The Dark Knight
Last night, Vince and I waited patiently in line for the 8:00 pm showing of "The Dark Knight" at IMAX inside The Palms. It was worth the wait and we definitely recommend to watch it in IMAX and not just in a standard theater. The sound and presentation was AMAZING. And the best part? Not a lot of previews. IMAX only had two; the first was a 15 second "Harry Potter" teaser... 15 seconds of nothing!! A lot of people groaned while Vince cheered. Then there was "The Watchmen" trailer, which made excellent use of Smashing Pumpkins "The Beginning is The End is The Beginning" song. I'm not too familiar with the graphic novel but the song sold me :P
This movie EASILY tops "Iron Man". The performances, the cinematography, the score and the excessive use of violence and destruction that made you forget this was a PG-13 movie. There were several scenarios in the movie that never hindered the pacing. So many twists! This wasn't a superhero flick anymore, it was an engaging crime drama.
Christian Bale is still badass, still able to easily pull off duo roles as the smug Bruce Wayne and Batman. Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox has just a little bit more screen time than Michael Caine's Alfred but it notably comes into play in the third act. Sirius Black Gary Oldman as Gordon was great as Batman's ally. Until now, we could not get over how absolutely terrifying Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker was. He is truly cunning, maniacal but still funny. Not to mention the rise and inevitable fall of Harvey Dent, portrayed brilliantly by Aaron Eckhart. Maggie Gyllenhall as the "new" Rachel Dawes took a while to get used to. I wasn't too convinced that she stole Bruce and Harvey's heart. And she looked, um, so much older.
We have a feeling the ending was possibly re-shot due to the passing of Heath so there was no hint of a new villain. There are early talks that The Riddler is a top contender for the third movie. As long as he doesn't have bright orange hair or a tight green spandex suit like Jim Carrey did, that'll be good.
(speaking of Jim Carrey, I love this poster)
