The Dark Night

I recently saw "The Dark Knight" twice in a week. Last Saturday, and last night. Both times with good friends.

I didn't like it.

Okay, okay, fists down. I know it was a good movie. It was excellently done. Heath Ledger lived up to all the hype about how well he played the Joker. They were obviously planning on using him again. I think it would be an incredibly stupid move if they tried to replace him with another, even if he died early in the next movie. But then, Jack Nicholson (did I spell that right?) was considered the definitive Joker for years, that he couldn't be topped. Michael Keaton was also considered the definitive Batman too, until Christian Bale stepped in. I think Jack Nicholson played The Joker as he was seen in the comics. And he did a fantastic job. Scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. But the new Batman series seems to be striving to make Gotham, Batman, and all it's characters more realistic, and less like it came from a comic book world. That's how Heath Ledger played him, and I like that.

So why don't I like the movie? Well, it's violent. A lot of people die. There isn't any blood, at all, but it is violent. And I don't like violence. I don't like "seeing" people die, or get hurt. It makes me not like a movie. I didn't like King Kong for the same reason (that includes the Faye Wray version). It disturbs me. I have decided that my favorite genre of movies is comedies (even though I'm picky about them, too). I like intensity, I like drama, I don't like death, I don't like pain. You'd never know that, with the fact that I love to watch crime dramas, and Court TV. I guess I don't like fictional death. Anyway, that's the reason I didn't enjoy seeing the movie. Too bad, because it really was well done. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and it's nowhere NEAR as dark as a lot of people have been saying. Except that a lot of it takes place at night. And your in a dark theater. And you'll probably go at night, so it's dark outside. But that's as dark as it gets. Still, don't take your kids to see it.