2008, My Year in Review: Iron Man and Dark Knight
What a year to be a comic book fan.
While there were other solid entries such as Hellboy 2 and even a laudable reboot in The Incredible Hulk, it was first Iron Man which set up the spike as it were for the Dark Knight to hammer it home with startling ferocity.
The success of Iron Man and Dark Knight lies not only in their quality as films but even more than that, in their casting. Certainly I was excited about Edward Norton taking a shot at Bruce Banner, it seemed a good fit. But when news broke of Robert Downey, Jr donning Tony Stark’s trademark goatee and pin-striped suit, it was like a hand in a glove. And then came the shots of the Iron Man armor and this little movie that could about a hero the general public had not really heard of started shaping up to be solid gold.
My favorite of all comic movies until this summer was X2 and Batman Begins. People love their Spider-Man and while I love the character I never quite loved the movies. Sure it was fun to see Spidey swinging through the New York skyline, but the pieces never quite coalesced into a completely satisfying whole. Well, as I sat in the multiplex with my wife and a few friends and Robert Downey Jr began his performance as Tony Stark, I knew that Iron Man was about to enter the fabled ‘Best Comic Book Movies’ pantheon. From his energy and excitement at being able to fly to that ending to the whole film, it was red and gold from top to bottom. And the first time you see the full-on suit taking out the Middle Eastern drug runners – call me a little girl. I won’t lie, my gleeful self hipped and hoorayed and clapped and guffawed at the sheer awesomeness of seeing the man take flight.
I also made note of this in some other review down the line that the other success of Iron Man was I believed it. Peter Parker bounding on the rooftops as he learns his powers? Meh, I can see the computer generated Tobey. Any nu-George Lucas Star Wars? Blech.
But seeing Iron Man take to the skies against two jet-fighters? Movie gold. I can’t see the strings, I can’t ‘read’ the CGI … all I know is there’s a dude in a red and gold suit flying through the air with two bombers. It was beautiful.
After Iron Man, though … came The Dark Knight.
I remember hearing the casting news of Heath Ledger as the Joker. I remember, probably even to myself, quizzically saying aloud, “Really?” It wasn’t so much that I thought it was a bad choice as much as a surprising choice. But I had seen Batman Begins; I trusted director Christopher Nolan. He had hit a home run with ‘Begins’ and naming the follow-up ‘The Dark Knight’ got my comic geek inner self all a-flutter with anticipation.
Then began the viral marketing campaign the studio rolled out; then the footage of Ledger popped up.
It was glorious. Nolan had hit a grand slam and the movie hadn’t even released yet. I was on the Teddy Hart T-Shirt Tour 2008 leading up to the release of DK and every preview was an unsatisfying appetizer to the entree to come. In the week leading up to the movie’s release, with buzz of Ledger’s posthumous Joker performance an the all-around excitement surrounding the film, I remember saying to my wife “I think this movie might be big.”
And then we went to a midnight showing of DK the night before its official release and when 10 theaters in the city are reporting multiple sold-out screens and even offering 3 and 6am showings … well, this wasn’t no Adam West/Batman movie.
Watching the film unfold was amazing. Scene after amazing scene. By the time you catch your breath from the bank robbery then there’s the mob meeting, after that the China extraction, after that the Batpod car chase, after that the interrogation sequence, after that the Nurse Joker scene, after that the ferryboat/building ambush, and on and on. Nolan successfully constructed not just an epic comic book movie adaptation, but a masterpiece of crime filmmaking that just happens to feature two, mark that three, extreme characters.
And then the money started rolling in. The Dark Knight went on to become the second highest grossing film of all time, settling in just behind that Boat Movie from a decade ago, you know, the one where everyone dies.
What a great year for comic fans… heck, what a great year for movie fans.
Leave a Reply