The night is darkest just before the dawn.

Last night Lucy, Mike and I went to see the midnight opening of The Dark Knight. My friend asked me how we got tickets forgetting this is rural Vermont. Granted there were only 13 left at 10PM when we got them but there were lines or waiting. We sat down in the theatre just after 11 and the next 56 minutes were a bit awkward as I reverted to being in the worst kind of high school assembly. I think there were 3 people over 20 who weren't on speed. The guy behind me was so cool and loud and talking about sex and ecstasy and he was just awesome. How can I be like that, how? When they started playing the Penis (sorry to write that word.) Game where you call it out as loud as you can (yeah, brilliant stuff here) I reverted right back into my high school coping mechanisims by sinking lower into my chair and keeping my head down. And right when we thought it wasn't going to end the movie began. The shorts warmed us up and we were away.

I really liked this movie. I liked the pacing, the character relationships, the filming, the script, the acting, the music, and the overall design. Christopher Nolan thinks about his movies and it is evident because they have a quality that is distinct and welcome, especially in what could be another run of the mill superhero movie. It was 2.5 hours but I found myself wrapped into these character and content to stay along to discover and uncover even at 2AM when I should be in REM. Even after getting into bed at 3AM, I couldn't really fall asleep. Here are several of my plethora of thoughts:

* It was dark, the Joker (well played,Heath) was dark and Batman was dark all to the 2nd degree dark. Rarely, in this genre of movie do we more substantially uncover much about the superhero/villian side of the character but we were pushed right into this space and even watched this place be created in Two-face. Then we got to watch these strange and forced personalities relate to eachother on a level other than fight level which was interesting and I couldn't get enough of it. It was a character driven/method acted "superhero" movie which made any of the lines that could sound trite, not, very not trite but valid and weighty.

* Tim Burton's Batman movies are coming from a completely different take on Batman so I won't compare but even Batman Begins had an element of comic book to the design of the film (that I felt) even though it was very very minimal. This one is totally stripped. Gotham City is Chicago and there is no CG to make it even a bit more gothamy. Gotham City is a real city in this world and against that backdrop even the absolute psychosis of the Joker and Gadget paired Intensity of Batman didn't feel comic bookish which I liked.

* I found myself very attracted to Batman. Sure, listening to him makes my throat hurt but good-ness. Can Windsor get Christian Bale as Batman to just pop in and out every once in a while? Maybe we could invite him to the Inn.

Just a few of my thoughts. We are going again tonight.