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Saw Dark Knight. I’ve been hearing people brag about it, so maybe nothing could have lived up to the hype, but . . . Jon and I both thought it was slow at the beginning. Heath Ledger saved the movie for us, and he certainly deserves all the praise he has been getting for his performance. It is very sad that he will not be alive to receive the acclaim in person. His Joker is closer to the villains of horror films than comic books. He was as scary as Jason, or Freddy, or a host of others. In some ways, it was as if he was doing a slightly different and more disturbing movie than the rest of the cast. Christian Bale does a fine job, but the Caped Crusader is a hard act to make as interesting as the villains. All the actors that play Bat Man have to struggle with that age old problem of how to make good as fun to play as bad. Especially when you’ve got Heath Ledger’s Joker to play against. When Ledger was on screen, no one else really existed. Though the actor who played Harvey Dent, Aaron Eckhart, did a wonderful job, too. His hospital scene opposite Ledger’s Joker was a chilling moment. There are many fine performances, and great stunts, and lot’s of special effects, and money on the screen, but . . .

Go see it, if for nothing else than Ledger’s Joker. Amazing. But, for us, it just didn’t have the impact of Batman Begins. Not sure why, really, but it just didn’t. In fact, if I was listing the summer movies in order of preference, this might be last. But then, it’s been a great summer for movies. Wall-e; Kung-Fu Panda; Wanted; Indiana Jones; Iron Man; Hancock;The Hulk; a great summer for movies. I guess, if I was listing movies that would be my order, but as I type this, I realize that I might put Dark Knight ahead of The Hulk. The Hulk is a more satisfying movie, but I don’t know when I’ve seen a more satisfying and disturbing character performance than Ledger’s the Joker. Jon would put Iron Man higher on his list, and it is a great movie. We saw it twice, which I cannot say for anything else on the list. We will own it when it comes out on DVD.

Oh, and the fact that I put Hancock ahead of both The Hulk and Dark Knight . . . Hancock was a flawed movie, I won’t argue that, but the story line was ambitious, and after days of thinking about it, I can’t figure out how to fix the big twist in the movie, without giving it all away. If I can’t figure out to do it better, I try not to bitch. Also, Will Smith can carry a movie on his back, up a hill in a snow storm; and make you applaud the whole way. Sadly, Heath Ledger was becoming that kind of star, too. With his early passing, we lost a lot of potential screen magic.