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

Iron Man

V: I've been a long time fan of Robert Downey Jr. - even annoyed my college roommates by posting an ode to him on our shared refrigerator. He did a really great job in this, and I'm glad things are good for him right now. So, Iron Man . . . First of all, it says a lot when we see a movie in the theater - and not even the dollar theater. This happens 3 or 4 times a year, at most. (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for watching our kids!) It means we expect big, big things, and Iron Man didn't disappoint. The pace of the movie was great, always kept you into the action, moving forward, not too much or too little, and never boring. Downey, as Tony Stark, was funny and cool. These movies easily find themselves in cheesy, bad-lines territory, but this one never did. The bad guys were bad. The gizmos were awesome. The love interest was well-handled. It was exciting! You may find yourself searching for something to hold on to. (Sorry M). I really enjoyed it. The end really surprised me. Not good or bad, but I just wonder what they're going to do with it. One small critique and that is that I thought Pepper (Paltrow) was moving pretty slowly when being pursued by a big, bad robot monster thing. But she did have on some really tall heels. And maybe she didn't know he meant her as much ill will as he did. But anyway, even with that I give it 4 stars. (And don't forget to stay all the way through the end of the credits. It's important to know who the Additional Second Assistant Director is.)

M: It took me a while to suspend my belief in this one. I suppose I should have been prepared upon entering the theater to accept without question what I saw, after all, the movie is based on a comic strip about an iron man. But still, there I was saying, how did this guy build this contraption in a cave in the desert in a few days . . . no way . . . couldn't happen. Well, once I allowed myself to get into the show, I thought it was really good. Downey did a terrific job, as did Paltrow. The effects were sweet and the show, fairly unpredictable. Go see this show. 3 1/2 stars.