The Dark Knight

V: "The Ring" ruined scary movies for me. I thought it was done really well, scared me from the first minute. But . . . the way it ended was so dark. Beyond scary, it was just evil. That was it. It (the thing, the girl, the antagonist) was just evil. There was no ongoing battle, no hope that good would somehow overcome. Well, this is how Dark Knight left me feeling. I loved Spiderman 2 because the villain was well-rounded and sympathetic, tragic even, as a fallen human. But this joker-guy, (yeah he was played well) was just evil. Not human at all. At first you think, okay, he had an abusive father, how sad. But then, it seems he's just making up stories. He's just a bad seed. Not interesting to me. I really don't have a problem with a super evil character - it could have worked had there been some balance. But all of Gotham seemed depraved. A few (two, three?) people were good guys. There has to be good, too, to have conflict in a story. So I can't say, yeah, it was really dark, but a great show. It was just dark. And really, really mean. (Go see Iron Man again, instead.) 3 stars


M: This is by far the darkest Batman to date and the darkest movie I have seen this year, and beyond. Heath Ledger did a fantastic job as the joker, very haunting. Christian Bale makes a good Bruce Wayne, but a less convincing Batman (the voice he puts on when he is Batman drove me a bit crazy). Incredible action and plenty of curve balls to keep you guessing. But, just too dang dark, and not enough redemption. 3 stars