Batman: the Dark Knight

I went saw Batman today. In an IMAX theater, no less. If you've never been to an IMAX, just picture them pointing the movie projector on the side of a three-story building. I dare say it's almost too big, though you get used to the scope quickly.

As for the movie, I liked it. People have not been exaggerating Ledger's performance as the Joker. The movie is nearly three hours long, so the director and screenwriters took their time in developing the story the way they wanted. They needed that time because the characters in this movie are complex. Some, like Wayne, we already know about. But others must fall from grace from an ethically high point, not an all-out free-fall, but instead slow, methodical pushing and prodding from events and people around them. The movie manages that fall with believability and conviction. Some tragedy too.

A common review tag line for Batman: the Dark Knight has been along the lines of, "Grim, epic, but where's the fun?" I guess they're referring to earlier iterations of the movie series, where spandexed asses suddenly bumped up against the camera and nipples were carefully spackled on to rubber chest pieces. Maybe they find it "fun" to see Tommy Lee Jones overact as Harvey Dent or Arnold Schwarzenegger apply his special brand of bad one-liners to Mr. Freeze.

Personally, I can't make myself watch those earlier versions of Batman. Maybe because I'm older I like my Batman dark, alone, vigilante. More Frank Miller, less Adam West. Yup, the vision and scope may not be the stuff of light-hearted fun; Marvel's Spider-Man series is better equipped for that. Mostly because Batman is a different hero than the likes of Spidey. Peter Parker wrestles with balancing his life as a hero with that of being a normal person. Bruce Wayne wrestles with the evil in his own soul. Batman sometimes becomes the very thing he fights in the name of justice, a proposition our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler rarely faces. It's that examination of what depths a man might plunge to bring forth the light that makes Batman: the Dark Knight good entertainment and nourishment for introspection.

Now if we can just get Christian Bale to allegedly stop bitch slapping his ma and sister, everything would be good.