My expectations couldn’t be any higher for “The Dark Knight.”
Just do the math. Quality director. Fine leading man. Most buzzed about villain in ages - and the actor playing him died before he could see his triumph on screen adding an extra level of pathos and pain.
And now, the reviews:
Christy Lemire, AP: “an epic that will leave you staggering from the theater, stunned by its scope and complexity.”
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: “The haunting and visionary ‘Dark Knight’ soars on the wings of untamed imagination.”
Owen Gleiberman, EW: “In this, the last performance he completed before his death, Ledger had a maniacal gusto inspired enough to suggest that he might have lived to be as audacious an actor as Marlon Brando, and maybe as great.”
Yikes. Gonna be awful hard to see it now having all those quotes floating in my head.
UPDATE: A savvy reader chimes in with this breaking news.
(Photo: Heath Ledger’s Joker gives himself a hand in “The Dark Knight”)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Linda 07.16.08 at 12:56 am
I have the same worry, thinking about reading no more till I see it Fri morning …. so hard to avoid the hype.
cftoto 07.16.08 at 3:23 am
I wanna cover my ears until I sit in my Bat seat … but I’ve heard too much already, Linda.
Sonny Bunch 07.16.08 at 1:42 pm
It’s that good. I tried to tamp down my expectations going in…but I didn’t need to. It’s a very, very good film.
cftoto 07.16.08 at 2:11 pm
Good to know, Sonny. It’ll be great to see a summer flick that actually meets all the expectations. And then some, perhaps.
Mad Minerva 07.16.08 at 6:26 pm
Some of the reviews have been a little…enthusiastic, but what gets me is the completely nutty fan backlash for critics who have criticized the movie (some of the comments at Rottentomatoes are unreproducable in polite company).
Here’s a satire:
http://madminsatires.blogspot.com/2008/07/dark-knight-pre-emptively-sweeps-oscars.html
Anyhoo, I guess I’ll see if the hype’s accurate on Friday night! Just pre-bought my tickets.
cftoto 07.16.08 at 6:30 pm
Mad Minerva,
Great posting … I’m gonna link to it in my “Bat Praise” section
And yeah, the maniacs on the web attacking critics for not liking a movie THEY HAVEN’T SEEN YET is beyond insane.
Mad Minerva 07.16.08 at 6:35 pm
Thanks for the kind words!
On the Bat-praise theme, it’s one thing, I suppose , to say that Heath Ledger should get nominated for an Oscar (who knows, he could deserve it, but I can’t say since I haven’t — er — actually seen the flick yet), but there’s a certain lunacy in reviews that say he’s a lock — A LOCK! — for the statuette:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37469
cftoto 07.16.08 at 7:13 pm
Nobody’s a lock, Mad M … just ask Eddie Murphy re: Dreamgirls (actually, he wuz robbed)