Ok, you’ve just read our ‘Dark Knight’ preview/review, but what people really want to know and the bottom line: is it that good and can it live up to the massive hype?
The answer is yes and no and your longtail reaction hinges on what kind of moviegoer you are. If you’re a comic-con’er, a geek blogger or one of those people that believe “Wall-E” and “Hellboy II” are two of the best films so far this year, you’re going to love it, declare it the best comic book film ever and salivate at the mouth for months. This is pretty much fact.
But if you’re like us and have similar taste, you yearn for as much long-after-its finished resonance as you do theater experience and enjoyment (you think something like “Reprise” is real and true filmmaking, for example) and you’re going to greatly admire the prowess and proficiency of “The Dark Knight,” but you’re probably not going to consider it one of you all-time faves anytime soon.
Some people go to the movies for escapism, entertainment and to be thrilled. Others go to the movies to understand the human condition and have life reflected back at them in some sort of poignant manner. One need can be dismissed as eggheaded pretension and one can be waived off as unseriousness that doesn’t value art, but our point isn’t to favor either, but just delineate what are essentially the two audiences out there. And sure, let’s not be reductive, some people certainly want both, but as much as we were seriously impressed by the furious velocity and tension of Christopher Nolan’s Batman crime drama, we don’t think it’s going to change our lives and tell us much about life. And that’s not a diss either, just some break-it-down real talk.
