So the first reviews of The Dark Knight are coming in, and I'm happy to say my nut has been busted.
Over at Rolling Stone, the usually harsh critic Peter Tarvish gave it a strong 3.5/4 stars (4's are reserved for Oscar fodder, although he does support a posthumous nod for Ledger). Don't read it if you want to avoid spoilers, however, here's the first paragraph:
Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease. He means it.
Wowzies. And over at Ain't It Cool, some random lucky bastard go to see it, and again it does give some things away, but all you gotsta know is that it kicks fucking ass. Shwaeet.
