In addition to going to Siren Festival, this weekend was also the weekend of “The Dark Knight” in IMAX (and a bonus field trip… more on this tomorrow).

We had tickets for a 10 a.m. showing and were at the theatre by 9:15; as I expected, there was already a line. But we were there in plenty of time to have a good position in line - and since a member of our party is Preggers McGee, it was good to have some choice in seating. My friend’s husband performed a superhero-like leap over some rows of chairs to claim our seats while we trudged up the stairs. It was entertaining.

I will tell you what I think about the movie (the post title sums it up briefly) while keeping it spoiler-free. Or trying very very hard.

All that talk about Heath Ledger’s performance being Oscar-worthy and amazing? Well, I don’t know if I’d run out and say he should definitely be granted a posthumous Academy Award (I haven’t seen everyone else who’d be a possible candidate) but he should most certainly be taken under consideration.

It would’ve been quite easy for someone to take that role, turn it into “scarycrazyclown” and create something that would be as embarrassing in retrospect as Jack Nicholson’s take on the Joker appears to us now. That wasn’t the road that Ledger and Nolan took in crafting this portrayal of the Joker. Nope - he might be psychopath, but he’s not crazy (there is a big distinction). He’s a personification of anarchy and amorality (not immorality - big distinction here, too); the “rules” and “codes” don’t apply to anyone or anything, including the Joker himself (in both self-preserving and self-destructive ways). His mission is to prove that these codes don’t exist; that they’re constructs society creates to feel safe, but that they’re very fragile when it comes down to it - and he totally gets his jollies by playing people against their morals and performing a sort “moral profiling” (I think of criminal profiling) and then seeing if they’ll actually do what he thinks they’ll do.

I was talking with a friend at lunch and she said that some DJ on the radio said that Ledger’s  Joker would absolutely terrify children in 8-9 range. I don’t think so - unless they’re really really scared of clowns with poor makeup. The things that make him scary aren’t things that most children are going to be perceptive enough to pick up on, in my opinion. It’s a more subtle psychological and behavioral “terror.” He’s creepy. He makes sense (albeit about twisted stuff). He’s funny as hell. This doesn’t look like a role that would drive a man crazy, though… but perhaps his performance was just that strong.

In short: he’s definitely worth watching. Multiple times, even.

Christian Bale is no slouch either; his Bruce Wayne/Batman also displays some of the trademarks of a psychopath that the Joker has (grandiose sense of self-worth, superficial charm, criminal versatility, reckless disregard for the safety of self or others, impulse control problems) and these parallels are not lost on anyone, methinks. But Batman/Bruce Wayne is a little bit tired and a little less brooding in this film and that sense of spiritual exhaustion is a major part of what is at stake.

Aaron Eckhart did well, as did Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Maggie Gyllenhaal, while lovely, didn’t have much with which to work. Same with Gary Oldman - the dramatic scenes they both got were a little on the heavy-handed side, but that’s not the fault of these fine actors. There’s just so much darkness and drama going on in this movie (interspersed with well-placed bits of dry wit, sarcasm and gallows humor) that when they have their more obviously pathos-laden moments of drama, they stick out a bit (they said to me, “These scenes are for the ladies - the softer side of darkness. “) I could sum it up in a three-word phrase, but it would be a quasi-spoiler.

Anyway - seeing it in IMAX was definitely the way to go. Action sequences, cityscapes - I felt a twinge of vertigo at one point when I was ‘plummeting’ from a building along with Batman. Just beautifully shot. Nothing hokey, nothing splashy, no special effects that made you cry out with anguish over someone looking like they’re made of rubber. It’s solid. Our group response heading out of the theatre (with huge smiles on our faces): KICK-ASS.

Simply, well done.

Post title inspired by Bob Dylan. Kind of.

Tonight, I watched “I’m Not There” - the highly stylized biopic about Bob Dylan. I’m glad I watched it with a friend who is a Dylan fan (inasmuch as she feels you can call yourself a Dylan fan - what she’s got is a love/hate thing - but the fascination is there) and has knowledge about his life; I am not what you’d call a Dylan fan. I’m aware of him: I know some songs, I recognize his voice and will occasionally mock it, I recognize some of his mannerisms and such - but I knew nothing about his life.

I guess you can say that I still don’t really know anything about his life since it was all a bit surreal and removed from reality - very loosely based on his life.

I don’t think there was a point where he was a young black boy playing the guitar for some suburban housewives and talking about wanting to go to Hollywood.

But there was a point where he, like the young black boy version of himself, went to visit Woody Guthrie in an asylum. I had to keep asking my friend, “Was that something that actually happened?” and “And who is that character based on in real life?”

All in all, though, it was good. I enjoyed all 2.5 hours of it. The performances by Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Charlotte Gainsbourg were impressive - especially Blanchett. Hence the Academy Award nomination, I guess.

The “chaos and watermelons” thing is from a scene where one of the iterations of Dylan (”Drew Quinn”, the one played by Blanchett) is giving an interview to a British music show host while they’re driving around in a limo. It’s just before Cate/Bob/Drew says, “Everyone knows I’m not a folk singer…” and then turns to the camera (audience) and slowly breaks into a teasing Cheshire-like smile. Oooh - breaking the fourth wall.

Anyway - it’s getting late. Today was a pretty demanding day at work, so watching a movie and eating Chinese take-out (delicious Jade Green Delight - I was craving veggies) with a friend was just what the doctor ordered. To add to the fun, I painted my nails an obnoxiously summer-inspired shade of pink and I’m ready for Friday, dammit.

I think some people might be watching “Lost” tonight; it’s some two-hour finale thingie. I’ll think about catching up online tomorrow night. For now, go go gadget sleep.

On Friday night, some friends and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We had free movie passes from the last time we went to see a movie together (Iron Man - the projector broke… twice… everyone in the theatre received two free movie passes) and this seemed like a perfect way to use one of them - on a solid eye-candy summer flick.

It did not disappoint in that regard.

It was the usual Indiana Jones treatment but:

WWII : Nazis :: Cold War : Russians

Hat : Indy :: Hair : Mutt

There are other analogies I could strike, but then I’d be revealing the plot. The plot that was a little ridiculous even for an Indiana Jones movie. Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but I did find myself muttering, “WTF???” on several occasions and laughing out loud during moments of suspense because they were just so over-the-top. Suspension of disbelief, yes… but Shia LaBeouf (Mutt - Indy’s greaser son) suddenly going all Tarzan, inspired by some cute little monkey and swinging (his CGI self) across acres of rainforest in about two minutes? Or pulling some storyline and special effects from “The X Files” movie? And just how many dead languages does one need to pull into a movie to make up for 15 years of Indiana Jones-lessness? Answer: a lot. Pictograms, too.

It was a leeettle heavy-handed at times, e.g. “Knowledge was their great treasure!”

Overall, though, enjoyable. I’d see it again. Especially since I didn’t have to pay for it this time. Also, it’s a solid two hours, which does seem pretty long in this day and age, but it’s well-paced (maybe even a little too fast) and this viewer did not find herself checking the time.

I never wrote about Iron Man, which I liked very much. Robert Downey, Jr., is terrific and deserves a lot more credit for his acting chops than I think he’s gotten overall. I know he’s had some critical acclaim, but it hasn’t turned into a nomination or anything bigger - and Iron Man certainly won’t be that movie for him, either. But it should throw him in the way of other roles that will. And I get that that might not be his goal, but come on… it’s the trajectory. If he wasn’t hoping for some commercial and professional success, he could’ve stuck with roles like Fur (excellent, excellent film, by the way), where he played a man with hypertrichosis.

He and Christian Bale are following a similar path at the moment - both doing their big action hero roles for summer 2008, while toiling away on toothy “Actors’” roles elsewhere. Well done, gentlemen.

I’m looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight when that comes out. There was a longer trailer prior to Indiana Jones; it gave me goosebumps, and that was even before Heath Ledger was on the screen. I don’t have the whole, “Oh, poor dead Heath” thing… but between the music, the overall darkness of tone, Christian Bale’s voice, Ledger’s voice and the 10 or 15 seconds of the trailer where Ledger actually appears, I got some chills. Ledger as the Joker conveys something really unsettling and unstable; it’s going to make him scary as hell in that role.

Maggie Gyllenhaal looks about as useful as Katie Holmes was* in Batman: Beyond, so that’s too bad because she’s a good egg.

There were some other good previews before Indiana Jones - including one for Hancock, the upcoming Will Smith super-hero action/comedy. I’m torn. The concept is a little hokey, but I begrudgingly admit that Will Smith is charming and funny and wins me over in spite of myself, even if I don’t like the movie he’s in.

And the preview for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army sucked me right the f— in, even though my friends were totally disinterested. That’s OK. I’ll geek out to it solo. Guillermo del Toro does amazing things with fantasy worlds - he and his partners in crime have visions of monstrous beauty. Literally and figuratively. I’ve now seen some of the Spanish-language horror films he did before Pan’s Labyrinth and they’re equally frightening and lovely. He also wrote the first Hellboy (screenplay adaptation, anyway), Pan’s Labyrinth and Devil’s Backbone. He gets it, man. I’ll check it out.

And I’m done. I still haven’t even touched on books and music for this weekend’s media fix. Tomorrow.

* word around these parts was that her role could’ve been played by a squirrel

Two more pictures - some lovely silver hoop earrings I bought today:

And secondly, a bobble-head ninja for my car:

The story: my old car had a bobble-head maneki-neko (Japanese lucky cat) I kept on the dashboard. I’m not superstitious; however, since that car ended up smashed into the back of a parked SUV after I had an unavoidable skid across wet leaves on a rainy October night - and since my sternum and ribs were bruised and required a visit to the ER, bed rest, and a prescription for Percocet - I’m thinking I don’t want to mimic that pattern or set-up: driving a Mazda with a bobble-head cat.

I am driving a different Mazda, and a ninja is a better figurehead.

It’s raining. Tomorrow will be a day for spring cleaning; tonight will be Netflix night. I have I’m Not There (the movie in which six different actors, including Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale, portray Bob Dylan), Sunshine (potentially bad sci-fi movie with Cillian Murphy/his ridiculously lovely blue eyes) and Wristcutters: A Love Story which I watched last night with friends, but merits re-watching.