The Dark Knight…an insomniac’s review.

It has probably been mentioned before on these momentous pages but I am a great believer in the ‘hype / expectations / disappointment’ ratio…i.e. the more a film is built up, the higher it goes in your estimations, therefore the anticipation increases and in the end you more often than not wind up pissed off when you finally watch it because it doesn’t match up. To paraphrase Top Gun:

‘Its ego is writing cheques its body can’t cash’

On the flipside, if you hear nothing but shithouse reviews, you go into a movie with expectations that are lower than the arse of a dog with worms, and then, unless the film really IS the biggest steaming tepid bucket of donkey snot, you come out pleasantly surprised and satisfied

(I know what you’re thinking and yes…I am that shallow and easily swung by public opinion. I am the 1% that is affected by advertising etc.)

Anyhoo…so I couldn’t sleep last night…for the umpteenth time recently. Now I don’t know if I’m suffering from coming off the painkillers & sleeping tablets from my happy ‘bout of gout’ last week, but ever since I stopped taking them I just can’t seem to get any shut eye. What’s that all about?

Moving swiftly on….it was Wednesday morning, 3am, and considering my eyes were being forced open by metaphorical matchsticks I decided that a good way to whittle away the hours before work was to watch ‘The Dark Knight’.

I can’t think of a film in recent times that has received the same amount of hype and pre-release praise as this one. I was looking forward to it like I was ‘on a promise’.

All the hype – all the expectation…the ratio was off the scale.

It simply had to deliver. This film was either going to ‘blow the bloody doors off’ every other movie this year (at least) and I would spend the next few weeks (or until the football season starts) waxing lyrical about the veritable plethora of spectacular sequences, and how it evoked the senses in a way that only a masterpiece of cinematic artistry can…

Or…

I was going to be crushingly disappointed…despising it and everything the self indulgent twaddle-fest stood for…I would revel in ripping every aspect of every scene to shreds with the acid tongued ferocity of a recently-made-redundant alien-predator hybrid who is experiencing a particularly heavy period.

The ratio is written…There could be no ‘in-between’

So here is my review of this summer’s big blockbuster, The Dark Knight…

…

It was alright.



Edit: Considering this QOTW is about the ‘Best Films Ever’, perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered with this post. Still…hindsight…it’s a cunt ain’t it?
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Wed 23 Jul 2008, 10:36, 4 replies)

I rarely bother with reviews of films.
It's what I want in a film that matters, not the bloody reviewer.
( girlinthehole, Wed 23 Jul 2008, 10:52, closed)

^What BGB said
I mean, I thought the film was incredible (I saw it at the premiere in the IMAX), but then you might love a film that I think is rubbish.

Horses for courses, innit?
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Wed 23 Jul 2008, 11:11, closed)

I use
Kermode for my reviews.
(Halfy By light alone, Wed 23 Jul 2008, 11:46, closed)

But surely
It's the greatest film of all time.

www.imdb.com/chart/top
(Harold's hip man!!, Wed 23 Jul 2008, 12:56, closed)