NOTE: Chugs is too cool for school this week, so Schools is filling in.
Yeah, we get it.
You’re cool, hip, deep and brooding. You’ve gone to see the new Batman flick for all the right reasons. You read the comics, still revere Michael Keaton as the best, and in noooooooooooo way let Heath Ledger’s death influence you on your own personal opinion of the film.
Bravo. Now on to the real results.
The Dark Knight is epic, amazingly shot and probably the best bang for your buck at the box office this summer, and it’s only because of Ledger.
We’re speculating, but not entirely sure that Ledger smoked a ton of crack and listened to a few Misfits records before every scene. He is the very essence of disturbing, and that is the biggest understatement of the year.
The Joker’s very sophomoric, yet beautifully demented nature is personified best by (don’t hate me Jack Nisholson) Ledger. He gives you the chill down your spine that can only be equaled by going back to your early teens and thinking you hear your parents coming down the stairs while you’re watching Red Shoe Diaries. Ledger’s best role (sorry Brokeback Mountain enthusiasts) comes in the form of a murderous ass clown.
But what about Batman? Christian Bale doesn’t have the chips for the Caped Crusader. As Bruce Wayne, you couldn’t find a better one, but as soon as the eyeliner comes on, he changes his voice to sound like a crackhead with emphysema. And at least for me, Batman didn’t sound like he just went on a whiskey bender with two packs of Marlboro Reds, sorry, Adam West. Bale has the look, don’t get us wrong, but the guy needs to focus on Batman, not beating the crap out of his mom.
Two Face gets a refreshing re-birth as Aaron Eckhart, who ironically gets the most screen time. Taken away from the cartoony angle, Two Face’s sinister angst against a murderous Gotham steals the show like an Olsen shower scene in In A New York Minute. While the advertising will have you focus on The Joker/Batman storyline, take notice to the haunting picture painted of a man who was sent to save Gotham from even needing a guy in tight, black underpants.
So what we’re left with isn’t so much a comic book movie, but a damn good movie, period. It’s dark, but not for the sake of restocking Hot Topic shelves. (The Nightmare Before Christmas was so 2006.) It’s dark because a team of great actors and fortunate writers realized we didn’t need another Spider-Man.
Anyone know what happened to Lao? Last we saw him he was tied to a chair on top of a pile of half burning money.
I guess he burned, but if that’s the case, then he certainly didn’t squeal while burning.
Of course, the Joker probably meant he looks like a squealer as in “would give info to the police.”