BATMAN!!!

So I had it set up over the last few days to throw up a new blog out there about a new set of people who need a hug but then I decided last night/this morning to go and see Batman, and I was so enthralled by it that I put people who need a hug part III on hold for another day and jumped right into writing about the movie last night.........First off a little backdrop, I'm like any other normal red blooded American male in that I enjoyed comic books as a kid, and loved the idea of super heroes, we love the idea of strength, speed, and size and the ability to go above and beyond the call of duty to save someone or some thing while also having really cool super powers and a cool costume, I believe we all wanted to be Batman, Superman, etc. at one point in our life, and after watching Batman last night, I'm about two minutes away from quitting my job and becoming him.

I got hooked on Batman at a young age, I remember going to the theater with my cousin, my uncle, and some friends to see an advanced screening of Batman at around 9 years old and after seeing the movie I was amazed and I was so hooked on it, I remember going to Jim Hanley's comic book store and buying a bunch of Batman crap whenever I got money, I mean this may sound cheesy but hell I was only 9-10 years old.........

Now after the first one , they came out with two ehhhhh ones with the Penguin, Riddler, and Two Face followed by one of the worst movies ever Batman & Robin the 4th sequel, a movie so loaded up with bad Schwartznegger lines it was just painful to watch. At the point in time I was 18 years old and I started to believe that maybe I was getting too old for this superhero stuff that I was growing up, heading to college and I was way too mature for the comic books of my youth, especially after this cartoonish bomb of a movie...........

Now many years went past, I graduated from college, entered the real world and did many different adult things till they re-did the series in 2005, so even after the original stink bomb in 1997 I decided what the hell I would give it the old college try. After going and seeing it I remember coming out of the theater feeling like a young kid all over again(where's Jim Hanley's?), I was all amped up Christopher Nolan(Director) and Christian Bale (Batman) bought out the kid in me again, but only this time it wasn't a cartoonish Batman but instead a very dark Batman, taken more from a psychological level, showing his roots, his thoughts and how he became Batman...........

When the last one ended, they gave us a little foreshadowing of the next one by showing Gordon talking to Batman showing him the Joker card, now that was in 2005 and I remember being all amped up because I love the Joker, I remember how great Nicholson was in the original and I couldn't wait from the second I got out of the theater back in 05 for the new one to come out, I figured with the new actor playing Batman, the new backdrop of the story line, and all the cool effects it would be special to see and I couldn't wait...........................

So now we arrive at last night, anticipation has been building up for months within me and in the public, I literally checked out the trailer about 100 times on Youtube and each time I saw it I became more eager with anticipation, between that and the absolutely rave reviews I had to go the second it came out, the 8 year old inside of me was bursting to see it, I was so amped up all day yesterday!!!

Needless to say we got there around 1130 , the place was jammed packed and I was eagerly awaiting the film to start, and once it began it became 150 minutes of non stop, heart racing action, I literally could not keep my eyes off the screen.......I don't want to go into too much detail to spoil it for the people who have yet to see it, so I'll just give a little overview of everything......First off Christian Bale was made to play Batman, I just couldn't possibly think of anyone better who could play the ass kicking playboy billionaire who is psychologically all screwed up, Heath Ledger as Joker was absolutely brilliant, he literally turned into the character and it might have been one of the finer performances I have ever seen, the only thing close that I can think of was Daniel-Day Lewis in Gangs of NY, every little thing he did from his lips pursing, to his tongue sticking out, to the crazed look in his eyes screamed Joker, Aaron Eckhart was a great Harvey Dent, actually I like anything with Eckhart, he just has that re-watchability characteristic about him.......as for the others well each stepped up to the plate and put up a A+ performance...................

What I absolutely loved about this movie and what differs it from the cartoonish version of the past was the psychological aspect of it, also the ethical backdrop was incredible and they used the Joker as the gun to shoot out the bullets of these genres throughout the movie..........There was one scene in particular where he was talking to Dent and he mentioned and I'm paraphrasing here, "a gang banger gets shot, troops die in war, no one one panics it's expected, it's the norm, but a community leader gets killed everyone goes crazy, anarchy reigns supreme" It was something along those lines, but it makes somewhat amazing sense which adds to the psychological backdrop of this movie, it's amazing what fear and panic can do when an entire mob is paralyzed by that, when things aren't the norm....I'm in finance I see that every day when people go crazy and the entire herd are selling or buying stock.....the movie touches up on interesting points like how much is one person's life worth, is one person more valuable than 100 people, like if a gang banger gets shot is his life worth less than lets say if the mayor gets shot. It also amazes me that everyday we see someone die in war on TV, or someone from the projects gets shot, yet we all live our life the same, nothing changes it's the norm but if something were to happen to someone important anarchy would reign supreme....

The whole movie deals with interesting twists and turns and most of all CHOICES!! I always believe that each choice in life leads you down a certain path similar to reading those books as kids that you have the option to turn to page 45 to have one thing happen versus turning to page 82 to have another thing happen..... In this movie Batman has plenty of choices to make and throughout the whole film we see how the effect of these choices play out and the road they lead him on. It's brilliantly done as Bale is able to really to portray someone who can play that role of someone who is very deep and psychological and you as an audience member get right into his mindset throughout the film.....

As for Ledger, like I stated before his role was amazing, and he plays the exact polar opposite of Batman in that he doesn't concern himself with his choices, he just goes about and does things!! He doesn't care about the consequences of his actions which makes his character so intriguing, he is built on sheer lunacy with no rhyme or reason and plays as a total contrast to Batman who begins to openly debate his actions and where they got him to this point during the course of the film...........

The thing I feel about Batman is that most of us can relate to us, in that he's just like us they're are no special powers, he's not from another planet, he wasn't genetically mutated, etc ... there's just a normal person who's out to seek justice and I feel that we can all relate to someone who looks just like us and that's why I feel he is one our most beloved superheroes...................

Anyways to wrap things up, I came out of the theater last night/this morning in complete and utter amazement, everything about the movie was beyond my expectations, visually, acting-wise, etc.... It was just an amazing display for my senses and had me thinking about life and the choices that we make, any movie that can get you to do something along the lines of thinking about the hidden parts to it after you see it says something about the greatness of the movie.........anyways I implore all of you to head to the theater and check it out, even if you're not a Batman fan go for it..........anyways enjoy the weekend .................

TP