I can judge movies on things other than the hotness of the leads. I just choose not to.

I saw The Dark Knight today and really enjoyed it. (I saw it with my mom. Her opinion? "It was loud.") (And when my dad came home, I told him we saw The Dark Knight, and Mom had to explain it was the Batman movie.) One of the criticisms I've heard a lot about the movie is that that movie is too long, that it drags when Heath Ledger's Joker isn't on the screen. And I just didn't feel that at all. I did glance at my watch once, but it was more, "I wonder how far into this we are?" than "Man, is this almost over?" Maybe it's that I did spend part of the movie thinking, "Man, Christian Bale is hot!"

One moment that stood out in the movie was the scene with Heath Ledger and Maggie Gyllenhaal, because I couldn't help but think that Heath and Jake Gyllenhall were in Brokeback Mountain together, and this scene must've been fun for Heath and Maggie to shoot. Naturally I couldn't help but think about this being Heath's last role, but the fact that it didn't really look or sound like him helped, I think. I was also pleased that [SPOILER ALERT!] the Joker doesn't die in the end. I had been dreading that pretty much since the movie started being advertised.

The marketing campaign was an interesting one, and I feel bad for the folks behind it--what a fine line to walk. By the time the movie came out, I was kind of sick of hearing about it. I saw so many commercials. But I think that it was a good idea--and not just because the movie wound up making eighty bajillion dollars. I remember the first time I saw a trailer for it, and everyone in the theater kind of hushed up and watched...there was definitely murmuring when the Joker first appeared. But with that many commercials and that much promotion, I think people had gotten beyond that shock, and could look at it as more than just Heath's last movie.

The movie itself? I'm just going to go ahead and assume that the moral is that democracy is good! Or something. Also, Gary Oldman rules.

(And Christian Bale was particularly hot when just hanging around in jeans and a t-shirt. Mmm.)
Other jumbled together thoughts: I got distracted by the mayor being played by Richard Alpert from Lost; is the mayor supposed to freak people out with his mere presence? One thing I did not like was the overuse of the "twirling around the action in circles around and around and around" technique. Blergh. Particularly when watching in IMAX. Maybe my heart is made of stone, but I found Dent's reaction to Rachel dying to be a bit extreme, to say the least. Like, I get that you're upset, but chill, yo. I totally saw the convict tossing the detonator coming, but was still pleased that it happened.

In general, I agree with a lot of the points Sars makes in her review.