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Thu, 11 Sep 2008
Kristy and I have not felt compelled enough to arrange a babysitter and take a night off to go see The Dark Knight, despite its universal rave reviews. I procrastinated seeing it until tonight, the last night it will be shown at the 90-foot-long, 30-foot-high screen at Cinerama Theater in downtown Seattle. So I organized an impromptu EQ Night at the Movies tonight and carpooled down with three of my church compatriots to see it. The trade-off is that Kristy is planning on going with a bunch of her lady friends to see the theatrical version of Mamma Mia one week from today. It's a win-win because Kristy isn't really chomping at the bit to see the newest Batman flick, and I would rather catch Mamma Mia on rental after having suffered through the on-stage musical production a couple of years ago. The Dark Knight is currently ranked #3 in the IMDb Top 250. And reviews across the board are filled with high praise; Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 95% Fresh rating. Not only that, but the film has grossed about a half billion dollars at the box office (yes... 500 million!) and is currently only exceeded in all time gross box-office receipts by the epic Titanic (although if adjusted for inflation, then Dark Knight just barely makes the top 30). So anyway, I saw the new Batman film tonight with somewhat high expectations... I was prepared to be blown away. Well, I wasn't. It's a good film, yes... a great one? No. And certainly not better than the first installment - Batman Begins. There are many good things to say about the film. The action sequences and stunts are well choreographed. The special effects are top rate. The acting is solid, specifically that of the late Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker. However, the vehicle for all these fine elements of the movie - the storyline itself - was rather ho-hum: Batman good, Joker bad, Joker does bad things, Batman stops joker, The End. Noticeably lacking is the excellent character development that existed in the first movie. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie. I give it 7 stars out of 10 (see above). It just isn't as great as I thought it would be and it wasn't as good as its predecessor, which I gave 8 out of 10 stars. By contrast, the average IMDb rating for Dark Knight is 9 out 10 stars(!). I was just looking at my IMDb profile. Of the 750 movies I have rated there, I've only given three movies a perfect 10 and a rather tight group of nineteen movies a score of a 9. I'm looking over the list (Raising Arizona, Shawshank, Fiddler on the Roof, Gattaca, The Incredibles, It's a Wonderful Life, Empire of the Sun, A Christmas Story, etc) and I just can't put Dark Knight in that group. Summary: Good enough.
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