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FELTS: I’m not immune to ‘Batmania’
By TOMMY FELTS, Voices From The News
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People from all walks of life have been asking me the same question, over and over, for the past week.
“Have you seen the new Batman movie yet?”
Now, I’ve come to expect questions about hot-button topics and politics — heck, I covered a John McCain town hall meeting last week in Kansas City, so I’ve got plenty to say — but Batman? Really?
‘The Dark Knight,’’ the second in a new series of Batman films starring Christian Bale, raked in $158.4 million in its debut weekend. The much-anticipated sequel to ‘‘Batman Begins’’ surpassed numerous records, including best opening weekend (a title previously belonging to 2007’s ‘‘Spider-Man 3”), best midnight opening ($18.5 million) and best single-day showing ($66.4 million). And “Dark Knight” — which pits Bale’s Batman against the late Heath Ledger’s version of everyone’s favorite insane comic book clown, the Joker — passed another milestone: Opening in a record-breaking 4,366 theaters across the country.
I suppose it’s no wonder the movie has people talking.
Audiences and critics alike have given “The Dark Knight” rave reviews, but the recent bout of Batmania began long before the film opened. What began more than a year ago as mere casting rumors snowballed into a full-blown cultural event — largely because of Ledger’s untimely death in January. The debut weekend success was a culmination of months of movie-goer excitement.
A fan of 2005’s “Batman Begins,” as well as previous incarnations of the caped crusader, it was inevitable that I too would see the new movie.
And finally I did.
Taking advantage of mid-week, half-priced tickets, my wife, a few friends and I ventured to a movie theater for an early showing. We expected to find a sparse crowd and plenty of room to stretch our legs. We were wrong.
Several days after the big opening weekend, audience members young and old were still cramming themselves into the multiplex like sardines. Listening to excited chatter around us, I quickly realized many in the crowd had already seen the movie ... at least once.
Among those repeat viewers, a frantic debate raged: Was “The Dark Knight” a great movie — or an awesome movie?
While it might not have met those high standards, the film certainly didn’t disappoint. It was eerie thanks to the paint-smeared Joker, action-packed, true to Batman’s well-defined dark nature and full of big ideas about what it means to be a hero. “The Dark Knight” also offered its share of laughs and jolting moments (just ask my wife — she spent the movie screaming, squirming and jumping in her seat).
While often unsettling and more than a little depressing, the movie still had something for everyone; and that’s one of the key secrets to its success. Whether people went to see the movie because they were hardcore Batman fans, had a morbid curiosity about Ledger’s final complete role, were caught up in the excitement of a big-budget summer blockbuster or simply were looking for an escape, they all found what they were looking for in spades.
Well, most people did anyway.
As the credits rolled on “The Dark Knight,” and audience members bounded out of the theater, a gloomy teenage usher at the door attempted to quash the crowd’s praise for the super hero epic.
“It’s not that the movie was that good,” he glibly told people at the exit. “It’s that the rest of the world is so bad.”
Wow. What a buzz kill.
For all the hit film’s wide appeal, it should be noted that “The Dark Knight” is not a kid-friendly movie. Incidents of extreme violence, dark themes and a focus on the mentally deranged personalities of the Joker and others don’t lend themselves well to the younger set. Still, don’t be surprised if the most popular costume this Halloween looks something like a psychopathic version of Bozo the clown.
Will I be decked out in such a disguise? Unlikely.
I’ve got a case of Batmania, but it’s a fairly mild one.
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Casualty update: At least 4,124 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 488 have died as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.
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Tommy Felts is design editor for The Ottawa Herald. E-mail him at tfelts@ottawaherald.com.
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