‘the dark knight‘ was incredible. i loved it. i got teary. multiple times. the bat-cycle thing? (it must have a different name because ‘bat-cycle’ sounds horribly lame) it was so cool. aaron eckhart was great, morgan freeman put it over the top with his fantastic delivery again and again. heath ledger was creepy, and maggie gyllenhaal was a much improved casting choice. i saw it in IMAX at navy pier, and when the first shot appeared there was a collective gasp from the audience; it was a really cool moment. as was the huge audience reaction to this great bat-cycle thing that happens. there was a point where i thought the movie was almost over – and would’ve been a pretty great ending. but then the movie kept going for another hour and just got better and better. i can’t wait to see it again.

so to recap, so far today: kakuro on the bus. sausage egg mcmuffins at mcdonalds for breakfast. ‘the dark knight’. hot doug’s. and later tonight? irazu and hopefully the violet hour. *sigh* i LOVE chicago.

update: i forgot to mention that at navy pier, the hallway to enter the theater was painted black with neon ‘ha ha ha’s and stuff like that, plus fake stone. pretty cool. there was a guy dressed as the joker – full costume and make up. and the other thing i forgot to mention is that i was really impressed with how i didn’t know exactly where things were going during the film. some moments genuinely surprised me and i felt some of the worst dread i’ve ever experienced during it. i’m not sure if i was extra good at avoiding spoilers (ie: did everyone else know that _______ and _______ was going to happen??) or the studio did a great job of not being leaky. or maybe it’s just that the trailer didn’t give away the whole movie as trailers are wont to do these days?

update 2: ALSO! the ‘watchmen’ trailer was before ‘the dark knight’! and it was pretty cool. the dr. manhattan effects were a tiny bit slightly questionable, but that’s the only nitpicky thing i can think of to complain about. everything looked exactly. like. the. comic. archie (the nite owl’s ship) looks identical (and awesome). the scene where dr. manhattan raises his glass fortress looks amazing. it looks like many (all?) of the shot compositions are directly taken from the comic too. so excited!