The Dark Knight

Happy Thursday! It's been a good week. Let me tell you about it.

Friday, I never remember the contents of Fridays. I'm sure something happened on it. I'm fairly certain that I worked. That was probably it, I guess.

Saturday we saw Batman, and then I worked again. I suppose I'm entitled to give you my review of The Dark Knight.

It is, quite frankly, a very good movie. The style is refined, slick and dark as an oil spill. The story is complex and impacting; the acting is intense and spotless. It's really everything you want in a professional Batman story. That being said, I recognize and applaud its merits, but I didn't necessarily love it.

There were individual things, like certain characterizations or character decisions, that I questioned. I can't be specific because I don't want to give details and nothing really stands out in my mind now. I guess I just mean to say that while the movie was created by a group of geniuses, there were times when their work missed its mark with me--they did their jobs perfectly well, but it wasn't what I wanted to see. All in all, I didn't walk out of the theater thinking "wow, that was the best thing I've ever seen! I need to see it eighteen more times!!!" It was more of a "wow, that was a really well-done movie."

In the past year or so, I decided to start judging movies on two separate basis--whether they are good and whether I like them. This, I've found, clears up a lot of misunderstandings: No Country for Old Men is a Good Movie, but I Don't Like It. High School Musical is a Bad Movie, but I Love It. The Departed is a Bad Movie and I Hate It. Shaun of the Dead is a Good Movie, and I Love It. Good and Bad are based on technical, stylistic, and performance achievements; my enjoyment of these movies are only somewhat relative to these standards. I like movies that are fun, funny, or intellectual or moving or shocking, but always entertaining. While I appreciate the landmark The Dark Knight is in terms of the way it approached the Batman icon, and the really profound way it shapes Batman's world, it was just too long, complex, and intense for me to simply enjoy it.

It it wasn't part of the Batman franchise, I bet I wouldn't even like it. That's my stance on the matter.

Uhhh the rest of the week! Ended up renting Red Eye and The Prestige after Batman, but haven't got around to Prestige yet. (Now there is a long, complex, and intense movie that I do enjoy, because it's one of those omgmymindohhhhmymind movies that changes your life) Oh, also got the second Ultimate Avengers movie and there were really only two good parts--when the future Black Panther looked over at the elders, who glared at him, I said "They hate him," and about half a second later he says to his dad, "They hate me." The other was when Steven wanted Hank to die the whole movie long, and then he did. Oh, and also when Thor was recharging Tony with his magical lightning powers, I said "Pikachuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" It wasn't much better than the first, besides the fact that Tony ended up with both Jan AND Betty.

So I guess that means I also spent one of these days at Carolyn's house. Let's see, that must have been....Monday or Tuesday. My money's on Tuesday, but that's just a hunch. Yesterday I worked in the morning. Me and my mom also went out to lunch and to the mall and I got two new snappy polos. Wearing one right now. It's got a little lion on it.

I guess I've also been doing a bit of Pokemon, and official correspondence.

My once and future roommate Megan is at the ComicCon, and I am deeply jealous. She saw one of our professors there. Before that sounds strange, let me tell you I'm taking Sci-Fi Films from him next semester. She's also hoping to get into a panel where Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright etc are talking about Spaced, their old tv show. As is the rest of their work, it's fantastic. I've told you also that Wright is writing/directing Marvel's Ant-Man? Ant-Man is this same Hank that Steven hates so much. Poor Hank.

OH I REMEMBER NOW. The other way ComicCon and Carolyn's house relates is that the same day we watched the Avengers, we also watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, written/directed by Joss Whedon (who frequents ComicCon, and also Dr. P asked Megan yesterday if she'd seen it, and tomorrow she might be going to a panel about it) and it honestly might be my most favorite thing I've seen all summer. Rivalling Iron Man, honestly. It's three fifteen minute "episodes" designed for internet broadcast, starring Neil Patrick Harris as Doctor Horrible, and Nathan Fillion (of Firefly fame) as his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. It's also a musical. That's about all I can coherently say about it. When the dvd comes out, I'll show it to you.

So today I also visited the house of Carolyn, and I brought Firefly to show Steven why I laughed so much when Captain Hammer started singing. But first we watched some old Host Club (still soooo good) and some Soul Eater (our new show, kinda similar to Host Club but in most ways not so similar), and it's just about set that we'll cosplay Soul Eater next year. We also played some Rock Band and I earned $60 to buy my guitarist a shirt that didn't have holes in it.

It was a pretty happy Thursday. Except for when I accidentally stepped on Donnie.

-Steph