Ten Men and a Movie: The Dark Knight

More, Please.


Saw the Dark Knight last night. We went to one of the midnight showings at the Arclight, a great movie theater where they post props from the film during the premier week. We’ve written about this place in the past.

It was a full house. Not sure what it’s like back east, but here in LA people are scalping opening weekend tickets on Craigslist.

We love being at big premieres like this. The reasons:

The crowd. We were in our seats 20 minutes early so we could watch the people coming in. There was a high fanboy content, but a wonderful shortage of people in costume. (LA just isn’t that kind of a town – people care too deeply about their $100 Doucheneck to want to cover it with a costume.) This was no Star Wars premiere.

The 20-something fat guy with sweaty hair seated in front of us was some kind of nerd royalty. He was in the front row, and throughout the come-in other fat pasty kids stopped by and paid their respects. At the end, when the house lights came up, he got a shout out from some lanky nerd in the back, to which he replied “I didn’t know you were here. Who you rollin' with?” Ah, the Arclight on Hollywood, where all the cool nerds go to roll.

The Previews. Typically, the big summer movies come loaded with previews for next year's big summer movies. So after everyone was seated, the crowd settled in and roared with approval to the same previews that they breathlessly downloaded from the Web earlier that day.

The moments of spontaneous magic that surprise us all. At last, at 12:38 AM, the house lights went down. A hush fell over the crowd. And the silence was immediately broken by a small burp of a fart from somewhere in the back. Laughter all around. Well played, sir, wherever you are. Well played.

The movie itself. So what did we think? Wow. We loved it, plan to see it again. One of the best films we’ve seen in years, even accounting for the afterglow. Good story, great action, impressive stunts, great villains. Even better, no stunt casting, no annoying cameos, and it featured Michael Cane’s Alfred as the President we wish we had. When a self-doubting Batman wonders what to do about the Joker’s reign of terror, Alfred says, simply “You endure.”

(Were there negatives? Sure. The 1st half was much better than the second, and it felt a little long by the time the 3rd act kicks in.)

Simply put, this was the highlight of the week. And this was a week in which we went to the Espys.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a screenplay to write.