You know how every year movie studios try to use hype to convince us to go see their movies? And when you go see the movies the experience almost never lives up to the hype? Yeah we have all been there. So what about the latest Batman movie? Does live up to the hype Warner Bros. and other media outlets or does it disappoint?
Personally, I think it by far does not disappoint. It exceeded my expectations. I have been a comic book fan my whole life in general and Batman in particular. The highest praise for a movie of this type that I can offer is this: I think I have finally seen the definitive Batman movies - the one movie by which all comic book/cartoon adaptations will be judged from now on. It was done from the standpoint of if these over-the-top fictional characters really existed as real people, they would have to look, feel, and act like the characters in this movie. All the actors were awesome and I can see why Heath Ledger got such great reviews as the Joker. He made Jack Nicholson's Joker (1989) look sane. No wonder people are meaning the words "Leger", "deserves", "an Oscar" in the same sentence.
The character seemed to personify evil, psychosis, and chaos. He was not interested in money or power as most villains and criminals are interested. Those kinds of people just are willing to do whatever they have to get what they want. This Joker was different. All he was concerned with was proving that every human being is capable of killing and maiming someone else if it meant saving themselves.
The Joker reminded me of Satan telling God in the book of Job, that the only reason why Job loved and obeyed God was because God protected him and if God allowed Job to loose everything he held dear, Job would curse God. This was interesting to see this kind of intricste and complex themes in a comic book movie. Without giving away the movie, many characters in the movie were faced with loosing what meant the most to them through the Joker's plans and actions. In short, Job was way more successful in his trials than many of the character in the movie. Hopefully in a few weeks I can better compare and contrast each character from "the Dark Knight" with Job and discuss what is being said about humanity and suffering. Perhaps a video.
It was interesting watching how they wrestled with just how much of their souls they were willing to give up. Just where was the line they refused to cross. Joker was the only character that did not wrestle with those questions. He was a sociopathic catalyst that changed the lives of everyone in the city and forced the main characters to make difficult choices. Turned out Batman did some heavy soul searching and narrowly managed to win (if you can call the end of the movie winning).
If you have not seen this movie I think you should see it. I think that it is the highest grossing movie of 2008 and finally have been Spider-man from 2002 as the highest grossing movie opening ever. By the was if you had want to see this movie opening weekend you had 2 options. One, you bought your tickets early in advanced perhaps days or even weeks. Or two, you did what I did and say it at an insane hour of day. I saw it at the San Francisco Metreon at 12:30 am on opening Sunday morning. The theater was packed and I had waited in line 2 hours and saw the lines for the two shows that has sold out as the showing I attended had sold out. Block some time out...it's 2 and half hours long, but it goes by fast. I got home at 4:30 am. I do not reccommend pulling this on a Sunday morning because we all ought to be in Church and Sunday School. If you can still make church the next day go for it. If you can't, pick option 1 - Fandango. By the way, I made if for church including Sunday School and an evening service without falling a sleep all day. How? God did it. He alowed me to get some caffine.
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