Backlash Begins

I'll concede up front that The Dark Knight contains more genuinely dark and creepy moments than any other Batman film. But it's also annoyingly constrained by all the commonalities and contrivances of the genre and, while it doesn't necessarily ask to be held to the highest of standards, its flaws are obvious. That is to say, while successful on its own terms, it falls short of artistic greatness or even very effective emotional manipulation -- which seems to be what film-goers usually want.

So I was surprised to read this morning that, not only has it already broken a bunch of box office records, the Dark Knight is now aiming for the big one. While this popular reception can probably be explained by the fortuitous intersection of fanboy flattery and tragedy-mongering celebrity obsession, the 94% Tomatometer Rating is more troubling. I've been sitting here for a couple hours conjecturing a severe case of critical groupthink...which might be overstating things a bit. Either way, let's just hope all these lock-stepping fans and critics haven't considered the film's fascist implications.