The Review, Part 2

Is it possible that a movie can get better the more you see it? Sure. Fight Club proved it. Running Scared proved it. The Dark Knight prved it for me tonight.

I saw it again. Since I saw the movie the first time, 5 days ago, it hasn't left me. It's been bouncing around inside my mind, interrupting my thoughts... I can't quite seem to get over the hump where the movie stops being AMAZING and just starts being another great movie. It's not coming. The reason for that, I think, is just that the movie is AMAZING.

Even though I'd seen it, even though I knew what was going to happen, I was drawn into the movie. The Joker pulled me in and I couldn't even bring myself to blink. The credits rolled, and I was shaking... trembling. It was like I took my first breath in two and a half hours.

This movie does so much right. The acting, the score (I don't think I devoted enough space to it before... it is simply amazing, everything about the score fits so perfectly with what happens on the screen... it's intense, it's driving, and the Joker's "theme" drags you to the edge of your seat every time you hear it), the script, the directing, everything is perfect.

** Ahem... SPOILER ALERT!!! **

It struck me as I watched it for the second time how symbolic some of the things that happed in the movie are. Take, for example, the end. Harvey Dent falls to his death. It seems so obvious when you say it that way, but it's surprising to me how many people aren't picking up on that. Harvey falls. Batman falls right after him. Then Gordon comes down as well. That is symbolic of what The Joker was doing throughout the movie. He brought the champions of Gotham down.

"Madness, as you know, is like gravity. All you need is a little push!"

How perfect is that? Brilliant!

A few posts ago, I said that Running Scared was the kind of movie that makes every movie you see for the next month seem stupid. Well, this movie is the kind of movie that will make anything you've ever seen before, and most likely anything you will ever see again look stupid. Why is that? It's certainly not the explosions and the knives and guns. It's not the gadgets. It's the psychology. I can't stress that enough. Without the psychology that you get from the mind games between Batman, Dent, and Gordon versus the Joker, you really have a hollow shell of a movie. Comparing this to other movies, you have the movies that are all action, no substance, then there are the ones that are action with a side of substance, and of course, you have the substance without anything else. That's like cake with NO frosting, and how much fun is that really? This movie is something that I've never seen before: Action that is filled with and enhanced by substance. Utterly amazing.

Despite these words of praise, I still cannot do it justice. I feel inadequate writing this.

However, after 5 days worth of this movie consuming my thoughts, and after watching the movie for the second time, I feel safe saying that The Dark Knight has dethroned Requiem for a Dream. It is, quite simply, the best movie I've ever seen.

"They're only as good as the world allows them to be."

Random Musings From a White Cubical

Got another showing of the Dark Knight to attend this evening, and suffice it to say that I'm quite excited. Even better is the fact that it's on the IMAX screen, and almost everybody (everybody save one person, that is) tells me it's far superior on the IMAX screen.

Can. Not. Wait.

It's been a very draining week. Mostly because of Monday, which saw me at the bar until 2am Tuesday morning. Just a quick note: it's not the brightest thing to do, being at the bar until 2 on a work night. No bueno.

It was the going away party for Steve and Mark, who are, sadly, moving to Wisconsin. The two of them have been good friends of mine going on about 2 years now, and it saddens me greatly that after nearly 2 years of friendship, some distance is going to end it. Mark and Steve are not good at keeping in touch through means other than face-to-face contact. Meaning no emails, phone calls, IMs, text messaging, MySpace messages... no anything really.

Sigh.

Life moves on, I suppose. I'm reminded of a book called The Rule of Four, which was written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and the reason for that is it's got some of the best meditations about friendships in the history of popular fiction. I don't use the word "meditations" lightly either. This book goes far beyond the standard discussion of friendships found in many books that deal with the subject. this book digs, and it exposes some very interesting truths (and does it very artfully with many impressive metaphors).

I am in the process of editing a 53 page training document, and let me tell you all how much fun THAT is. It's a very, very long process. Ordinarily, it would take me about 30 minutes to read a document of that length, but actually having to edit it... whole 'nother story. So much writing is involved, and editing documents online at the same time.

I'm motivating myself with thoughts of Batmen tonight. Well, it's more the thought of spending another couple of hours with the Joker that keeps me going today. Now I can't wait.

Tomorrow is the company summer event, and by event I mean lets go watch a baseball game. Whoop-dee-doo. Baseball is easily one of the most boring sports ever. Right up there with golf and synchronized grass growing.

Cool story time. This is totally true.

My old, old, old room mate was very much into the Colorado Rockies... the team, not the mountains. He was always trying to convince me to watch with him, even though I was so adamant about how boring it was. He was convinced that if I watched it, I'd lvoe it as much as he did. In an effort to get him to shut up, I agreed to watch one game with him.

That might have been one of the longet 3 hours of my life... flushed away never to be recovered. Sometime during the game, the announcers appeared to get really bored announcing the game, so they started doing a comparison between the flavors of cotton candy. The interviewed people from the (sparse) crowd, taste-tested, joked around about it, etc. They completely ignored the game. The camera would cut to a pitch here and there, but eventaully even that stopped and I felt like I'd been transported to the Food Channel instead of whatever local channel we were watching the game on.

I've often been told that baseball is far more interesting when you are there... to which i say BAH! because I've been to way more than my fair share of baseball games and know better. About the most interesting thing about being there live is waiting to hear if they call my ticket number so I can go collect some cheap prize. I mean, come on, if the announcers can't even pretend to be interested any more...

I'm going tomorrow only because
a) it's free
b) there's an all you can eat BBQ buffet-type thing
c) there's cool people there
d) I don't actually have to watch the game
e) I might be going from there to see TDK again with Randy
f) did I mention free food?

Friday has become a toss-up between going to Denver and playing Magic (doubtful, as there will most likely be clubs involved) or jsut sitting at home and ripping 105 booster packs. That could take a while. A looooooooooooooooong while, but it's not a very social activity.

I hung out with a friend who I only see once every 6-8 months or so. We saw The Dark Knight on Saturday. It's kind of scary, a little saddening even, but when we were talking, it dawned on me that even though we used to have so much in common, we've both changed a lot. Out paths diverged somewhere along the way, and now there is very little we have in common. Our philosophies, world views, interests, personalities, everything has changed. It was a very interesting conversation, but it was different than what I've been used to, less synergy, fewer "on the same page" moments.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about our conversation was the fact that he seemed completely miserable in his life. Now, it's possible I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. Since the last time I talked to him, he's fallen further into the realm of alcoholism. Seriously, hardcore, bad shit. We're not talking like a few drinks a couple of times a week... we're talking about every night on the couch until he passes out. That's my idea of being happy with life...

There were many occasions where "my job sucks" came up in the conversation too. It was quite obvious that he hates his job, which happens to involve repairing vehicles for the Army. the pay is apparently good, though.

I'm saddened a little by this stuff, but, there's very little (as I've learned lately) that I can do about it, so moving on....

3 hours until Dark Knight!

As The Rule of Four gets at, we are all beings that, like matter at the center of an explosion, are propelled outwards for the duration of our lives. We start out with people who are close to us, but as time goes on, we move farther and farther out, which drives us farther from those around us. In the end, we are left floating, miles from those who are closest to us.

The Dark Knight - The Review

A quick note before I jump right in. I saw a lot of kids there, and I don't think this is a movie for kids. It's title only just hints at how dark this movie is. It is very dark, very intense. Use discretion when taking kids to this movie.

Edit: as a response to a comment I received for this note, I don't think kids should see this because I don't think parents, for the most part, are capable of taking this and turning it into a life lesson. now there's faith in humanity for ya!

Now, on to the good stuff!

Where oh where do I begin? This movie really begins and ends with Heath Ledger's Joker character, so let's start there. I was skeptical when we learned at the end of Batman Begins that Joker was going to be our villain. I thought back to Jack Nicholson's exceptional Joker, and thought to myself "Who could beat that?"... Then they announced that Heath Ledger would play the part and then thought to myself, "Not him."

Don't get me wrong, I have liked Heath Ledger in most of the roles he's played, but I was worried about several things, not the least of which was how the Joker character I was familiar with would translate into the darker Batman of this new series, and also how such a character would stack up to fun version played by Nicholson.

Fast forward through time to the point where I saw the first trailer for TDK. I was acquainted to Ledger's Joker for all of 30 seconds or so, and already, I was quite positive that it was a phenomenal performance. Already there were twitches and ticks and mannerisms. From 30 seconds of seeing his character, it was obvious that the Joker would make the leap to the dark side rather successfully.

Fast forward to today where I was counting down the hours to see this movie. Everybody had told me that it blew expectations out of the water. I read some very positive reviews and some not so positive ones. But the theme in the downer reviews was constant: too dark. Hello! "The Dark Knight" doesn't give you some clue that the movie is going to be dark?

And now we arrive...

At what point does a superhero movie step out of its cliched and done-to-death rut that so many superhero movies get stuck in? For that matter, when does a movie transcend the medium and become something more than a 2-and-something-hour experience, something that sticks with you and may stick with you for the rest of your life?

That point is here.

I'll admit, I like superhero movies. They're generally good fun with a few laughs, some cool action, and a couple of nice explosions. My favorite was Spider-Man. Good story line, a lot of very cool plot points, and engaging characters. Then I saw Batman Begins. Everything else looks like children's Saturday morning cartoons now. Everything. Then came TDK, which blew even it's predecessor out of the water. This is the bar by which every future superhero movie will be judged. It's also the bar by which any movie that comes out claiming to speak about society will be judged.

Yes, there's action, and some explosions, and even a car chase scene, but that's not what moves the movie. Yes, Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, and company are all great actors, but it is Heath Ledger that pushes this movie forward, it is from him that this movie derives all of its power. As the Joker, he becomes chaos, and as chaos, he brings what otherwise would have been a great movie into the realm of art.

The Oscar buzz started well before the movie came out, mostly stuff along the lines of "he's dead, give him an Oscar." Do NOT give him an Oscar because he's dead. Give him an Oscar because there has not been a better acting performance in... a decade... at least... I almost daresay ever. And this performance is at the heart of the psychological tension that this movie creates, and it is because of this that this movie is... perfect... or at least, the closest people are capable of creating.

It's mesmerizing, those moments when the Joker is on screen. The way he moves, the way he acts, the way he talks, it draws you in, and you become absorbed by the character. And he is evil. There, I said it. This is not the old goofy Nicholson Joker, this is the dark Joker who is evil, and he revels in it. The way he conducts the events in the movie as if they were all instruments in his orchestra, the way he fights for the hearts and minds of the citizens of Gotham, the way he takes the good and turns them evil.... it's beyond words.

Unlike your ordinary superhero movie, this is not your standard good versus evil. No, no, that would be too easy. Not worthy of this Joker character. This is about the struggle to remain good in the face of unstoppable evil that is bringing the world crashing down all around you. This is about the power of the human spirit in the face of death and catastrophe. And through its story, TDK speaks passionately about society and about human beings as people. It speaks to our capacity for evil and panic and our tendency to jump at whichever solution seems easiest. But, at the same time, it speaks to our strength, our courage, and the determination of those precious few who are willing to stand up in the face of such evil. At least, says the movie, we have those things when the world allows us to have them.

**** SPOILER ALERT **** If you haven't seen the movie, don't read any more.

The goodness in people is shattered by the evil that is the Joker. And this is where the movie really shines. Harvey Dent is the knight in shining armor, he is the noble hero with a spotless record who is willing to accept the consequences of doing the right thing. And he sweeps the streets of Gotham clean. And then, in walks the Joker. He takes Dent, and he brings him down, he shatters Dent's pedestal. He takes the white knight Dent and he breaks him and turns him into a monster. And it is through this decline that we see shards of Lord of the Flies, in which William Golding attempts to show that people are, at heart, evil. Without consequences, without rules, people are evil.

According to the Joker, people are only as good as circumstances allow them to be. In the face of panic, their morals fail, their sense of right and wrong abandons them. And the movie goes to great lengths to show it.

The one light of hope in the movie is that neither party destroys the boats. This may seem like a ringing endorsement of the human spirit, but think again. The boats did not blow up because the people were too indecisive to turn the key. 75% of the people were willing to vote in favor of destroying the other boat, but not one was willing to turn the key. Does this mean that they are good people? No. The fact that they voted to do it says everything we need to know. Just because they could not bring themselves to act does not automatically qualify them as good people.

So, in the end, you realize that even though Batman was the one who walked away, it was the Joker that won.

And once the credits start to roll, you start to think to yourself, "What if...?".

What if I had the detonator? Would I pull the trigger?
What if I was Batman? Would I reveal myself?
What if...?

When a movie can make you question yourself as a person, when it can shine a light on that which makes us weak, it is at that point that it becomes more than just a movie.

In short, the movie was perfect. It grabs you from the get-go and it does not let go until the credits start to roll and you wake up, realizing that the Joker is not blowing the world up right outside the door. It was, after all, just a movie.

I need to take a moment to point out the score. Anybody who knows my music tastes knows I'm a huge movie score geek, and I am a huge fan of both Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. I loved the score for Batman Begins to death, and this one is even better. Its intensity matches the movie, and it complements the action on the screen perfectly. I already bought it.

I saw it with a friend who asked me if I thought they'd be able to pass this movie up with the next one. In short: no. In length: this movie was so perfect, because so many things came together so well. You have a perfect Joker; you have a supporting cast who are top notch and who were cast, again, perfectly. Perfect score, perfect writing, perfect directing... too much perfection in this movie to think that it can be beat. But... we'll see.

I have only one regret when it comes to this movie. It hit me quite hard as I left the theater. We will never see a continuation of the Joker character in this form. So amazing was he that I would've been happy if the movie were 24 hours long just so I could watch. It's been a long, long time since an on-screen character has been so engaging and so perfectly captured (I'm still thinking that it's never happened before), and it will undoubtedly be a long time before it happens again.

Rest in peace, Mr. Ledger.

Simple Disbelief

Let's start with this article, which I pulled off The Knight Shift. Aside from giving the movie Wall-E a very nice review, it touches on some of the severe downfalls I've noticed about our country lately. As any of you who know me know, I rarely am involved in politics. I was, up until about a year ago, quite apathetic about the whole shebang. Really, my view was the following: politicians are puppets to big corporations. One man cured that for me. Sadly, he is no longer in the running for president, so I'm back to my view that our presidential candidates are puppets, and, perhaps more importantly, idiots.

John McCain is an idiot. He took a swell trip to Latin America and vacationed with flip-flops and posed for pictures while the country he wants to lead struggled to pay for gasoline to get to work and back and dealt with the increasing rate of foreclosures and, what's more, the biggest June stock market free fall since The Great Depression. He can't even use a computer (no, seriously... he's admitted it), and he wants to lead this country? And people voted for him in the primaries. That goes beyond sad.

Barack Obama is, well, an idiot. He comes to us with these ideas of change, this audacious thing called "hope" and his very clever "Hope for America" campaign slogan... then as soon as he's the frontrunner, all that gets tossed to the wayside so he can jump to the middle and try to round up as many votes as he can on the platform of flip flop and so many empty (and ever-changing) promises. And people voted for him. Again, sad.

This country, its people, as it (and they) stands right now, are almost hopeless. Nevermind that a cartoon takes politics and the state of this country more seriously than either one of the current presidential candidates, nevermind that both of these folks are puppets who will say whatever they think you want to hear, nevermind that neither candidate has a single original idea that they would ever use to change this country. Let's think for just a second about how these two are the only options that we as voters have. And why is that? Oh yeah, you voted for them already.

Allow me a bit of outrage here for a moment. What is wrong with the people who voted for these two? Seriously, were you suckered by the sweet TV spots that promised so much? Were you astounded by the debates, where all the candidates bounced between catch phrases? How about all the dirt that was thrown around? Perhaps it was the overly-biased media. Do you watch MSNBC? Well, then vote for Obama. Fox News? McCain's your guy! CNN? We laugh at you privately.

When are people going to learn to think for themselves? You have rights in this country, believe it or not. You have the right to think for yourself and not let others make decisions for you. In fact, of all your rights, that is the most important one, because it protects all your other rights. Politics aside, we very much live in a culture where every person is told what to think, by schools, news, commercials, etc. We've become lazy, unwilling, and in some cases, unable, to think for ourselves, because we are so used to others thinking for us. How else did we elect Bush twice in a row?

Seriously folks, wake up and smell some freedom. Look past the superfluous rantings of the current candidates, and you will see... well, nothing really. Look past the bull and you see what you will get, nothing. You will see that they run for president not just to serve the people that elected them (hell, I doubt there's any of that motivating them). You will see two people who will, in the end, do nothing to help you, instead devoting their time to making more money for the people who already have it.

You know, there's a reason there's an ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. That reason is the people you elect to run this country.

Every day, I listen to people talk about how somebody has to do something to save this country. The thing is, though, that responsibility lies with us. Until we get up off our asses, start thinking for ourselves, then acting on these things, nothing is ever going to change. Not for the better, anyway.

I've Got Nothing Clever for the Title (EXcePt the SHifT KEY)

4 day work weeks should be standard. 3 day weekends ftw!

When my family first decided that living in BFE was a good idea, they were torn between which school district to move into. There was the Woodland Park school district, which was small, but a bit crowded for it's size. Then there was the Cripple Creek school district, which was small, smaller, smallest, and (though I didn't realize it at the time) quite underfunded. The real estate agent was quite insistent on the things in the CC school district, and my parents were starting to get up on the idea too. The agent's interest really went no further than the fact that the homes nearer CC were generally priced higher, and my parents, well, they were quite taken with the word "scholarship". which the realitor dropped constantly. "The school in Cripple Creek *cough* scholarship *cough* is great..."


We ended up moving into the WP district, and I wonder now what would be different about my life had I not gone to Woodland Park High School....


I would not have a certain friend named Justin whom I met in graphic design class over loud bouts of Unreal Tournament. That would be sad, because I might not be sitting here today.

I probably wouldn't have worked at Burger King, and instead ended up at some rinky-dink place in CC. I got the job at BK because of a guy I went to school with in WP. Without BK, I never would have had my first apartment experience (with all of its lessons learned), never would have met a guy named Brian Hansen, who worked at WOW!, alerted me to the place's existence, and turned in my resume. So I wouldn't be working here. Without WOW!, I wouldn't have the supporting cast of friends I have now, and that would be reason to be sad.

It's stunning how one simple decision altered the course of my life. I'm not a religious person in even the smallest measure, but I do believe that everybody is connected through their actions, some more directly than others. A decision my parents made 11 years ago directly affected everything in my life thereafter.

It's a Wonderful Life does a great job of illustrating this point. Think about the idea of a whole town changing just because one person wasn't in it. That's powerful stuff.