The Dark Knight

I had to wait until Sunday to see The Dark Knight, after most of the country had already seen it - if you can judge by the $66 million Friday debut. I was afraid it would be crowded, so we hit the earliest matinee we could find, which at our preferred theater was noon. Sure enough, the theater was almost 2/3 full. That's just crazy for such an early show.

But what a movie. The acting was superb (and yes, whatever you've heard about Heath Ledger knocking The Joker out of the park is true... Jack Nicholson was great but Heath was just plain scary), the effects were outstanding (one scene in particular where they blow up a building shocked me with how real it looked and I wondered if they really did it), and the story was involved and compelling. What I liked about it was the fact that they (Chris Nolan, his brother, and David S. Goyer, who collaborated with them on the first one) really delved into the "good vs. evil within yourself" themes that's made Batman an interesting character all of these years. I mean, really, he's a vigilante, above the law. Is he a good guy or a bad guy who's just not as bad as everybody else? Where do we have room for that in our society?

I guess when you have larger than life baddies like The Joker and Ra's Al Ghul, you'll take a masked man with a utility belt if you can get one.

I think this is one of the best comic book movies I've seen, but it's apples and oranges compared to the others. It almost transcends comic-bookness because of the drama and pure psychological themes. Do I want to say it's better than some of my previous favorites? Does it belong up there above Hellboy, V for Vendetta, Sin City, Spiderman 2, X-Men 2, even this year's Ironman? Or do I put it on a different shelf altogether and classify it as something else?

I came out of the theater feeling exhausted. Sure, it could be the 152 minute running time, the 20 minutes of previews (Watchmen, yeah!) and the 20 minutes of pre-show ads before that (we got in early to get a good seat), but it could be that all of the emotional luggage I carried out with me as I pondered the effects of what I just saw.

On the drive home, I started thinking about it in comparison with 2005's Batman Begins (and I note that I've been at this blog long enough to start reviewing sequels to movies I'd reviewed earlier). How do they compare? This one was most certainly the better movie. Batman Begins was most certainly more fun. Think about Star Wars vs. The Godfather. Is there any question about which is the better movie? No. Is there any question about which is more fun? Again, no.

However, let me stretch a bit and compare this to The Empire Strikes Back. A lot happens. A lot is revealed. Things change irreversibly in the end. And I simply can't wait for the inevitable third in the trilogy. What the Nolan brothers and Goyer have come up with so far is leading - I feel - to something even more spectacular down the road. I'll look forward to 2011, but in the meantime, I'll get this one on Blu-ray so I can watch it again. And again.