Yes, it is that good. Because really, I had two questions in mind when I went to a midnight screening of The Dark Knight. First, is it really worth the 94% rating it has on Rotten Tomatoes? The theater I was in seemed to think so -- hundreds of overeducated, smart-ass comic nerds and movie buffs who needed to be there opening night, who were all excited but cautious, who required being won over. And I never heard a snort, a groan, a snide remark, or the shushing of people across the theater. The second question is whether Heath Ledger really is that amazing, or are critics blowing smoke up his legacy's ass? The answer to that is, "Jack who?" Oh wait, there's a third question -- how much of Christian Bale's skin do we see? Unfortunately, not much, so savor the scene early on when he takes off his undershirt.
The movie has some great superhero action scenes, but they are balanced equally to the story about crime in society and moral ambiguity of those who maintain the rules (even if only to break them). It teetered on being heavy-handed, but in the end, the director won me over with his dark, brutal film that doesn't let anyone off the hook with who gets hurt. I liked the first Christopher Nolan Batman movie while watching it, but honestly, I couldn't remember much about it by the next day. This film is much more haunting and memorable, with a vision of a Gotham that doesn't seem too far off from the corruption of Chicago, a city that is equally a star in this movie.
I'm biased of course -- that's where I live, and there were many nights last summer where I walked past the downtown blocks where they filmed many prominent scenes. I knew every landmark, every building face, every intersection. As I rode my bike home down those same Gotham city streets at three this morning, under a near full moon, I felt the movie hadn't ended, I was just in the next scene. I couldn't help myself from contemplating the weight of how we need to step up as citizens in a country that is currently unraveling around these questions of ethics and violence and who makes the hard choices and why.....
Okay, I'm starting to wax poetic and I'm not sure the movie can quite sustain that. So I will instead end with my disbelief and curiosity that in the theater next door to mine, there was also a midnight premiere showing of Mamma Mia! Don't get me wrong -- I'm psyched to see it, especially after the Popnography review I didn't get to do -- but really? A Thursday midnight show? Who was there? Did it sell out too? Was it all grumbling Dark Knight fans who showed up too late to get tickets and decided to just stay and watch something? I have no idea, but I wish I'd been there, too. O, that I (and you, dear readers) had access to the alternate universe where that fag version of me was sitting on the other side of the wall!
-- A. RAYMOND JOHNSON
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