Dark Knight, a good night at the movies

I had trouble sleeping last Thursday night. It wasn’t that I had too much caffeine for the day or that I was worrying about everyday life things. I was thinking about how the midnight showing of the Dark Knight was progressing at my local movie theatre. I was honestly considering the idea of going to it, even knowing that I was scheduled to work the reference desk Friday morning.

I geek out for certain things, things like technologies and things like anticipated movie premieres. I remember the feeling of anticipation for both the Lord of the Rings and Matrix sequels. I even got excited for Episode One of the Star Wars franchise back in 1999 (before learning that Lucas’ version of the Star Wars story failed to match the preconception of the story that was running through the minds of the SW fans). For The Dark Knight, I was like a child too excited for Christmas morning.

But I think my fervor for The Dark Knight was unparalleled to other movie anticipations because, with the aid of web sites like Wikipedia and IMDB, I followed the production news from beginning to the projection on the big screen. So, with every view of still shots from the early production to news that Katie Holmes would NOT be in the sequel to news of Heath Ledger’s untimely death, my eagerness to see this movie grew.

And so, I had to wait an extra twenty-two-and-a-half hours from the midnight showing to see this movie. I can unabashedly say that the wait was worth it. I’ll leave it to you dear reader to read reviews, storylines, and news about the stars attending Hollywood parties. But, there are two things I need to say about this movie.

First, Heath Ledger’s performance was absolutely, 100% brilliant. In my opinion, you cannot compare the Ledger Joker to the Nicholson Joker because, quite simply, they are too different characters in two completely different conceptualized movies. (I write this because I want it to be known that Nicholson’s performance in Burton’s Batman is still marvelous given that the rest of this 1989 flick was given, metaphorically speaking, the taste of a rice cake). Wikipedia says that Ledger prepared for the Joker role by residing with minimal human contact in a hotel room for a month and, as such, created a separate reality from the outside world. And by acting on this preparation, the Joker in The Dark Knight is a character who operates on his own reality, a reality of chaos, evil, and fear. This is good spine-tingling stuff. Posthumous Oscar nom for Ledger? Yes, without any doubt.

Second, I want to applaud Jonathan and Christopher Nolan for making the decision of making Batman a vigilante, not a bubblegum superhero. With Batman Begins, we get the story of why Bruce Wayne wants to fight crime and evil and why he adopted the persona of Batman to protect Gotham. With The Dark Knight, we get a crime fighter who has to push the envelop of the goodness of his soul, who has to cross the line between good and evil, and who has to question himself as to whether the price to protect Gotham in such a way is worth it to his personal well-being. We all know that there are thousands of Batman media out there that tell the story in different fashions. I am just happy that the Nolans chose this direction and kept it focused.

I have already seen The Dark Knight twice as of this writing. I will see it a couple more times and I hope to see it at an IMAX theatre, especially since twenty minutes of the action of the movie were shot in the IMAX format. I think I can sleep comfortably tonight with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. The only disappointing feeling from this movie is the fact that Heath Ledger won’t be around for the next movie in the series.