First off, I want to give a (NAME DROPPER ALERT) shout out to my girl Beatrice Rosen, whom I worked with on Cuts... in this movie, she was Natascha, the Russian ballet dancer who was with Bruce early on... B, all I gotta say is... she REAL mad (please don't ask, I'm not talking about it, and yes, she prolly won't read this, but so what).

Now, on to some rambling thoughts about this movie.

I thought it was great. Everything about it was top-notch. Certainly very thought-provoking AND entertaining at the same time. The material was quite timely, and there were SEVERAL references to Our Current Times... starting with the fact that the Joker was, for all intents and purposes, a terrorist, a dude who literally has nothing to lose by wreaking havoc... and yes, I believe the hype, Heath Ledger's performance WAS fantastic... though I'm not so sure, with 5 months left in the year, that it will be one of the final 5 nominees come Oscar time, but he has a GREAT shot at it...

I thought Bale was solid again (and btw, wtf is this shit about his Batman voice? Y'all motherbuckers weren't complaining when he first did it in Batman Begins, so why's it a problem now?)... I thought Morgan "Shoot THIS motherfucker" Freeman, Caine, and Maggie Gyllenhaal were fine, Oldman was great, and I liked Aaron Eckhart's take on Harvey, well, up until he turned into Two-Face, which I just had a hard time buying... like, I understood the *why*, but I just couldn't get into the *how*...

Let me just take a quick break for this:

ZEUUUUUUUUUS!

http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/pictures/z/zeus/03.jpg

And shout-out to Anthony Michael Hall and Eric Roberts, yo...

Moving on...

I kinda agree with the (David Edelstein) criticism that the action sequences felt choppy, mainly the ones involving any kind of vehicles... but I'd put that more on the editing than Nolan's shot choices, as some of the sequences were cut way too quickly for my taste. However, I *did* like the intercutting "homage" to Silence of the Lambs (and yes, I'm referencing that film because it's the one I thought of off the top) with the sequence involving Rachel and Harvey...

I DON'T agree with Edelstein's complaint that the movie wasn't any fun, that it was "too dark" and "sadistic"... well, I should say that I don't think that that should be looked at as a negative... the point is that it IS a dark and sadistic time in Ameri-- er, Gotham City, that there's not really much joy to be had in a city where crime is rampant and they have to depend on one savior cat to come and save the day (a cat that the people don't even really trust to begin with)... then, if that's not bad enough, you bring in this dude who Just Don't Give a Fuck and is more than happy to drive the city to hell...

It wasn't the total and complete anarchy that I was (irrationally) hoping for, but this will do for now, for sure. This, and WALL*E are the top two movies of the year. Save the talk about Iron Man, I liked it just fine, but it ain't The Dark Knight.

Warner Bros. legal department better have already sent Nolan the contract and a Brink's truck for the next one, because you're, well, batshit, if you don't believe there will be a third one, and also that he should be behind it...
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*by request*

(note to the usual tUoOS debaters, this will most likely be my final appearance in this post, so there's no use trying to start an argument... thnx)