So, Gene and I saw the new Batman movie on the IMAX screen in downtown Cheesecake. He had me get the junk food so he picked the seats. Believe me – 2 and a half hours in the 5th row at IMAX is a recipe for certain disaster.
The movie itself was fine. I don’t get all this yammering about Heath Ledger and a posthumous Oscar, though. He played a cartoon character cartoonily. Not as hammy as Nicholson in the 1989 Batman movie, but still. (Can anyone name a Jack Nicholson movie where he does not feast on scenery?).
Something else I do not understand is the news article on Yahoo News about parents being upset about the violence in the movie. First off, it’s rated PG-13. Who in their right mind would take their young child to this? (Answer: the same braniacs who bring their toddlers to Midnight Shopping on Black Fridays). It is an incredibly violent movie. The opening scene, a bank robbery, was very scary. Perhaps The Joker was the only cartoony thing in the movie because the majority of the rest of the movie (esp. the violent bits) were very realistic.
After a few years as a teenager spent watching horror movies like The Evil Dead, I have realized that now as an adult that I just can’t go there anymore. Perhaps it’s maturity (oh sure, this is where I finally mature), perhaps it’s the buildup of anxiety in my system. It could be that there is enough in the world to fear anymore, who needs entirely fictionalized problems? Maybe it’s because The Dark Knight was two and a fracking half hours long and most comedies don’t break the 2 hour mark. In the end, I don’t think I want to see movies with causeless murders and other acts of senseless violence anymore.
Anyway, the LaineyD.com PSA for July 21 is this: Don’t be stupid and take your kid to see a hyper violent movie, even if its basis is in comic books. DUH.