Being There

Go. See. This. Now. You’ll even get a bonus! Trailer for the Watchmen, yeehaw.

Here are my top ten favorite moments from The Dark Knight and some thoughts on why people can’t handle how much it rules. Spoilers! DUH.

10. Batpod shoots outta the Tumbler. Hell yes. “Goodbye.”

9. Scarecrow cameo. Sorry but I just love Cillian Murphy. “Now that’s more like it.”

8. Lispy Bat-voice. Seriously, it was so cute at times. I also appreciated how Batman would get out of breath and sort of cough out his lines. It totally endeared me to the voice, even though a lot of people don’t like it. Whatevs.

7. Joker in a nurse outfit. “Hiiiii.”

6. Prisoner’s dilemma. I totally thought to myself “Man I’d just throw that thing out the window” but I still didn’t see it coming from the prisoner guy. Woo humanity.

5. Tunnel chase scene. Excluding the cheesy acting from the guy next to the armed car driver, pretty much ace scene. Rocket launchers make everything better.

4. Interrogation scene. MOAR PLZ. Just awesome on all levels.

3. Oh sup Gordon, I totally knew you weren’t dead. AWESOME. But for reals, I totally would have slapped him too.

2. Batman breaks down the door - and it’s Harvey, not Rachel. Then he saves him anyway. God.

1. PENCIL TRICK. “Ta dah!” There was no better way to encapsulate the Joker (scary, hilarious, psychotic, smart). After this scene no one should have had any more doubts about Ledger’s performance. Top notch, A+, Oscar worthy and hopefully Oscar winning. It won’t bring him back, but it’ll sure put a smile on a lot of faces.

On Burton v Nolan: Look. I saw this comment on another site today. Burton’s Batman was the Batman of my childhood. Nolan’s is the Batman of my adulthood. These two takes on the character are completely different outlooks, from completely different eras, by completely different directors. Can we please not shit on one or the other by directly comparing them? Nicholson’s Joker was great in its context; Ledger is perfect in TDK. Keaton remains solid in my mind as both Wayne and Batman; Bale is just as good. I feel no need to say “Well these new films make the old ones irrelevant and terribad.” No. Well not unless you’re talking about Batman Forever or Batman and Robin, which were terribad from the moment of conception, probably.

Listen. There are hundreds of iterations of Batman and his story and the themes behind it all. One may resonate with you more than another. Liking more than one is not “cheating” on your first Batman love, or something. I’m finding that some people (especially big Burton fans) went into this movie looking for something to hate. I just don’t get that attitude, but I guess I just like to be entertained and tend to give movies the benefit of the doubt instead of making them jump through hoops to prove their worth to me. If that’s what people think a movie critic is supposed to do, well I guess I’m not a movie critic. All I’m saying is I love the Burton films and I love the Nolan films, and there’s nothing you can do about it. NYAH.