"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." —George W. Bush, May 12, 2008

The first trailer for Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic, W, has surfaced on YouTube. It’s like a horrific car wreck. I don’t want to see it, but I can’t look away.

Putting the "Street" back in Sesame

I love people with too much time on their hands.

Monthly Fees

The Soup sums up why I didn't buy a new iPhone. I mean, I love Apple and all, but I also like money. Until AT&T’s iPhone monopoly is over, I’m all good with Verizon and one of these.

Thanks to The Original Winger for the link.

Stay Positive

Despite the title, this post has nothing to do with The Hold Steady’s excellent new album. It’s about a little movie you may have heard of called The Dark Knight that’s been breaking every possible box office record recently. I saw it two nights ago, and after a couple days to reflect, I’ve decided it’s in my top three all-time (alongside The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark). There’s a lot of reasons why, but the easiest explanation is that director Christopher Nolan took everything that was good about Batman Begins (gritty realism, almost total avoidance of CGI) and maintained or expanded on it, while also managing to improve everything that needed to be (Katie Holmes, camerawork during the fight scenes), all while getting fantastic performances from his actors.

Since I saw the movie, I’ve read several reviews which included a variety of complaints. I loved this movie, and I’m having trouble understanding all the negativity (hence, the title of this post). So, here’s my response to the most common gripes. [WARNING: SPOILERS]

At 2.5 hours, it was too long.
About two hours in, I thought, I wonder how long this movie is? Then I went right back to enjoying it. It didn’t feel long to me, it felt complete.

Heather Ledger’s death is the only reason so many people are seeing the movie.
OK, so the morbid curiosity aspect is legit, but those people are getting to see an incredible final performance from Ledger, and an incredibly high quality movie. Who cares why people come to the theater if they enjoy the movie? The Dark Knight certainly deserves this success much more than that piece of crap Spider-Man 3.

Ledger’s performance is way overhyped. I mean, Oscar buzz? Really?
Really. Almost all the actors gave incredibly high quality performances, but Ledger brought it on a whole new level. I really believed he just wanted to see the city explode simply because it amused him.

Batman was barely in this. Why didn’t they just call this movie The Joker?
I don’t get this one. Between Bruce Wayne and Batman, Christian Bale easily had more screen time than the Joker. I can see it being an issue in some of the older, campy Batman movies where guys like Ah-nuld and Jim Carrey stole the show, but I don’t see it here. I thought it was pretty well-balanced.

We didn’t get any back story about the Joker. Why didn’t they explain his origin?
OK, make up your minds, folks. Too much Joker, not enough Joker... Besides, aren’t villains more interesting and creepy when you don’t know their motives? Especially when you’re dealing with someone like the Joker, who’s only interested in panic and chaos. I agree with Stephen King: the scariest horror movies are always the ones where the killers just stalk their victims, and no reason is ever given why they’re doing it. Explaining the back story makes them more human, but also, less scary. The Dark Knight isn’t horror, but the Joker is a homicidal maniac, and if you’re doing a gritty take on him, he should have the ability to make your skin crawl. Plus, no definite back story gave the Joker the opportunity to keep changing his explanation about his scars, which I thought made him seem even more insane.

Two-Face’s story arc was too rushed. They should have kept him around for a third movie.
I really liked the fact that The Dark Knight felt complete in and of itself. If they never make another one (highly unlikely, given the way this film is raking in the cash), no one will feel like they were left hanging. I can’t stand it when a movie feels like it has no purpose other than setting up the sequel. Besides, I don’t know how much more they could have done with Two-Face. Aaron Eckhart’s performance was actually the biggest surprise in the movie for me—I thought he nailed Harvey Dent. But his purpose in the film was to be established as Gotham’s true hope—in a way, the anti-Batman, a normal citizen committed to cleaning up the city without needing a mask and fancy gadgets to do it. His arc ended once he was no longer the shining White Knight Gotham needed, and Dent’s fall forced Bruce Wayne to come to terms with the kind of sacrifices he would have to make to continue as Batman.

Of course, Two-Face is a comic book villain, and anyone who’s ever read comics knows that nobody stays dead forever.

Aside from the fact that they can’t ever bring the Joker back now (even if they wanted to re-cast, what actor would be crazy enough to take that role?), I don’t have any major complaints about The Dark Knight. A couple of casting quibbles, maybe (I’ve never been an Eric Roberts fan, and it’s hard for me to take Nestor Carbonell seriously since he played Bat-Manuel—unknowns in either of those roles would have been an improvement), but those were made up for by the dramatic upgrade of Maggie Gyllenhall over Katie Holmes. I’ll definitely see this one again in the theater, and apparently, I’m not the only one.

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On a different note, I’m going to try to get back to blogging more regularly. I’ve been pretty overwhelmed this summer with work and my brother’s wedding, but I’d like to get back to writing about my leisure-time experiences on a more frequent basis. In a way, this post is a chance to shake off the rust. So aside from going all fanboy-gaga over The Dark Knight, here’s a few things I’ve been doing lately:

Hellboy 2. A bit of a disappointment, since I loved the first one so much. This one seemed less focused and more choppy, and intent on setting up a third movie. On the other hand, the creatures made me really excited to see what Guillermo del Toro is gonna do with The Hobbit.

Watchmen. I just finished re-reading Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ amazing graphic novel after seeing the trailer for next March’s movie adaptation. It really is an incredible story, and hard to imagine that comics weren’t always like this. I just hope the movie can do it justice, since that will be the majority of America’s first introduction to the tale.

Concerts #99 and 100. I’ve been keeping track of every show I’ve seen since I was old enough to go without my parents. My first concert of my independent era was The Stones and Living Colour back in 1988 at RFK Stadium, and last Friday, I saw my 99th (Lyle Lovett and Leo Kottke at Red Rocks), followed by #100 on Sunday (day two of The Mile High Music Festival, where I saw some or all of the sets by Rodrigo y Gabriela, Flobots, The Roots, John Mayer, The Black Crowes, and Dave Matthews Band). Even though I don’t know a lot of his music, Lyle Lovett was a great show on a fantastic night at Red Rocks. As for Sunday, I wasn’t blown away by anybody, but the Roots and Rodrigo were both enjoyable, and I’d see either of them again. I’d also probably go see DMB again, but only if I could get good seats. Standing 400 yards away and staring over the heads of 60,000 other people kind of sucks. I think I’m also suffering from a bit of concert fatigue. In looking back at my list of shows, 52 of them have been since 2000, and 21 of those were in the past two years. I think it’s time to take a break, unless there’s somebody I really want to see.