August 17th, 2012
I went to see The Dark Knight Rises with a couple of friends yesterday (I won't start a rant about how the most awaited, biggest blockbuster movie of the year started showing one month ago internationally, while the [insert preferred curse here] [optional second curse word goes here] theaters in Lebanon for whatever "very logical reason in their mind" made us wait so long, meanwhile avoiding half of the internet in fear of stumbling over spoilers.. /rant).
Back to the movie itself.. We went to Concorde, and bought the last five tickets which had us sit a meter and a half before the screen (we could see the perforations in the screen fabric, and a mosquito apparently suffering from myopia); it gave quite a unique perspective to the movie :P Our choice (or lack thereof) of seats also had us suffer at times some audio loss due to its "Surround" nature, which would give optimal quality at the center of the theater (or else there was a problem with the whole theater's audio and no one noticed :P).
Now I will say this: I went with the expectations of watching an amazing movie, what I got was a 100 times awesomer! 165 minutes of pure pleasure, and I would've stayed for even more. The sound effects (at least those coming from the front channel :P), the visuals, the gadgets (oh how I love the gadgets), not to speak of the narrative itself (I promised spoiler-free, and I'll hold that promise) were unmatched, or only by a few. You might read somewhere that the movie was disappointing, or that it doesn't hold against The Dark Knight, and that would be wrong, and that would be stupid, and that would be blasphemous! Blasphemy I say! And those who wrote that are stupid.
The extended 165 minutes run-time was really a bonus, and I wish more movies would go that route as much of a bet as that might look to be (I'm looking at you, Harry Potter series!). And for the equivalent of 2 normal movies, and a movie as awesome as The Dark Knight Rises, I really believe 10000 L.L. to be a real steal. I will definitely go watch that movie again.
Finally, I just can't not mention how much respect I hold for Christopher Nolan, for the masterpieces he keeps getting out of that brilliant mind of his. Christopher Nolan, a tip of the hat to you.