Today South Africa... like I really needed to remind you

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I'm sure I didn't need to remind you of this, but Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight opens in South Africa today.

Currently the world is going ape-shit over the film, which is breaking box office records left, right and centre. All the current achievements are detailed in this Superhero Hype! article, but the most recent, and impressive, is that The Dark Knight is the first film to pull in $200 million domestically (in the US) in under a week. It reached this milestone in just 5 days, in fact, making it the fastest film of all time to do so.

But forget about box office. Ordinary cinema patrons, munching popcorn in the dark, aren't studio accountants. They shouldn't care about numbers. All they should be concerned about is whether the film is any good....

Apparently it is.

The Dark Knight is receiving some SERIOUS LOVE from ordinary movie goers and critics alike. It's sitting at 95% fresh over at Rotten Tomatoes. So beware anyone who vocalises a negative opinion about the film - apparently death threats have even been dished out online.

I'm off to see the film on Sunday at the Gateway IMAX, so you can expect my review next week. However, let me say in the meantime that I'm always wary of films heralded as "Masterpieces". I've gone out of my way to avoid the full blast of hype related to The Dark Knight (unlike overseas, in South Africa all you get in terms of film marketing is a few TV ads and bus shelter posters). I actually think I've only skimmed 2 or 3 reviews of the film.


As an old school Batman fan - reading comics from the 1980s through to the late 1990s - I was not overly impressed with Batman Begins. I thoroughly enjoyed how they shifted the focus to the inner torment of Bruce Wayne, and gave the previously neglected Bat supporting cast (Jim Gordon, Lucius Fox) some decent development and screen time. However, I did not like the "realistic" treatment of the villains at all. Scarecrow, one of favourite ever Bat villains, was transformed into an effeminate non-entity with a sack over his head. That spoiled the film for me.

I'm hoping that The Dark Knight is the definitive Batman film. Currently I feel that 1989's Batman, for all its flaws, is still the film most true to the comics. As for the best Batman interpretation in any medium outside of comics, that award still has to go to 1992-1995's Batman: The Animated Series. Utterly, utterly superb.

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