The Dark Knight movie review

The Dark Knight Triumphs.

by THRILL

Well, I finally saw The Dark Knight and it was AWESOME! It was over two hours long, but I'm happy with that. I love it when movies are long like that ONLY if it's a sweet film like this one. An example of sitting through hell for hours would be like the film Spirited Away. My God did that movie suck.

Christian Bale returns to portray Batman/Bruce Wayne. Though, Michael Keaton will be remembered by many as the true Batman/Bruce Wayne, I really like what Christian Bale brought to the table. He is a bit handsomer that Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, plus I like how Christian Bale makes Batman sound in speech. He'll talk deep and scary and I feel that that's how Batman should sound.

In Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, I like how Batman moves (disappears and reappears) like a ninja. The genesis story lines of Batman back-in-the-day showed Batman moving with a stealth like quality. More sneaking around like a ninja/detective. You'll see plenty of mysterious maneuvers in this film.

What I also found freakin' sweet was a scene that I'm sure you've picked up from the previews: where Bruce Wayne drives a personal civilian vehicle. His Lamborghini Murcielago. Totally awesome because I love how Batman isn't just a superhero, but has dough to spend. That's the dream. I do like how Spiderman is someone I can relate to, but Batman doesn't have to worry about finding rent money and finishing college.

In The Dark Knight, Gotham City was shot with the city of Chicago. I personally was always a New York City fan for Gotham but I got over it quickly. Most people who go see The Dark Knight I'm sure will not care. I will admit that Chicago has very beautiful buildings and I noticed that during the film.

I got confused because the story line switched actresses on me. My fault for not paying better attention. In The Dark Knight, it was Maggie Gyllenhaal who played the character Rachel Dawes. In Batman Begins, it was actress Katie Holmes who portraid Rachel Dawes. I actually liked Maggie Gyllenhaal better. She sold me on the character. Katie Holmes just did not do it for me. Plus, I think Maggie Gyllenhaal is much prettier.

Speaking of being-sold-on-the-character, hats off to Heath Ledger! What a performance. His acting was so on, If I didn't know the cast before hand, there would have been no way I would have ever guessed that The Joker was Heath Ledger. Even as I watch the film and view The Jokers face up close, it looks nothing like Heath Ledger.

This version of The Joker was nothing like its predecessors. Though this movie was rated PG-13, The Joker was pushing a rated R performance. This element is something I really liked about this movie. All the events and characters seemed very real. Instead of The Joker having a "young Daffy Duck" attitude, he had more of a real, mentally unstable, violent personality which would make sense to how would The Joker be in real life.

It honestly is sad that Heath Ledger is no longer with us. If Hollywood were to write another story line involving The Joker, what actor could do better? I'd hate to think of having the pressure of filling those shoes. Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine return, all of which are extrodinary actors. We also see Aaron Eckhart play the character Harvey Dent, and yes I'll spoil it for you: You can see Harvey Dent become Two Face in The Dark Knight.

This film has great philosophy on sacrafice, taking a life, doing the right thing, and courage. In the film, the characters Alfred, The Joker, and Harvey Dent make jaw-dropping comments that are on-the-nose truthful and righteous. This is also another great reason I want to see this film a second time.

Plus, the special effects (and especially the explosions) are really cool!

Israeli Army Kills Top Enemy Terrorist

Israeli army kills top militant, Hamas vows revenge

By Haitham Tamimi

HEBRON (Reuters) - The Israeli army killed a top Hamas militant in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, prompting vows of revenge by the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip.

An Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip went into effect last month, but Israeli raids against militants in the West Bank have touched off rocket attacks from Gaza on southern Israeli towns.

The ceasefire, which does not apply to the West Bank, calls on Hamas to halt rocket fire in return for Israel gradually easing its embargo of the impoverished coastal territory.

In Sunday's operation in Hebron, Israeli soldiers fired at the house of Shihab al-Natsheh, a 25-year-old Hamas militant, after he refused to surrender and shot at troops, local residents said. An army bulldozer later razed the house.

Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigade, vowed to avenge Natsheh's killing. "Our response will be swift and painful," it said in a statement.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers clashed with a group of gunmen in Hebron, killing one. She gave no details.

Palestinians said the Israeli army blocked all roads to the city, preventing anybody from leaving or entering.

Residents said Israel believed Natsheh was behind a suicide attack that killed an Israeli woman in the southern city of Dimona in February, and had been hunting him for months.

Natsheh's killing coincided with resurgent violence among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas launched a crackdown against rival armed militants after deadly bombings, including one on Friday that killed five Hamas gunmen and a girl.

Hamas police clashed with gunmen from the Army of Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired group, in Gaza on Sunday, arresting two of them. A Hamas commander was seriously wounded in the fighting, Hamas officials and local residents said.

Friday's blast, the third of its kind in a day, marked one of the biggest internal flare-ups since Hamas seized Gaza from President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction a year ago.

Hamas blamed Fatah for the bomb attack and arrested at least 162 Fatah activists, including two officials.

Pro-Abbas security forces detained 15 Hamas activists, including two officials, in the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Sunday, Palestinian security officials said. They gave no reason for the arrests.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Mu'een Shadid in Tulkarm; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

New Weekend Record: The Dark Knight

''Dark Knight'' Sets Weekend Record with $155.34M

"The Dark Knight" took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, topping the previous best of $151.1 million for "Spiderman 3" in May 2007 and pacing Hollywood to its biggest weekend ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released "The Dark Knight." The movie should shoot past the $200 million mark by the end of the week, he said.

Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

"This weekend is such a juggernaut," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, whose musical "Mamma Mia!" debuted at No. 2 with $27.6 million.

Factoring in higher admission prices, "Spider-Man 3" may have sold slightly more tickets than "The Dark Knight."

At 2007's average price of $6.88, "Spider-Man 3" sold 21.96 million tickets over opening weekend. Media By Numbers estimates today's average movie prices at $7.08, which means "The Dark Knight" would have sold 21.94 million tickets.

Revenue totals for "The Dark Knight" could change when final numbers are released Monday.

The movie's release was preceded by months of buzz and speculation over the performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, Batman's nemesis. Ledger, who died in January from an accidental prescription-drug overdose, played the Joker as a demonic presence, his performance prompting predictions that the role might earn him a posthumous Academy Award nomination.

"The average opening gross of the last five `Batman' movies is $47 million. This tripled that, and for a reason," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "A big part of that was the Heath Ledger mystique and a phenomenal performance that absolutely deserves the excitement surrounding it."

"The Dark Knight" reunites director Christopher Nolan with his "Batman Begins" star Christian Bale, whose vigilante crime-fighter is taunted and tested by Ledger's Joker as the villain unleashes violence and chaos on the city of Gotham.

Overseas, "The Dark Knight" added $40 million in 20 countries where it began opening Wednesday, including Australia, Mexico and Brazil. The film opens in Great Britain this weekend and rolls out to most of the rest of the world over the next few weeks.

"The Dark Knight," which cost $185 million to make, also broke the "Spider-Man 3" record for best debut in IMAX large-screen theaters with $6.2 million. "Spider-Man 3" opened with $4.7 million in IMAX cinemas.

"Every single show is sold out," said Greg Foster, IMAX chairman and president. "We're adding shows as much as we can, but we're at 100 percent capacity."

On opening day Friday, "The Dark Knight" also took in more money than previously counted, Fellman said. The film pulled in a record $67.85 million, up nearly $1.5 million from the studio's estimates a day earlier.

The previous opening-day record also had been held by "Spider-Man 3" with $59.8 million.

Women accounted for most of the audience for "Mamma Mia!", which Universal opened as counter-programming to the male-dominated audience for "The Dark Knight."

"With the crowded summer, we knew we would have to find the right weekend, and this seemed like the perfect one considering three-quarters of our audience was female," Rocco said.

Based on the stage musical set to the tunes of ABBA, "Mamma Mia!" features Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.

The weekend's other new wide release, 20th Century Fox's animated family flick "Space Chimps," opened at No. 7 with $7.4 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Dark Knight," $155.34 million.

2. "Mamma Mia!", $27.6 million.

3. "Hancock," $14 million.

4. "Journey to the Center of the Earth," $11.9 million.

5. "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army," $10 million.

6. "WALL-E," $9.8 million.

7. "Space Chimps," $7.4 million.

8. "Wanted," $5.1 million.

9. "Get Smart," $4.1 million.

10. "Kung Fu Panda," $1.8 million.