the dark knight

penelope_stone, a bunch of her friends, and i went to see the dark knight last night. i hate hearing anything about a movie before i go to see it, because my brain naturally goes about making up ideas and scenes in my head, so when the actual film dosn't match those expectations i get very disappointed. i've found that the best way to go into a movie is as a blank slate, knowing absolutely nothing, not even that other people thought it was good. so let's just say that as hard as i tried, i failed to not have expectations about the dark knight. i had heard from people that it was really good. like exceptionally good, like everyone who went to see it thought it was great. hah, so much for expectations. so now you know my background, you may not be quite as shocked by my opinion of the movie.
i thought it was a good movie, but i didn't think it was the most amazing thing ever. i didn't even think it was the best movie this summer. ironman and wanted are still at the top of that list. dark knight is number 3. having said that, it was an excellent movie. it was an actual film, rather than just another summer blockbuster with expensive effects and bright explosions. which was great. but it seemed to drag in the middle (a lot) and they stuffed way too much information into each scene. it was more like sitting through a 2 and a half hour lecture than watching a movie, not in a bad way - just in a your brain can't process that much info in such a small amount of time. so i think i need to go see it again. i think then i will say it was amazing - best film of the year. but right now, i'm thinking: yes, it was good, and yes it has done something that few superhero movies have ever done, and yes they did it well, but i think they tried to do too much. it totally could have been two movies. i'll get back to you on this after i've seen it a second time.

there was a solar eclipse this morning - just a partial, but still. it's the first eclipse i've seen when clouds weren't covering the sun, so it was very cool to see a little roundy chunk taken out of the sun. and true to form, the dogs started barking right at the moment when the sun was most occluded. it's freaky how they can tell there's something up.

ooh - happy august, everyone. this month's genre challenge is alternative history. i'm quite excited about this - it makes me think of steampunk and this is a great excuse to forage my way into that genre.

not much else, lordkilljoy is coming down tonight, wooo! i'm happy.