Drunken Comics Rage

Yes, I am here and they are there. So until Shark and Monkey reappear with something interesting to say, you are officially stuck with me and my general grumpiness. I can't even really say that I am grumpy about not being in San Diego, other than maybe just that the rest of the week has made me grumpy enough that the desire to be in San Diego is greater now that I am not.

So the Mrs. and I did in fact see the Dark Knight on Sunday as planned. From the looks of the box office numbers it seems as though a large part of planet earth did the same at some stage over the weekend. Monday morning the media was all abuzz with the total dollar figures and how it had beaten out Spidey 3 (the prior king of the opening weekend box office). Of course as the day rolled on some articles started to speak of how with inflation and the higher cost of ticket prices, Spidey 3 may very wel have sold a few more tickets. What I don't believe I saw anyone mention is Dark Knight is in fcat a far superior movie to Spiderman 3. In my opinion that tends to win all tie-breakers.

Regardless, it made an obscene amount of money and continues ot do so through the week. Which means we are about four seconds away from the third flick being greenlit.

*ding*

See? There is was.

The hype continues to roll on it, even after release. A friend of a friend reviews movies for a living and has dubbed it "the greatest superhero movie of all time". It's currently tracking as the highest rated movie ever on IMDB as people are rating it higher than The Godfather.

To which I say, let's all take a deep breath people.

It was a really, really good movie. It's easily the best Batman movie thus far and really has me in a serious debate about the best superhero flick thus far between it and Iron Man, which is an argument I didn't even think possible two months ago. But greatest of all time? Not just great superhero flick even, but greatest film period of all time? 

Folks who have seen DK up to this point are way to close to the thing currently to be able make that kind of declaration objectively. Again, it was really good. Even the Mrs. enjoyed it a lot. it is far superior to Batman Begins and I really liked Batman Begins (regardless of what EvilArtist says). But I'm nowhere near ready to claim it the best movie ever. That's the kind of high praise that really only can come with time and mutliple viewings. Hell even thinking about it now there are a few plot points where I find myself thinking "really? I'm not sure about that" and I've still only seen it the once. I can't help it, nitpicking movies is what I do.

I don't want to go in to immense details about it because most of you have likely seen the flick already or probably don't want it ruined. So we'll stick with just general observations. I do think Heath Ledger kinda steals the show as the Joker. I'm not overly familiar with his work prior to this, but her certainly nailed what I envisioned the Joker to be. I don't think I can buy in to the idea that is floating around that this is the "definitive" portrayal of the Joker. I think all interpretations of these characters can be seen as valid. You may not like a particular take but someone else likely did and that's the beauty of superjammies I suppose. The campy 60's tv show is just as valid as DK is. I will say that I think this is the scariest interpretation of the Joker set to film, followed closely by Cesar Romero's Joker. Yeah I see you all out there going "What?" but that 60's camp Joker was some scary shit when I was a kid. I mean what kind of madman builds the floors in his secret lair on all funky angles n'shit? Isn't that the sign of a true madman?

In general I think the movie was far more gritty than previous films. It was at times a true blue crime story that just happened to have a dude in a cape running through it from time to time. Gotham City certainly loked more like a real modern town as opposed to some bizzare combination of a futurisitc slum and the backdrop to a Cure video.

While I was glad to be rid of Katie Holmes in this flick, I was really hoping that it would have been by way of eliminating that character all together. Sadly, that wasn't the case. No offense to Maggioe Gyllenhal, but I had no use for Rachel Dawes the first time around so I had no use for her in this movie either. Does Batman really need a love interest?

 All in all, I certainly think it was well worth seeing and Icertainly plan on seeing it again. Unless I absolutely loathed a film the first time around (cough*Daredevil*cough) it's normally not until the second or third viewing I have passed some kind of final judgement. However for the time being it is one of the best summer flicks somewhere close to Iron Man. I don't know that I can rightly judge one of them as better than the other as they are such entirely different types of superhero film.

On to the nights readin list:

1. New Avengers #43 - This normally would be much further down the list, but I had time to kill at lunch and it was the first thing out of the bag. Thus it was read first this week.
2. Daredevil #109 - I like crime stories, but I am very much ready to see Matt Murdock interact with the rest of the Marvel universe for just one story arc. Don't you think maybe they should be giving his super senses a shot at detecting Skrulls?
3. Black Summer #7 - Now that this series is complete, I bet it requires a re-read from the beginning to fully enjoy it.
4. Justice League of America #23 - It doesn't appear to be tied to Final Crisis, so that's got to be a positive right?
5. The Immortal Iron Fist #17 - The first issue for a new writer. Boy does he have some big shows to fill
6. Uncanny Xmen #500 - It's Matt Fraction, it's Xmen, and and it's #500. It almost has to be last doesn't it?

Filed under: Comic Movies & TV, DVO Reading Rage