Dark Knight Returns '09

I don't know if this is really necessary and certainly sets an interesting precedent, but it's nice to see Warner trying their damnedest to get Heath Ledger his Oscar.

I saw the film for the forth time last week after reading The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke (with the original coloring, the new stuff looks like a bad Schindler's List parody) and I'm now disappointed they spent so much time on action and North by Northwest/Stray Dog style pacing that they didn't develop Harvey Dent/Two Face as much as possible. The even sadder thing is that I'm sure they did do more. There are still a lot of weird loose ends in the film for me that I need tied up. I'm really hoping we'll see a nice fat director's cut when it finally gets released on Blu-Ray.

This is an interesting new era for comic book movies. Now that this film has combined classic gritty WB noir with artful indie characterization/acting and tried its hardest to scrub Adam West from the minds of America (the second best Batman of all time) we're finally seeing comic book films not just comic book movies. Also intriguing that this film was full of gimmicky ploys (scenes shot in 70mm, released nationwide in IMAX, "Heath Ledger's untimely death" (in quotes because it's not Ledger's or the studio's fault, but it does give the film that certain Brandon Lee quality)), and yet still captured the hearts and minds of the critics, comic book fans and John & Jane Q. Public.

I hope we start seeing more comic book adaptations as smart as this one and not something like Iron Man which preached an end to weapons manufacturing by giving one billionaire alcoholic tactical human nukes to violently kill a bunch of people... riiiiight....

Is this a good thing though? It's always hard for me to critique the politics of Batman because he is the mighty icon he is. Regardless of my pacifism I still can't help but say, "OH MAN! I WANNA FIGHT CRIME! I WANNA PUNCH THE JOKER IN THE FACE! I WANT A batPOD NANO!!" Since box office grosses reflect public sentiment, and to a degree this film does have a right wing "end the chaos that terrorism attempts to create," does that mean we're hungry for more war? Is the final scene a moment of making George W. Bush a pariah? Am I grasping at straws? Probably. But it's still the darkest comic book movie since The Crow and certainly will inspire just as many costumes every Halloween. Either way, the films Joker is certainly one of the darkest villains to date for a mainstream film of PG-13 and I can't help but wonder about escalation and copy-cats. I hope that the Harvey Dents of the world are strong enough that we don't need Batman, but since a lot of people are looking at the Joker as the "hero" of the hour on this one I continue to worry.

I shouldn't say the film was all right bat-wing (sorry), Lucius decent on the subject of wire-tapping was a sly wink to the present state of our "right to privacy" and I commend them for it.

Yeah, so I guess my point is that Dark Knight is coming back to theaters and they'll probably get my money one more time. Yeh know, since I'll have forgotten it by then.