Monday, July 21, 2008
The Dark Knight makes me eat crow
Around this same time last week I posted about how rad Hellboy II: The Golden Army was and expressed doubt that The Dark Knight could live up to the ridiculous hype. I expected an excellent movie, but I really didn't think it could blow my mind like Hellboy II did.
Well, I guess I asked for it. The Dark Knight was indeed incredible, and actually managed to exceed my already high expectations. I try not to get to ahead of myself talking about whether a movie I just saw will be one of the best of the year, but in two weeks both Hellboy II and The Dark Knight entered the conversation. Who knows what else will knock me on my ass between now and the end of December (presumably at least a few movies that don't involve crimefighting or monsters), but the bar is pretty damn high right now.
And as you may have heard, The Dark Knight also made copious amounts of money over the weekend, breaking Spider-Man 3's previous opening-weekend record by a few million. I tried to see it in IMAX on the opening weekend, but when I went online to try to buy tickets last Monday (something I never do), it was already sold out. So I saw it twice on Friday (which had more to do with seeing it with separate friends than me being such a geek that I had to see it twice on opening day, but hey, there are better ways to spend five hours of a day off than watching a great movie two times), and I'll report back on the IMAX version once I've gotten to that in the next week or two.
Also, one last thing I had to mention about The Dark Knight, which actually has nothing to do with The Dark Knight at all: the trailer for Watchmen that preceeded it. Oh. My. God. I literally haven't been this excited about a movie since I spent about half a year eagerly anticipating the 1989 release of Tim Burton's Batman (I was about 10, making it one of the big formative periods in my movie-geek career, and the movie remains one of my all-time favourites). I'm not going to go on about Watchmen here right now, but go watch the trailer (I watched it about 10 times on the weekend, and twice more just putting this post together, so it's safe to say I'm pretty excited). One of the few things in life I love more than movies are comics, and this is an adaptation of one of the truly great works in the medium's history. Zack Snyder proved with 300 that he knows how to make a movie, and this trailer is designed to let hardcore Watchmen fans like me that he really understands how to translate this incredibly dense and complex book to the screen (the Wikipedia entry on the book is here, but I recommend avoiding any spoilers if you haven't read the book -- which you should -- and have even a passing interest in the film). I'm just glad I have until next March to prepare myself for this thing.
Well, I guess I asked for it. The Dark Knight was indeed incredible, and actually managed to exceed my already high expectations. I try not to get to ahead of myself talking about whether a movie I just saw will be one of the best of the year, but in two weeks both Hellboy II and The Dark Knight entered the conversation. Who knows what else will knock me on my ass between now and the end of December (presumably at least a few movies that don't involve crimefighting or monsters), but the bar is pretty damn high right now.
And as you may have heard, The Dark Knight also made copious amounts of money over the weekend, breaking Spider-Man 3's previous opening-weekend record by a few million. I tried to see it in IMAX on the opening weekend, but when I went online to try to buy tickets last Monday (something I never do), it was already sold out. So I saw it twice on Friday (which had more to do with seeing it with separate friends than me being such a geek that I had to see it twice on opening day, but hey, there are better ways to spend five hours of a day off than watching a great movie two times), and I'll report back on the IMAX version once I've gotten to that in the next week or two.
Also, one last thing I had to mention about The Dark Knight, which actually has nothing to do with The Dark Knight at all: the trailer for Watchmen that preceeded it. Oh. My. God. I literally haven't been this excited about a movie since I spent about half a year eagerly anticipating the 1989 release of Tim Burton's Batman (I was about 10, making it one of the big formative periods in my movie-geek career, and the movie remains one of my all-time favourites). I'm not going to go on about Watchmen here right now, but go watch the trailer (I watched it about 10 times on the weekend, and twice more just putting this post together, so it's safe to say I'm pretty excited). One of the few things in life I love more than movies are comics, and this is an adaptation of one of the truly great works in the medium's history. Zack Snyder proved with 300 that he knows how to make a movie, and this trailer is designed to let hardcore Watchmen fans like me that he really understands how to translate this incredibly dense and complex book to the screen (the Wikipedia entry on the book is here, but I recommend avoiding any spoilers if you haven't read the book -- which you should -- and have even a passing interest in the film). I'm just glad I have until next March to prepare myself for this thing.
Labels: Batman, comics, superheroes, trailers, Watchmen
¶ 8:04 AM
