"Sarah Connor" reviews coming soon...
By popular demand, Billie’s main site (http://www.billiedoux.com/) will now be featuring reviews for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. However, since Billie simply cannot take on another show in her review roster, I will be pinch hitting for her. I know it won’t be quite the same as Billie reviewing the show, but I’ll try to do her justice.
Sarah Connor is one of the few shows that I started watching right from its premiere. I was a big fan of the first two Terminator movies, and even though I didn’t see the third movie (bad buzz killed my desire to see it), I was pretty intrigued by the idea of a Terminator TV show. Especially one focusing on Sarah Connor, the soft, doughy waitress who turned into one of the ultimate ass-kicking film heroines. I came to the show with high hopes, and although there were one or two weak episodes, on the whole, Season 1 didn’t let me down.
Reviews for the first five episodes of Season 1 will be posted soon, and I hope to complete reviews for the remaining four episodes before Season 2 premieres on Sept. 8th. These reviews were written as "retro reviews" after I’d already seen the entire season. Like Billie’s retro reviews, these focus on the episode at hand, and are spoiler-free for upcoming episodes.
The Season 2 reviews will be written as the season unfolds, and should be posted within a week of a new episode airing. These reviews will also be posted here on Billie's blog.
The Dark Knight. And I mean really, really dark
(This review includes spoilers!)
I'm going to pay this movie the ultimate compliment. It was so dark, edgy and realistic that I literally forgot I was watching comic book characters. That has never, and I mean never, happened to me before. In fact, it got so intense that at one point, I was flashing on Brian dePalma's Untouchables, which is probably my favorite crime movie. It was that heavy.
Heath Ledger was fabulous. Every time he was on screen I was on edge, expecting him to kill or mutilate someone, and I was rarely disappointed. The insane, homicidal Joker was almost like the grim reaper, three steps ahead of everyone else, killing both deliberately and randomly for the sheer, perverse pleasure of it. He felt unstoppable. I actually didn't think Batman would ever ultimately catch him; that's how good he was.
And it wasn't just Ledger. The Dark Knight had an unbelievable cast. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman were wonderful; they always are. Maggie Gyllenhaal gave weight and depth to the two-dimensional Rachel. Gary Oldman was appropriately stiff and forthright as the stiffly forthright Commissioner Gordon. The supporting cast was jam-packed with familiar, talented faces from many of my favorite television shows. In such illustrious acting company as this, it says a lot that Aaron Eckhart's agonizing transformation into Two-Face was the standout.
Faces. Masked faces, mutilated faces, distorted faces, vulnerable faces. People in this movie were constantly turning into something I wasn't expecting. The Joker, who told people different stories about how his own face was mutilated, was obsessed with seeing Batman's true face. Were any of his stories true? I kept wondering if perhaps he did it to himself. Much like Harvey Dent did when he refused the skin grafts that would have given him a human face again.
I haven't mentioned Christian Bale yet. Yes, I think this movie belonged to Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. But Christian Bale's nearly demented interpretation of Batman grounded this movie, just as it grounded Batman Begins. As the climax approached, I was starting to think that the movie would stay dark to the end, that there would never be a light at the end of the tunnel. But there was. It began with the two men on the ferries who unexpectedly couldn't bring themselves to sacrifice another boatload of people even to save themselves. And it ended with Batman's sacrifice of his own reputation in order to save the public face of Harvey Dent. In a last bit of symbolism, Commissioner Gordon even smashed the light, the bat signal that was always clouded and difficult to see, anyway.
Yeah, I know I was way late reviewing this movie. I wasn't even sure I wanted to see it. I didn't think it could be as good as everyone said it was. But I was wrong. It was excellent on pretty much any scale you would care to name: writing, acting, production, direction, supporting cast, special effects, you name it. It was so rich and full of depth that viewers will get more out of it with every subsequent viewing. It was even Oscar-worthy. What comic book movie can say that?
I think Heath Ledger would have been proud.
Four out of four stars,
Billie
(If you're interested, here's my review of Batman Begins.)
Stargate SG-1: Continuum does it good
(This review contains spoilers. Go watch the movie first. Seriously!)
Jack: "Get rid of the last bad guy, and then there's cake."
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