Bright Days, Dark Knights.

What is up, people?! Everything is a day late due to the awesomeness of The Dark Knight and having to see it twice but you know what? WELL WORTH IT! So for the first time in about a month, I give to you…

Master Chief Captain Chachi Goes Hollywood!

This Weeks Movie: “The Dark Knight”

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way. There were like….two bad things about this movie. Since everything else was mind-bogglingly awesome let’s get those out of the way:

CONS

Gargling With Marbles: So Christian Bale has done an awesome job with being both Bruce Wayne (Better than Michael Keaton) and a great PHYSICAL presence of Batman. However, Rick put it best when we were talking about the differences between “Batman Begins” and “Superman Returns”:

“Since when did Batman have a lisp?”

After listening to “The Dark Knight” (And thinking about “Batman Begins”) I realized that he is right. Now the mechanics of the suit (His nose is held in place to avoid being broken in falls and fights) I can understand some of why he sounds like Ja Rule but in extended sequences of dialog, it kind of wore on my nerves. I also know he had to disguise his voice but would it hurt to have done a Bobcat Golthwait impersonation? I kid, I kid.

The Heath Is….Gone: Now the ending of the film, which I will not ruin because it was AWESOME, would have been great if Heath Ledger lived. With his passing, the eventual third movie in the retooled Batman franchise is kind of left without a villain. Now they have a lot to work with (I was hoping for a DONE RIGHT Mr. Freeze combined with Deathstroke the Terminator or Deadshot (Although those would TOTALLY WORK for a sequel to Superman Returns if they do one. Slade has been way underrated in DC’s comics and misused since Identity Crisis when he owned the old school Justice League). Hell, I will write the plot right now!) but I still wish the ending was a tad different. But overall, I am not complaining due to the circumstances.

Now….for the infinite pros of The Dark Knight:

PROS

Why So Serious? Because It’s AWESOME: Okay, I had no less than three posts about how I was going to boycott “The Dark Knight” because of Heath Ledger’s performance. Hell, I even was going to create a mob to give him the business. Well, I am glad I didn’t because he put Jack Nicholson’s performance of the Clown Prince of Mayhem to shame. Now they were two different takes on the character but I believe that when compared against each other, Heath’s performance runs circles around Jack’s. His performance in my opinion may just be the best villain in cinema history. Better than Hannibal Lector and better than even Lord Zodd in Superman II (The benchmark for comic book villains). Even the takes by Ian McKellan of Magneto and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor (An underrated performance, mind you) were nowhere near the Joker. He was insane at the same time as being cunning. He was irreverent at the same time as being a genius. He was quirky at the same time as being psychotic. Heath when from borderline hilarious to full on batshit crazy (Pun intended) and that is what made it awesome. In my view of the Joker, the only difference between he and Batman is the fact that Batman sees no joy in killing or anarchy. He uses his mind to help. The Joker uses his mind to create the joke that humans at their core are all like him…just a little strange.

It’s All About Pacing: Okay, I can honestly say there was never a point where I was bored in this movie. What got me is that The Dark Knight was only TWO MINUTES SHORTER than Superman Returns and at the hour and fifty minute mark I was rather bored (Ask Zach, I went to sleep) with the film because there had been no action. The film itself IMHO was very good but poorly paced between character building and action. The Dark Knight showed the Star Wars series (Too much crap), Spiderman series (Too much character building) and the Matrix series (Too much action) how it is done. Same for the X-Men series, which is the closest we have to a mix of plot and action (Especially X-Men United). Christopher Nolan was able to build The Joker, Harvey Dent AND Batman in two and a half hours with a hell of a lot of action tossed in there. Quite honestly, it was long and awesome. The pacing reminded me a lot of 300, in which as soon as you felt “Okay, this is enough character time” there was something blowing up or someone getting killed. Perfect all around.

Acting….It Is A Lost Artform: The performances of the first movie carried the film although everything about it was awesome. When you watch The Dark Knight, it is almost like the action and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker overshadow that this movie had strong performances by every single cast member, even the auxiliary ones. From Michael Jai White (SPAWN, FOOLS!) to Tiny Lister they all had pivotal roles in moving the plot to its climax and ending. Unlike secondary characters in Spiderman, Superman Returns and even The Incredible Hulk (I could have done without Master Mind or whatever his name is as the scientist) that pulled the movie down a tad, EVERY CHARACTER in The Dark Knight played a purpose. Even the Wayne Industries employee that was a MINOR PLAYER became a major plot device by the end. That is a good movie, wrapping all aspects together in one story instead of having shock value.

Writing, It’s Not Just For Emo Kids: This was without a doubt the best dialogue I have heard in a movie in quite a long time. What got me was the back and forth between The Joker and Batman. Even if you aren’t a fan of the comic you could relate and even SIDE with The Joker about the nature of humans. The plot wrapped the concept of anarchy, truth, justice, insanity and even life’s plan into the story and was played out in three ways in the three main characters: order, anarchy and chance. Just listen to the scenes with Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent or Bruce Wayne and Alfred. Some of those scenes felt like they were straight out of the comic book (Some actually were. Bonus points for those that recognized the ode to Jason Todd when Batman was getting served at the end with a pipe!) and it really gave the writing a feel that we only saw in (some parts) Iron Man and (in fewer parts) Spiderman.

THAT TRUCK FLIPPED THE FUCK OVER!: Okay, I will first say that nothing will EVER….and I mean EVER top the flight scenes in Superman Returns in mark-out value. Iron Man came close and Spidey webslinging was bad ass but all I can say is this: watching the action sequences in The Dark Knight came hella close. When Batman jumped off buildings, when he flipped over the truck and the WHOLE ENDING SEQUENCE were all visual masterpieces that totally captured what would happen in a Batman comic. The fight scenes were wrapped in realism which was good in some cases but in others it made them look to hard but that is because Batman is human and can’t toss cars. It really is why I believe that Batman has become more popular with people in the non-comic arena. He is just a rich man fighting crime and has nothing but his money and mind to stop evil. Surprisingly, all it takes is the human mind and a shitload of cash to deliver top notch thrills.

Okay, you KNOW what this movie is going to get and it is well deserved. This movie is twice as good as Batman Begins which is saying A LOT because that movie gave me faith in life again. All hyperbole aside, you need to see this movie if you like any kind of cinema. This broke box office records and the reason was because it transcends all ages, races, genres and sexes. I hated how all the movies this summer were geared toward markets (Sex In The City for women, Iron Man and Hellboy II for men, Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E for kids but Pixar movies are different) and yet The Dark Knight stood on the merit of great acting, a socially responsive story and characters that have stood the test of time since the 1930’s. Comic book fan or not, The Dark Knight is well worth any price (I have seen it three times and I don’t care what anyone says. It was that good) and yes….may be the most complete movie ever made. I went there. So if you haven’t guessed, The Dark Knight receives…

10 Out Of 10 Stars
(This movie, take away some major fanboy nit-picking is the best movie of 2008, the best movie of the 2000’s and may just be one of the greatest films created. It has everything and does it all well. If nothing else, see it for Heath Ledger’s haunting performance of a character that may be the most difficult to pull off the way he did. Rest in peace, Heath. You did an awesome job and I heard you were worried if fanboys would enjoy your rendition of The Joker. Take it from me….on behalf of all fanboys…you ARE The Joker. I hope you win the Oscar for Best Actor because THIS is how you define a character. Get off your ass and see this movie)

That is all for now. I am working on a rant as you read this and I will either put it up tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Until then, stay up. AND GO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT!!

Chachi Out.