Dawn breaks over a Dark Night

By Steven Zeitchik

No matter how good "The Dark Knight is" -- how mindblowingly, dazzlingly, pulsatingly, wish-Heath-was-still-here good -- is it better than "Casablanca or "Lawrence of Arabia?"

A silly comparison at first blush, but not inapt, given that just a week before release, the sequel to the "Batman" rebooot is occupying the rarefied 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (also known as four times as popular as George Bush).

Despite the fact that it's early -- only eleven reviews comprise the total --  it's an impressive stat, outpacing the aforementioned midcentury classics and plenty of other gold standards. It's even more persuasive by apples-to-apples metrics.  Outside of "Iron Man," no superhero movie in the last four years has broken 85% ("Spider Man 2" did it in 2004).

And it's a rare tentpole indeed that can push above the 90% mark -- Richard Donner's "Superman" of three decades ago is one of the few to crack the number. (By contrast, Tim Burton's "Batman," considered the '80's benchmark for superhero aesthetics, turned in a modest 69%.)

But how do these critics really feel? We strung together some of the RT flattery, and found that an adjective shortage in Gotham, there was not.

"Daring and uncompromisingly different...a dark, ambitious, mature and gritty crime saga the likes of which Michael Mann or Martin Scorsese would be proud to call their own..an ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity...one of the best crime dramas in modern movie history...quite possibly the best superhero movie ever made...haunting and visionary...dark, grim, haunting and inventive...nothing short of brilliant."

Also, it's haunting.  And dark.

Props to Kirk Honeycutt's review in THR -- a review which has sat in the top slot on most-viewed THR stories for a Federer-like streak of several days now --  and a review given with feeling, but also with caveats.  KH called the pic "pure adrenaline" and rife with ideas that "hit home with renewed vigor" but doesn't shy away from the fact that the "adrenaline rush comes at a cost: With the film's race-car pace, noise levels, throbbing music and density of stratagems, no one will follow all the plot points at first glance."

So what's to say about the movie that isn't just bound for a $120+ million opening weekend, but is the thing we never thought we'd see:  a transcendent summer tentpole.

This isn't just a movie that people will love, but will compete with each other over who loves it more. Is it genre-defying or just genre-improving? It won't matter. We may be seeing something truly unique with the new Batman film -- not a summer blockbuster that's critic proof, like so many others, but a blockbuster that no one criticizes, a phenomenon that unites the arthouse and the multiplex.

Owen Gleiberman at EW has a theory about some awards movies -- critics go out of their way to show the love, he says, because of their bitterness at being forced to review studio blockbusters the other 45 weeks of the year. There may be a similar principle at  work for the new Batman. Fanboys we knew would love it, but Nolan's imprimatur makes it acceptable for the arthouse crowd. And the Ledger tragedy makes it a movie that's not only fashionable to like but downright insensitive not to.

In the next few weeks, no matter where you are or who you're with, you're going to find yourself talking about "Dark Knight," and surrounded by a lot of people who you never thought would be raving about a superhero movie saying why they love it, and why, by implication, you should love it too. Don't fight it. Just understand it. Eleven out of eleven doctors on Rotten Tomatoes won't be denied.

Comments

[Mike]

Meet THE DARK KNIGHT soundtrack composers!!
HANS ZIMMER and JAMES NEWTON HOWARD
Where: Times Square Virgin Megastore
1540 Broadway
NYC
When: Tuesday July 15 @ 7PM

[Liz]

I've been on the internet too long to believe that some "edgy" people won't say "I HATED THIS MOVIE ARRGHGHG." But they'll be in a minority, and they'll hopefully be ignored as the trolls they are. I find it hard to believe that a movie about a guy in a bat suit could really be Best Picture material, but I've no doubt Nolan did everything he could with it - and I look forward to finding out exactly how much that is.

[dymntymnNees]

Brilliant!