Art La Flamme

Look what I passed today! I need to go back, just for a cup of coffee or something. Maybe they can make some small upgrades to my Mini — Gatling guns, flame throws, or something.

Here‘s my trip.

This weekend I went and saw the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, at the IMAX theater in Atlanta.

And I gotta say: Oh. My. GOD.

Go see this movie. Go see this movie in the best theater you can. With the best sound, and the best screen, and the most comfortable seats.

Because it’s two and a half hours long. And it’s that good.

OK, so what works?

Well, it’s visually stunning. Very beautiful to watch. It’s the kind of movie that I’d watch, even if the sound were off. So much to see. And on the IMAX? Holy crap, it’s beautiful. All movies should be in that format. All.

And the Joker is awesome. Yeah, Heath Ledger might be dead, and he might get the Oscar out of pity, but he is really, really good in this. He pulls off an amazing performance.

But there were at least a couple of times when I thought the movie was over. And it wasn’t. It just kept going and going and going. Sometimes, that worked. At least once — the whole Two-Face aspect is something that was not necessary (well, it is and it isn’t).

Something else — not everybody dies. Scarecrow, from Batman Begins, makes a cameo appearance in this, just as the Joker’s calling card made a cameo at the end of Batman Begins. That’s awesome for one reason — that’s what really happens in the comic books.

Oh, and Gary Oldman? Awesome. As usual.

Lastly — Aaron Eckhart. Great performance as the DA. Not so great as Two-Face, but not because of him. He really shines in this movie.

But there are some things that just seemed, well, out of place. Where’s Katie Holmes? She was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal – who did an OK job, just not a great job. Not as good of a match.

And why does Batman sound more like the offspring of Eartha Kitt and Clint Eastwood, than a superhero? I know I’m not alone on this one, either — read and watch this and see what I mean. It’s bad. Ugly. Wrong.

This is a good movie. I use to think that Batman Begins was a movie getting from Netflix, but no, when The Dark Knight comes out on DVD, get (and here I do mean, “buy”) them both on DVD. Or Blu-Ray.

There was something about this movie, when it came out, that really sank a hook into me. I’ve never really been sure why.

I’m not going to bother with a lot about the plot, and probably not much on the characters. I am going to recommend that you go see this movie if you haven’t already. Move it to the top of your Netflix cue. It’s worth seeing, and worth seeing soon.

Part of the appeal may be Gary Oldman. He’s been a favorite of mine for a lot of years. I saw him when he started; he played Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy. He also scared the hell out of me in that movie. He played the crooked cop in Leon, and damn near stole the movie away from Leon and Matilda. He’s in the Harry Potter movies, he was Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, he was a pimp in True Romance. He’s just an amazing actor, and in this movie (and in the next Batman movie), he plays Jim Gordon — Inspector Gordon. He’s fantastic.

Not that Michael Caine or Morgan Freeman or Liam Neeson are slouches, either. I’m pretty lukewarm about Caine’s performance, but I do like Freeman in this. He’s, well, wise. Realistic. Believable. Which funny, when talking about a Batman film. Out of the three, Caine has the softest acting job, but Neesons character is the lamest. Not his fault; it’s the storyline.

There are a few things that bother me. Why have non-English speakers speak English? Why not have them just speak their native tongue, and use subtitles? Is America so stupid that it can’t follow along? I’m to believe that people to who live on mountain tops in Bhutan all speak English clearly? Come on. It’s just not necessary. And it detracts from the story.

And what’s with Batman’s voice? Is all this kung-fu fighting powered by huffing aerosols or something? When Batman really gets going, his voice starts to change — like bad puberty or something.

Oh, and before I forget. Katie Holmes. Mrs. Tom Cruise. She’s actually good in this. Not at all psycho. She is that girl next door — the role could easily have been written for her.

One last thing, a disappointment. The death of his parents – the story changed. In the Jack Nicholson Batman movie, the Joker did it. Not so here. This probably isn’t an issue for the kids, but for us older farts, it is. We’re starting all over with Batman, wiping away all of the previous (bad) Batman movies.

Kind of like Battlestar Galactica, I suppose.