I didn't want anything in this post. I just wanted to remind you all of a special holiday for a lot of people, sometimes including me.
On July 18th, 2008, the world changed forever. Comic book movies went up a few clicks and got seriously badass. They were already pretty great, but a bit cartoon-y too. July 18th, 2008 showed us that comic book movies can be as badass as they need to be, want to be, and should be. The Dark Knight changed everything. It changed the superhero movie game, it changed the epic action movie game, it changed the Batman movie game, it changed so many things. Ten years later and a lot of people still claim Heath Ledger is their favorite Joker. More people claim that he's the best Joker. You all know my opinions, and if you don't, I've got posts in the archive that'll tell you all you need to know.
The world was a much different place in 2008: We were five years into War on Terror, well into a housing and lending crisis, the Xbox 360 and PS3 were duking it out in the video game wars while the Nintendo Wii was running donuts in circles about ten miles back, nobody knew who "the mother" was on How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory was still original, Charlie Sheen didn't have his psychotic episodes yet, I just got done being a Freshman in high school (wow, holy shit), Obama and McCain were having at it in the Presidential Election, the Cubs were pretty good but still hadn't gotten that World Series magic they'd see in 2016, Back to the Future wasn't even twenty-five years old yet, the thought of more Star Wars films was a pipedream as the franchise still remained under the ownership of the very-much retired George Lucas, only the second model of iPhone was on its way under the full-steam-ahead leadership of Steve Jobs, it was the first of two times Eli Manning got to embarrass Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, WWE had just switched to PG programming for the first time since '97, Jurassic Park celebrated it's 15th anniversary, the Harry Potter film franchise was shattering box office records every single time a movie was released...let's see, well you get the idea.
So do yourself a favor. Give yourself some time tonight to pop some popcorn, grab a couple cans of pop, dust off your Blu-ray player and your big-screen TV with ultra-premiere sound system and pop in The Dark Knight. Get yourself a little dose of nostalgia as you watch Christian Bale do battle with Heath Ledger, while Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman all mug for the camera and watch the showdown happen before their very eyes. The bank robbery in the beginning, the shootout in the parking garage, Joker's attempted assassination of Mayor Garcia, the semi-truck chase in the sub-level of Gotham City, Joker's challenge to the boats, Joker blows up a hospital and Batman's final confrontation with Two-Face at 250/52 street. The movie is filled twists, turns, tense moments, brutal moments, awe-inspiring moments and wild moments, to boot.
Happy viewing, and happy DK10.
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