first summer movie I’m actually looking forward to seeing
Generally speaking, there are supposed to be two “good” movie seasons — the Oscar contender season between Thanksgiving and the New Year, and the blockbuster season during the summer. I saw several great films last Oscar contender season, including No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. But this summer, not so much. While I liked Iron Man, and thoroughly enjoyed watching WALL-E, they weren’t high on my list of “summer movies I simply must see.” That list would only be two or three titles long, and Indiana Jones was a complete stink bomb.
The Dark Knight is one I’ve been waiting to see since… well, ever since I saw Gordon hand Batman Joker’s calling card at the very end of Batman Begins in June 2005.
My fascination with Batman goes back to the late 1980s, with the release of Tim Burton’s Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. That movie, and Burton’s other caped crusader film, Batman Returns, got me reading the “Knightfall” series. In middle school, I started drawing my own comics heavily influenced by Batman. I was pretty obsessed. In 1992, I even dragged my family to a car show featuring the batmobile from Burton’s Batman (note the video camera slung around my neck).
My brothers and me (left) at a Batmobile exhibit in Idaho, circa 1992.
Although I read other comic books in the early 90s, including Spidey 2099, The Amazing Spiderman, and the X-Men, Batman was always my favorite. He’s one of the few superheros that doesn’t really have any super powers. Just brain, brawn, and gadgets.
All of that is to say I really liked Burton’s Batman films (which do not include the disappointing Batman Forever and unredeemably shitty Batman and Robin films). But Christoper Nolan’s Batman Begins was so much better. It was so much darker, and more believable than Burton’s versions. Not to mention that Christian Bale is the best Batman to ever cast a shadow on the big screen. If Michael Keaton is to Batman what Sean Connery is to James Bond, Bale is the Daniel Craig. He’s younger, stronger, smarter, and more convincing than his predecessors. I’ve been a Bale fan since seeing Empire of the Sun and the made-for-TV Treasure Island with Charlton Heston as Long John Silver.
But I digress. The point of this entry is that I’m really excited about the release of The Dark Knight tomorrow. If it’s anywhere near as good as Batman Begins, it’s going to be great. And so far, the reviews say it will be.