7/26/2008 - The Dark Knight Trailer Spoof

The summer of 2008 definitely belongs to the superhero in terms of movies. It started out with the excellent Iron Man, then came the outstanding Incredible Hulk, and of course finished up with The Dark Knight. What can I say about this movie that hasn't been said? How much more praise can I give it? First of all, watching a movie like this at a midnight showing is the only way to go. Having an enthusiastic crowd makes even a so-so movie seem good. For this movie, people showed up dressed as Batman and Joker, of course. But there was also somebody in a full Spider-Man outfit! Ah, the comic book/sci-fi/fantasy crowd is the best group of people you'll ever meet. And this movie definitely catered to us... we ate it all up and wanted seconds.

I have to say that after watching the The Dark Knight, I never want to watch another bad movie again. Doing so would be like a waste of life. That's not to say that the movie is perfect... there are plenty of flaws that I could point out, compared to Iron Man which I believe was the perfect summer movie. But The Dark Knight is on such a higher playing field in terms of the acting and storytelling that it's hard to compare it to Iron Man. Everything I liked about Batman Begins is amplified in this movie... the character relationships, the heightened realism, and the uncompromising grittiness.

For a movie like this, you must have a great villain. My favorite movie villain was Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Note the word "was". It is now the Joker in The Dark Knight. Much praise has been given to Heath Ledger for his performance and it is much deserved. But what I saw on the screen was not Heath Ledger. It was not an actor reciting lines and "acting". What I saw was the definitive Joker... a deranged maniac with a deep hidden intelligence who only wants to create chaos. If something like that existed in the real world, it would scare you to your soul.

Speaking of which, something else that was scary (intentionally) was Harvey Dent/Two-Face. And it's not just the CG makeup (which showed how ballsy the producers were in greenlighting such a gruesome visage for the movie). If you know anything about the comics, you know the destiny that's in store for Harvey Dent and the way they present the character before his disfigurement really makes you dread his fate. It may be an inappropriate comparison, but I liken it to watching historical footage of September 10, 2001. And when you see Harvey fall to the dark side, it's a real shot to the gut.

The Dark Night is not just another superhero movie. In fact, Batman is not really a superhero at all. He has no super powers...just gadgets, training, and dedication. The Joker and Two-Face have no super powers either. And yet, you could not classify this movie as just a crime-drama, the genre it's probably closest to. And that's because there is this heightened reality by nature of its extreme characters and situations. It's this heightened reality that allows you to forgive its flaws and leaps in logic. For example, could the Joker really have rigged the hospital with explosives without anybody noticing? Of course not, but we accept it because, well, it's the freakin' Joker!

The bottom line: The Dark Knight is a once-in-a-lifetime movie you must experience. You don't have to be a superhero fan... just a fan of movies. So now we get to today's video, which is nothing more than a spoof on The Dark Knight's trailer. Even though it's a spoof, it feels like a tribute. After all, it takes some dedication to dress up like Batman and Joker and film in public: