"Let's put a SMILE on that face!"

[makeste]

Aside from me injuring my back like a genius on Monday and spending the next couple days moving as little and as awkwardly as possible in order to avoid agonizing pain (thankfully it's feeling better now), this has been a pretty good week so far. For starters, I finally saw The Dark Knight on Sunday (and then again on Tuesday because it was so good I was willing to put myself through the misery of sitting in an uncomfortable theater seat for two and a half hours despite the aforementioned back problems), and like everyone else in the world has already noted, IT KICKED ASS.

<Fucking epic. I actually enjoyed it more the second time around, because the first time I was nearly overwhelmed by how uncompromisingly dark it was; on my second viewing I knew what was going to happen to each of the characters, so their fates didn't hit me quite so hard. But OH MAN. Things I liked:

• Heath Ledger was as amazing as everyone's been saying and more so. Any doubters who might have remained after the "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stranger" intro were definitely shut up by his next scene--oh my God the reactions when he made that pencil disappear were amazing. Everyone in my theater the second-go-round (it was a sold-out showing that time) sort of WINCED AUDIBLY and then was silent for a second or two and then actually started to applaud. XD One hell of an entrance, that's for sure. And I can already picture clips from his one-on-one with Batman later on during the interrogation scene being shown next year during the Academy Awards. He definitely deserves an Oscar nod.


• Speaking of people who deserve award recognition, Aaron Eckhart was completely amazing as well. I think the thing I regret most about Heath's death--besides for the fact that he'll never be able to see everyone talking about how great his Joker is--is that all the resulting media attention over his performance has left all of the other amazing performances in this movie completely overlooked. Eckhart had probably the most difficult role after Ledger--he had to portray this larger-than-life hero well enough so that the audience would feel it that much more when he eventually slipped and fell from grace into madness. And he did an amazing job. I believed in Harvey Dent. ;_;


• GARY OLDMAN. ALSO AMAZING. I nearly threw a fit when I thought they'd killed Gordon off; when he showed up again to capture Joker I CHEERED. BOTH TIMES. (He got a round of applause from the audience too.) Actually, sorry as I am to say it, when Rachel died my first thought was, "better her than Gordon." Sigh.


• As dark as this movie was, it did have its rays of hope, and the ferry scenes are probably my favorite part of the film. Those moments as the clock ticks closer to midnight and everyone debates whether or not to pull the proverbial trigger are some of the tensest I've ever seen onscreen. When the big guy on the prisoner ferry threw the detonator overboard I was really moved; same when the guy on the other ferry gave up and sat back down. Bruce pretty much summed it up: "This city just showed you that it's full of people ready to believe in good." I know it's just a movie, but scenes like that really do remind me why I've still got faith in humanity. XD


• The movie was just awesome in general. So many more scenes I could talk about but I can't remember right now. Alas.

In other awesome news, this. :DDDDD

Two thoughts:

1) PLEASE BE TRUE OMG OMG OMG.
2) Screw DBZ; this is the kind of live-action anime adaptation people should be looking to make. I HOPE IT SUCCEEDS BEYOND PEOPLE'S WILDEST EXPECTATIONS AND ANIME ADAPTATION FILMS BECOME AS WIDESPREAD AND POPULAR AND SUCCESSFUL AS COMIC BOOK ADAPTATIONS. And then they make a live-action KHR movie. Because if it was done right it would totally be amazing.

Comments

[sandrock.livejournal.com]

It's just a perfect example of someone doing the right thing at a difficult moment when you least expect it.

Yes! Exactly~ I like seeing the Right Thing be something that really matters in terms of the story and the effectiveness of a scene. Too often it's the bad or tragic things that are meant to leave an impact.

I'm sure my back would hurt less if I sat in a better chair, so it's really my own fault. *facefault* I will get rid of this chair one day... >>;

[makeste.livejournal.com]

Yes! Exactly~ I like seeing the Right Thing be something that really matters in terms of the story and the effectiveness of a scene. Too often it's the bad or tragic things that are meant to leave an impact.

Yeah, it does seem rare for the good/inspiring moments to also be the ones that hit hardest, now that you mention it. That's probably another reason I liked that scene so much. Right when you're fully expecting something horrible to happen, the characters do something noble instead. Compared to that, the spectacle of one of the boats actually blowing up would have been nothing.

Haha, yeah, my chair kind of sucks too. XD (Of course, it probably doesn't help that I never sit properly.)

[sandrock.livejournal.com]

Compared to that, the spectacle of one of the boats actually blowing up would have been nothing.

Gosh, definitely. 100% agreement. *nods*

(Er, me too. *poster child for bad posture* I need to be beaten into shape. Ehehe.)