Bats at Midnight!

Thursday was a day of Batman.

First after work we rented Batman Begins. I had never seen it.

After this we went to the midnight premier of The Dark Knight. I had never seen it, either.

Reflections:

Batman Begins was troubling as all superhero stories are troubling. First we meet the Waynes, a family of billionaires who are just trying to make life better for everyone. You know, the way billionaires do. Then, of course, they're assaulted for their money by a man with a gun, who is obviously evil, because it's obviously evil for the lowest of the lower classes to take matters into their own hands and steal from the rich their illegitimate wealth.

It was a propaganda film, like all superhero movies. Look at all the crooked cops, judges, and union bosses in the mafia den! Good thing none of our corporate officials are corruptible in this way! But then of course, the Scarecrow turned up, and also the Brotherhood of Shadows, so it was time for Holy Freaking Crap and Goddamn That Is So Cool. The scenes with the Brotherhood were amazing, the story of How It Came To Be was extremely interesting, the climax was as completely boring and predictable and flashy and explosive. The nods to Lovecraft were nice.

Then there was The Dark Knight. Another propaganda film, this time with an anarchist Joker who of course is not actually an anarchist. However.

Holy Goddamn Fucking Shit, and Welcome to the Great Nerdgasm of 2008.

I don't even know where to start.

I can't. I can't do it.

I can tell you about the theater. It was crowded. Some teenagers were drunk. Megan was angry. They gave out prizes and I didn't win. One of the drunken teenagers held up his phone and shouted "My friend just had a baby!" Everyone cheered. I wondered what would happen if I stood up and just-as-gleefully shouted "My friend just had an abortion!" Sarah didn't think it was funny. The movie ended. Maybe you should stop reading this blog and go watch it now.