist-industrial look that I can’t resist (well done Peter Lando). Batman's underground equipment room, where all the gadgets came to life, was simply an empty, fluorescent swathed garage. Usually, movie “equipment rooms” are plastered with clutter and animated thingamabobs (think Back to the Future or James Bond films) so the use of empty space in Dark Night was surprisingly effective.

Wayne interiors have this wonderful dark and sophisticated edge. To bad the outside view of Gotham looked so boring.

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The Dark Knight? Yeah, best superhero film ever. I saw it at the IMAX Dome theater in Charlotte, and am planning to see it in a regular IMAX theater in Raleigh next month. I'm not sure if I even want to bother with the film in 35mm, as the experience in IMAX was so mind-blowing.

Heath Ledger's performance was flippin' sweet, may that amazing bastard rest in peace. I would also like to point out Rooster Teeth's spoof of his character, in the hope that they will notice it and send some of their viewers my way : ) ? If he doesn't get an Oscar for that movie there're gonna be riots in the streets. Frankly, I think it's understandable if he doesn't get one seeing as he's dead and they're probably gonna want someone who can go up to the podium and give a nice speech, but still.

Hellboy 2 was great, but not grand. I enjoyed the opening scene with the CGI puppets, though. I was also really dissapointed that they didn't play the song, the one that they used in the previews, during the fight between Hellboy and the Golden Army, it would have been perfect.

I'm looking into getting a better painting program for cheap so I can start doing better comics, but right now I'm trying to set up a new router so i can actually play Xbox Live without having to spend the night at my friends house and playing social the entire time (not that it isn't fun).

I was google-ing when I cam e across this article last Wednesday about The movie Dark Knight raking more than 65 million on its first day in US alone. Then it came to me, it got to be that good ! since the movie premiers 4 days ago (or so I was told) Then watching it on the 4^th day wouldn’t be so hard. So I called some friends and arrange a date with The Dark Knight and crew on a Thursday evening. We started of in Al-Ghurair at around 6:30 pm and we where totally surprised to find out that all the good seats are taken on all remaining time slots till 12, so we went to , City Center and eventually landing in MOE just to get a 11:59 PM Fix. But I got to tell you to tell you the truth the travel, pushing and a little bit of fighting was well worth it !!!! It was Awesome!!!! I mean at first was expecting it to suck, I mean when I heard about this new batman movie I was wondering … how many batman movies do we really have to watch in a lifetime? But it turned out to be really good especially the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of “The Joker” was magnificently played!! He really is a worthy successor of the role, which was originally played by Jack Nicholson.

The other night I got to see the new Batman movie, Dark Knight, with a friend of mine. After seeing it, I'm somewhat at a loss for words, because it's just that good. All of the other rave reviews you may have been reading are not gushing for no reason either.

Outside of this being one of the best action/comic book movies I've ever seen, this is simply a great movie. The cinematography is stunning, having been shot in IMAX. The performances by the actors are stellar. And Heath Ledger, in particular, steals the show. I would not be surprised if he were to get the Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor. He deserves is.

Back to the cinematography, this is purportedly the first full-length feature film shot entirely in IMAX. And it shows. If you're interested, take a look at the sheer complication that went into producing the visual effects for the Dark Knight in IMAX resolution. There was such detail shown by director Christopher Nolan, and it shows.

If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly encourage you to take in this soon-to-be classic.

Andrea's tiki party was fabulous. It had some drama with the cops coming three different times due to the live band and noise complaints. At the end of the night after 2AM, our friend was a little too drunk and had to be calmed down. My mom always said nothing good happens after 1AM, and somehow when something happens it is always very late (early in the AM) in the night. Her saying always pops in my head. All in all it was a good night as the pictures below will allow you to see (naomi & I had a fashion shoot from Andrea's closet..lol!):

Sunday we slept most of the afternoon for we only had about 5 hours of sleep before we woke up and went to breakfast. We had plans of meeting our friends at the Landa Park pools but then we stood everyone up! We met up with them after we woke up and then went to eat a Chinese buffet. I have come to the conclusion I don't like buffet's, especially a chinese one. I feel that you pay almost $10 per person and eat one plate and are full and then an hour later your hungry again. It's a total rip off! I ate one plate of food, couldn't find anything else that looked good so I didn't eat anymore. By the time we got home and were settled I was looking for a snack! After eating we went over to Jerry's house where everyone was playing Rock Band. This was my first time witnessing this game. Looks fun but I feel like I would let down my band mates (other players) because I would screw up so bad that we would loose the gig. To make things worse, playing on Jerry's TV is more complicated than a regular TV. Since it is a plasma it has a delay so you have to push, drum, sing about a second before you are suppose to, so you can acheive success (for those of you who have played you will understand, for those of you who haven't I'm sure you are utterly confused). Anywho, I watched and laughed, for those playing were almost experts (most of the time). Next time will be my time to shine..HAHA!

Monday was back to work day...uhhh! After work Daniel played softball with our new friends Gabe and Krystle. I sat and watched with Ashly and Willie. It was a lot of fun. Daniel did very well for not playing in 2 years. Afterwards we went to Thirsty's for $1 beer!! It was a lot of fun and cheap! A round for everyone was only $6. Of course there's always drama when you go out in NB, but nothing with Daniel and I (for once)!

Tuesday....work again. After work we went to the laundry mat and finished all of our laundry. It took us awhile! After laundry we went and played sand volleyball with Shekinah, Jody, Ashly, Willie, Krystle and Gabe. I played good that night which is VERY surprising, usually I'm only damage to our team. We (the girls) lost 3 games won 2. The boys cheated the WHOLE time and were cry babies; otherwise we would of won.

Wednesday was my day off from work but I went on a field trip with my mom's summer school class. It was SO fun but tiring. We went to the park in the morning and after lunch we went to the new Children's Museum, which is AWESOME! At the end of the day I was pooped and took a nap and still went to sleep about 10PM.

Last night was a lazy night for me, it was storming all day and night so I stayed in while Daniel went out. I felt very refreshed this morning when waking up for work, I was glad I didn't go out. Tonight I'm SUPER excited!! We are going to watch DARK KNIGHT with GREAT FRIENDS!!!!!!!!! AHHHH...I can't wait! I keep wanting to call it Black Night, who knows why.... But anyways, after work I'm going to help my mom paint her kitchen until D gets off and then going with Willie, Ash, Gabe and Krys to go watch the movie....YEA YEA YEA!

That has been my week so far, by far one of the busiest but it only makes it roll by faster. Before I know it, I will be in school again. My weekends in August are already getting planned, Beat Bash and Garner State Park, again with Willie, Ash, Gabe and Krys. As you can tell we really enjoy these friends/couples.

This was a long one but I had to fit a whole weeks in one post, I must NEVER do this again. So long, Black Dark Knight review tomorrow.

So I went to see The Dark Knight and, as everyone in America has been telling us for the last week, it's officially fucking dynamite. That's all you need to know.

I've mentioned Frank's egotism, but it's fun to laugh at. He's also taken to wearing his sunglasses almost 24/7, so one night in Kauai I played "I Wear My Sunglasses At Night" and told him it was the theme song of his life. I don't know if that was a mistake or not, but he took to it very well and plays it quite often.

+++

We got back today after a 30min, a 7.5hr, and a 2hr plane ride, which took up the entirety of about a day if you include changing time zones, and was a rather horrible day. I actually like traveling, but I don't want to set foot on a plane for a long, long time. I still like the sound they make in the air though, and will once again miss the sounds of night flights passing over our neighborhood when I return to Tech.

Also, we saw a mouse in Minneapolis. Mom pointed it out. It was a small one, looked like the kind you'd feed to a snake, and was about four rows ahead and diagonally to the right of us at our gate. Nevertheless, Mother Dearest jumped up, proclaimed rather hysterically that, "YIKES, there's a mouse! Pick up all your things! There's a mouse!" She pointed and then started stomping her feet despite the fact that the disgusting creature was far away and not heading toward us.

It was kind of hilarious. Though I do understand the hysteria. If I hadn't been quite so exhausted or disinterested in everything around me at the time, I probably would've picked up my feet along with all my belongings. There are two animals that I hate: pigeons and rats. Sometimes mice though, because I associate them with rats. And pigeons are rats with wings. They are disgusting, disease-carrying creatures. And we all know how I'm something of a germophobe (thanks to Pop), and am paranoid about getting diseases or parasites and stuff.

I had a passing desire to join the Peace Corps. It lasted about an hour. I was really enthusiastic about wanting to go abroad to help people, immerse myself in a different culture, learn a new language, rough it out, but then I thought about it practically and I have issues with going without a proper shower for more than a day, I can't sleep if I'm worrying about how sanitary the drinking water is, I have a phobia against bugs (especially huge ones), am paranoid about parasites, and can't sleep well if not in a comfy bed with five pillows.

It would be great to do I think, but I don't know if I'd live through it.

Though I'd suffer it all if I could do it in Kauai, but no one really needs help there.

+++

Frank zipped right out the door once we got home.

Dad and I want to see The Dark Knight tomorrow. He suggested tonight, but I thought ahead and said I might accidentally pass out at 4pm, so let's shoot for tomorrow. He ended up passing out on the couch in a drunken, black-out kind of sprawl that made me laugh a bit, and even after being the one to say try not to sleep until later in the evening! Haha! Mom and I laughed at that too.

Mom and I also laughed together at the two boys of the family saying our lives would probably be pretty uneventful and boring without them being difficult, annoying, frustrating, or just plain ridiculous.

Have you been regressing endogenous variables again?

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

It's too much.

I mean, too much for one blog post. Last Friday I lightheartedly left a comment on Matt's PTP entry promising to have my Batman post up by Monday. Surely, I thought, I'd be so juiced after the movie that I'd run straight back to my computer and blog until my fingers bled.

But no, this was a very dense movie. Chris Nolan is ambitious, and the movie vindicates his ambition triumphantly. After the movie, I was unable to talk much about it - because there was too much to digest. And by the time I was ready, I had already forgotten half the thoughts I'd had during and right after the movie. Clearly this is a work that's going to repay a lot of repeat viewing - a hypothesis I intend to test vigorously, hopefully with plenty of checks for the robustness of the finding (e.g. does the movie repay repeat viewing if the repeat views are in a drive-in? In IMAX? With co-workers? In the afternoon? Does it make a difference if I order a soda with my popcorn? How about what kind of soda I order? I'd better try watching it once with each kind, just to be sure).

At this point I just know that any blogging I do is going to be no more than a pale shadow of what I really thought and felt during the movie. So, to assuage my conscience (and save myself from spending all day working on this post, fretting about what I'm forgetting to include) I'm hereby inagurating a special Pass the Popcorn Mini-Series. I'm posting some of my thoughts now, in anticipation of revisiting the subject later. (Don't worry, not too often. But we are going to have to find something to write about on Fridays after the summer movie season dies down, and this will help fill the gap.)

Oh, before I forget:

(HT xkcd)

There are already some haters out there, like John Podhoretz in the Weekly Standard, who are offended - nay, outraged - that a comic book movie is getting the kind of praise The Dark Knight is getting. Well, OK, it ain't Shakespeare, but that's apples and oranges. Let's take a similar example - say, a mob movie. Podhoretz never misses an opportunity to share his opinion that The Godfather is the best movie ever made. And I agree that The Godfather deserves to be taken seriously as a great work of art. But it is a mob movie. If The Godfather can be great, why not this?

Unforgivably, Podhoretz works out his anger by spoiling as much of the moive as he can get away with. So don't read it until after you've seen the movie. (Reading the spoilers in this blog entry is of course an entirely different matter.)

It's readily apparent from Podhoretz's review what's really eating him: he loves the old, wild and carefree tradition of superheroes from the Silver Age, recently resurrected so dazzlingly in Iron Man. That tradition got killed off in the 1980s, in large part due to Frank Miller's amazing work in reinventing Batman, and Podhoretz resents that this type of superhero has crowded his preferences out of the market.

(As an aside, Frank Miller looks to have come way down in the world, artistically speaking; to judge by the preview they ran in front of Dark Knight, Miller's newest project is to take Will Eisner's treasure The Spirit and turn it into a porno movie. But all will be forgiven if Holy Terror, Batman! ever actually sees the light of day.)

I sympathize with Podhoretz. One of the best comics ever drawn is Scott McCloud's ZOT!, which came out when the Dark and Serious school was at its height, as an attempt to rescucitate the wild and carefree hero. (According to McCloud's introduction, it was especially a reaction against the literally murderous nihilism of Watchmen, which, alas, now looks like it's finally going to get the movie they've been threatening to make of it for decades. Yes, there was a lot of real storytelling genius in Watchmen. That's what makes it so horrible - to see such genius used to glorify cynicism and murder.)

But while most of the Dark and Serious stuff was crud, let's face it, most of the Wild and Carefree stuff that preceded it was also crud. ZOT! and the new Iron Man are jewels, but jewels in the rough. So was Miller's original Dark Knight Returns, and so is the new Dark Knight.

And then there's the politics. There's a handy precis of the issues, with links, here if you're interested. My take: The Dark Knight probably isn't directly about the war on terror. It's about things that are universal. (Ever since Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, Batman has periodically been used to explore these issues - meaning we don't need to bring in the war on terror to explain why these issues are present in a Batman movie.) But of course if these things are universal then they're as present in the war on terror as everywhere else, so the application of the movie's subject matter to the war on terror in the viewer's mind is perfectly valid. 

Having unburdened myself of these reactions to the reactions to the movie, do I have time left today to say anything about the actual movie? Just briefly.

Warning: Believe with Caution

The Dark Knight seems to be primarily about moral hypocrisy. People are not "basically good." All human beings are both good and evil. However, it's not in our nature to admit this about ourselves; we have to pretend that we're good. And the same hypocrisy manifests at the social level - society, being made up of human beings, is not "basically good" but is both good and evil. However, in order to keep from becoming aware of our own evil, lest we should have to admit the truth about ourselves, we also have to sheild ourselves from other people's evil. If we admitted that everyone else was not "basically good," it would be really hard to avoid raising the question about ourselves. And so we have to pretend that everybody is "basically good."

The Joker is out to expose our hypocrisy. His ultimate goal isn't to kill, it's to corrupt. He would say that he isn't out to corrupt us, but to make us admit to the corruption that's already there in our hearts. But to "admit" to the courrption in the Joker's sense is really to surrender to it - to become "corrupt" on a whole different level.

This, incidentally, is why it was such a good decision to give the Joker no backstory (and not just by omission but by the Joker's deliberate obfuscation about his own past). As Chris Nolan has said (I'm paraphrasing), this Joker isn't a person, he's a primal force. My hypothesis: the reason this Joker has to be a primal force and not a person is because he has to stand outside of our hypocrisy. The Joker's place in the narrative requires him to be, not both good and bad, but all bad. And while the Joker is right that all people are bad, it's also true that all people are good - therefore the Joker, being all bad, can't be a person.

On the individual level, the Joker's mission is manifested in the "one rule" dynamic between Batman and the Joker. As all real Batman fans know, Batman's one rule is that he doesn't kill people. The Joker's goal for the Batman is to induce him to break his one rule - thereby proving that his rule is really a construction of self-righteous hypocrisy.

Here the influence of Miller's Dark Knight Returns is obvious, although Miller's Joker is primarily motivated by a desire for mass murder and cares about Batman's one rule only secondarily:

Late Nite Talk Show Host "Dave": You're said to have only killed about six hundred people, Joker. Now don't take this the wrong way, but I think you've been holding out on us.

Pansy Liberal Psychologist: This is a sensitive human being here, Dave. I won't let you harrass-

Joker: I don't keep count . . . I'm going to kill everyone in this room.

Dave: Now that's darn rude.

At the social level, the Joker is out to stop Gotham City's resurgent belief in justice, embodied (in different ways) by Batman and Harvey Dent. I wish there had been an opportunity to establish more tangibly the positive impact that Dent's mob cleanup was having on the city; it would have made us feel more urgently the real stakes that the Joker was playing for.

What the heck is this guy's name again? They said it, like, five times in the movie. You would think I'd remember.

And that leads to the big twist at the end - maybe the best twist I've ever seen in a movie: the good guys have to defend hypocrisy. Of course it would be great if society could admit the truth about its own corruption and still strive to uphold justice anyway. But fallen human nature doesn't work that way.

All my life, I've hated those cheesy TV shows where they decide to cover something up because "people need heroes." Even the Simpsons, when they set out to parody this, couldn't quite bring themselves to pull the trigger. It's not done as a parody when Lisa decides not to reveal that Jebediah Springfield was actually a notorious pirate; they play it straight.

But The Dark Knight makes it work. People really do need their heroes, and their heroes really are fallen people. Ergo, people really do need hypocrisy. The reason I buy this in The Dark Knight when I've rejected it in all previous incarnations is because The Dark Knight doesn't try to make it out to be a good thing. It's wrong that people need hypocrisy - that people need to have heroes before they'll agree to uphold justice and do good and so forth. It's ugly and stupid and evil. As Dr. Surridge says in the original V for Vendetta comic (not the dreadful movie version), "There's something wrong with us."

Yes, it's wrong that people need hypocrisy - but since they do need it, it's not necessarily wrong to supply it.

Hold that thought. More to come. Stay tuned!

Dad: That’s too many.  If these are my favorites I have to really think about this. I have to pick carefully, what if I’m stuck with these my whole life.

Me: well take your time.

And he did.  I called him back a few days later to follow up.  The phone rang and rang and then silence.  Then I heard, “There you are.”  To which I responded, “Where was I?” He replied, “You went off somewhere, but now you’re back! Love you most.”  Then he hung up.

So… I called him back and resumed our conversation.  He didn’t have his top five as I had originally asked, five movies was really stressing him out.  But, he did have a list of three ready, so I think I’ll cap the list at three.

We discussed the many factors that go into choosing a favorite movie.  Such as, re-watchablility.  It was very important to dad that he chose movies that he could watch over and over and over. His reasoning, “If I’m on a stranded island, in the middle of nowhere these movies have to pull me through the hard times.”  This means it’s important to pick movies that you would never tire of watching, on your island, in the middle of nowhere, that is. Another factor was quotability.  Did the movie produce quotable lines? Without further adieu, I present the list.

HIPPY THE CLOWN’S FAVORITE MOVIES (btw: This is his clown name. Seriously.)

1.  Arsenic and Old Lace

Dad: “It would have to be Arsenic and Old Lace, that’s a movie I would keep under my pillow.” (This is in case he’s robbed; he always said you keep your valuables under your pillow or mattress. Items under your mattress are irreplaceable, i.e. cash.) I do love this movie. We would pop this worn out VHS into the VCR and enjoy this flick about once a week.  Carry Grant was big in our household. So were Jimmy Stuart, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Bette Midler and Barry Manilow. The many living room performances to Judy, Bette, and Barry’s tunes got us through life without cable TV. 

Quotes:

Dr. Einstein: Where am I? Oh, here I am.

Mortimer Brewster: When I come back, I expect to find you gone. Wait for me!

2.  Sleepless in Seattle

Dad: “Well, I have to have Sleepless in Seattle. Have to!!!  Because of the hopeless romantic that I am.  You remember the part at the end.  Oh, it’s the best.” Favorite Quotes: (He couldn't think of any at the moment, but he's sure there are plenty)

3.  Mary Poppins

Dad: “Absolutely without a doubt Mary Poppins.  It’s a feel good movie to watch at night when you’re feeling down.” This is probably one of my favorite movies, as well. I love it when local TV runs it on long weekends or holidays. We learned our life lessons from this movie. 

Favorite Quotes:

Mary Poppins: That's a piecrust promise. Easily made, easily broken.

Mary Poppins: As I expected. "Mary Poppins, practically perfectly in every way." (My dad uses this quote on a daily basis with a little modification to suite himself.  When you ask him how he is, you know in polite conversation…Stranger: How are you doing today?  My dad: Practically perfect in every way. Sometimes he shortens it to practically perfect.

When it was time to end our call, I said, "Dad I have to go."  His reply, "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride." 

I had planned to hang with my dad this weekend, but a familiar conundrum has surfaced.  My mom also wants to hang with me this weekend.  As with all kids from broken homes, which parent do you choose? My sister’s solution, which has always been her strategy for these situations, who has the better offer? And, times being what they are, I’m kind of on board with this logic.

Dad will definitely pay for whatever outing we choose. My mom thinks we’re learning lessons and being grownups when we pay for ourselves. But, as Ms. A pointed out, you’re not a grownup until you’re married.  I’m still finding my way in this scary world.  My sister’s going to call both and get the scoop. She said, “If we play this right, we could have the whole weekend covered.” I know it’s wrong, but I’m broke and want to see Mama Mia and Dark Knight and maybe enjoy an ice-cream.

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In the latest move in a five-year PR battle against KFC, PETA launched a transvestite and a Manhattan billboard against the fried-chicken chain this week. Located near the heavily trafficked entrance to the Holland Tunnel, the billboard includes the image of Lady Bunny and a KFC bucket with the head of a dead chicken. Lady Bunny, a local celebrity, is a nightclub DJ, event promoter and emcee of the annual Wigstock festival in New York's West Village.

FULL ARTICLE

'Iron Man' vs. 'The Dark Knight' Which Superhero Movie Packed the Biggest Media Punch?

Summer blockbusters "Iron Man" and "The Dark Knight" both showed superhero-like powers when it came to pulling in box-office receipts. The marketing and media behind these two Hollywood franchises was a critical ingredient to maximizing both films' potential. Paramount developed the "Iron Man" media strategy for Marvel Entertainment's first funded production, while Warner Bros. was behind "The Dark Knight." The companies took quite different media strategies. Optimedia U.S. President Antony Young reviews how well they did.

FULL ARTICLE

His superpowers would include corruption, fear/hate mongering and unwavering denial in the face of incriminating evidence.

Now that I have my cards out on the table, I guess you'll have to take my reviews with a grain of salt knowing that i'll be writing with an anti-Kwame bias.

The only question is, what would his super villain name be?

8 reasons why this weekend I'm going to see the Dark Knight for the second time (and you should too).

1. The pencil trick
2. The bike flip.
3. Because as dope as the writing was... I'm certain that I missed a few things... (why did the Batman save Harvey?)
4. Lcd and plasma ain't got sh*t on IMAX
5. The Watchmen trailer
6. Because when you do the math... Gotham lost, Harvey Lost, Batman lost... the Joker won.
7. Because I feel kind of emotionally unsettled now... and I need closure.
8. I'm the biggest Batman fan in the world (so keep up!)

- Farragut Foster

A TRIP to the cinema with my 16-year-old son was just the thing to cheer me up this morning, so, at his prompting, we bought tickets to see "The Dark Knight".

Great film, but take my advice: do not go to see this if you think it'll be a laugh. Heath Ledger is brilliant as the Joker (genuinely sinister, as opposed to Jack Nicholson, who played it strictly for laughs in Tim Burton's 1989 version), and Christian Bale is... well, he's Christian Bale. He's well enough cast in the lead role, but you can't help feeling that he's going through the motions. His "impassive, strong and silent type" acting just comes across as a bit lifeless.

Like its predecessor, "The Dark Knight" tries to be all serious, dark, violent and threatening, and it is all those. But once again I'm left wondering whether making a serious movie based on a comic book superhero is worth the candle.

But I did like it. Honest.

PS. On the way home, having foolishly turned my phone back on, I received a call from a journalist friend. "What are you up to?" he asked. "On my way home from 'The Dark Knight'," I reply.

"You talking about last night?" Oh, what a wag!

P.S. Pretty late but the girls MEBAD finally got over the English boys about a week ago. Bonnie's lost touch with Andrew and Diana towards Craig. Victory!

P.S.S. I've decided to kill the other blog [livejournal] since it's not as pretty and since I've revealed it to many people; isn't much of an online diary that way, now is it?

UPDATE:         7.25.08
The Dark Knight was a good movie; not amazing, just good. Yes I dare say it, it wasn't revolutionary, but it was above average. I enjoyed how intelligent it was, and how it incorporated twists and turns. I also liked the morals/principles they include into this superhero film; it's good for the kids. Oh yeah, I officially hate people who clap during movies; Bonnie, Annie & I were mocking them. It's not THAT great of a scene to clap in, jeez.

Maybe I would have been less judgemental if people didn't rave about it like they have been doing?

eg. Jeff, Kate, Jenny, etc.

Oh...and this is what the weather looks like today

Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham’s new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker’s crimes grow more and more deadly.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/

RAPIDSHARE (200Mb Links)

http://rapidshare.com/files/131721930/prevail-dknight.part1.rar
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http://rapidshare.com/files/131721968/prevail-dknight.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/131721938/prevail-dknight.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/131721999/prevail-dknight.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/131721954/prevail-dknight.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/131721947/prevail-dknight.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/131721010/prevail-dknight.part8.rar

The Wall Street Journal today published an op-ed by one Andrew Klavan, who makes the case that "The Dark Knight" is an allegory for the War on Terror. In this scenario, Batman is a stand-in for George Bush, the man who makes unpopular decisions to do what is ultimately right.

But Klavan somewhat misses the point of the movie. The Bush Administration isn't Batman; it is Harvey Dent. Or more to the point, Two-Face.

According to Klavan:

"There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past."

But Klavan ignores the fact that the film presents us with three models for responding to terror: 1) giving in to terrorists' demands (which Batman considers and rejects), 2) continuing to do the right thing in the face of extraordinarily difficult choices (the path Batman takes at the cost of his own popularity), or 3) becoming so twisted by frustration and the desire for revenge that we disregard the law and turn to deadly violence as a means to an end (as exemplified by Harvey Dent).

Batman ultimately chooses not to give up, but he also rejects the dark path down which Dent, and Bush, traveled. By using torture and disregarding constitutional law in the name of "promoting democracy," the Bush administration is closer to the twisted vigilante Two-Face, who turns on the very ideals he swore to defend. A violent disaster transformed the man of law and order into what he beheld.

Recall the scene in which Batman urges Two-Face not to torture and execute his captive in a shadowy alley; Dent had been the beacon of justice, and the effect of seeing its hero lose his moral compass would be devastating to Gotham. It is not hard to view this as a parallel for the way the torture memo, secret CIA prisons, extraordinary renditions, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and wire tapping have sorely tarnished America's position as the world's model democracy.

Yes, the film is a reminder that good people must fight for good, although it may not be easy, expedient, or popular.  But it also urges us that, even in crisis, we cannot become the enemy in order to defeat it, even if it might mean our own deaths. Recall the (literal) prisoner's dilemma faced by the two ferries; human goodness would not let the criminals blow up the innocent to survive, and more importantly, would not let the innocent murder the guilty to save their own lives, either.

The Dark Knight isn't a defense of Bush. I doubt Christopher Nolan considers Batman to be an allegory for anyone. Most likely, he intended the film to be a great crime movie that will spark discussion. Like any good comic book, myth, or parable, it is a story about choices. We will interpret the story according to our own perspective. I choose to see "The Dark Knight" as an homage to muscular moral absolutism and an indictment of those who lose their way in crisis and transgress the values that make us who we are.

The author basically says what everyone else has been saying.

I really want to see this movie, but it sounds downright troubling.

Anybody got some feedback for me?

He played the Joker in the movie The Dark Knight, shortly before his death on January 22, 2008, from an accidental prescription drug overdose at age 28. His final film performance, uncompleted at the time of his death, is the role of Tony in Terry Gilliam's forthcoming film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Posthumously, on February 23, 2008, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director of the film I'm Not There, in which he portrayed a character named "Robbie Clark", based on a stage in the life of Bob Dylan.

In addition to his work as an actor and as a producer and director of music videos, he also aspired to be a film director.

Numerous actors have made statements expressing their sorrow at Ledger's death, including Daniel Day-Lewis who dedicated his Screen Actors Guild Award to Ledger, saying that he was inspired by Ledger's acting; Day-Lewis praised Ledger's performances in Monster's Ball and Brokeback Mountain, describing the latter as "unique, perfect."

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