Batman: The Dark Knight

This movie definitely lived up to all the hype, even though it was a little on the long side. Not that this has anything to do with the movie but when I saw it for the first time I was in an IMAX and now can't imagine watching this movie any other way.
Right from the start the movie shows you just how crazy the Joker is by having him kill off the team which helped him rob a bank. As the movie progresses the Joker somehow manages to keep upping his antics, and thus pushing Batman to his limit. The development of Batman in this movie is more obvious than in the first, so you feel somewhat more connected (as far as connectedness to movie charters is concerned). The movie also included the pleasant surprise of another villain, who I will not name for the sake of those of you who have not seen the movie.
This might not be the first review of The Dark Knight that you read, and it might not even be the last, but I'll try to make it one that you remember in these last few closing sentences. Sure it might be a "dark" movie (look no further than the title) but this shouldn't stop you from taking your kids to see it. There is a reason the movie is rated PG-13 and hell if this movie ends up giving your kid (who I shall assume is 13 or older) then you should just find a way to keep them out of contact with any sort of news related media.
Overall Score: 197/199

Side note; for those of you that care you finally get to see that ugly bat-mobile destroyed. If they do decide to make another movie hopefully they will get it right and make it more sports car like. As for the motorcycle, I'm not going to even bother talking about how that was a disappointment.



Ann's note:
The part that stuck out to me the most in it was Heath Ledger's performance. he was.. AMAZING. there's just no other way to describe it. best villain i've ever seen. it makes you even more sad that he died. although, seeing the part he played makes you realize why he took all those sleeping pills and died. :-(. if he doesn't win anything for that part i would be thoroughly surprised.
There's also a lot of symbolism in the movie so watch out for that, paying attention to the DA. and the foreshadowing into the new villain. you'll catch on if you know the villains of Batman.
I agree with Nick, this movie definitely lived up to its hype.

The Happening

Not exactly scary or all that suspenseful. This can be attributed to the fact that the major mystery of the movie was given away almost halfway through. Normally this would not be a bad thing but for this movie once you knew what was causing the problem the rest of the movie became somewhat dull, not that it was all that exciting to begin with.
The minor side plots and relationships between the characters was surprisingly uninteresting. So much so that I don't remember any of them other than this one couple that was having relationship problems and ended up staying together at the end of the movie.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
It was the fucking trees. Kind of scary, I won't go into details but it makes you think of the way we are treating the planet.
The movie ends with a scene identical to the one at the beginning. The only difference this time is that instead of taking place in the United States it is in France (I was so proud that I was able to understand most of what was said in French in this scene).
Overall not the best movie, but it could be much worse I suppose. If you have a choice to watch something else, chances are that the other movie will be better. However, watching this won't be all too horrible, but you certainly will not want to watch it more than once.