(no subject)

Seeing as she's over in the US so it's still her birthday, i'm not late with it, Happy Birthday to girfan

So i've been...er... a bit preoccupied the last few days.
Graham landed on Friday night on time. He'd had a very long day traveling, poor thing, and was pretty bagged out. It's taken him a couple of days to really catch up on his sleep but he's more chipper now. Saturday we went out to a party a coworker was holding that started in the afternoon. We sat out on her lovely patio (and froze! I didn't bring a jacket but it was chillier out where she lives in Hatchet Lake). Over to sis's after that for a barbeque and drinks. Graham still on UK time and still tired so we didn't stay late. Sunday, Mom had us all over for a meal and that was fun too.

Today was yet another overcast and dreary day though it's *supposed* to get nicer for the rest of the week. We went to see Batman, the Dark Knight at the IMAX this afternoon and got a bite to eat at Applebees after. The Dark Knight was pretty awesome, i have to say. And i don't normally get too complimentary about super hero movies. I really disliked Batman Begins, the first Christian Bale move but this was very good. The story was more in line with Batman as we know it and Heath Ledger as the Joker was, as every one has been saying, was phenomenal! It's hard to wrap your head around the fact that this is the same wooden blonde pretty face from A Knight's Tale or boring the socks off you in Brokeback Mountain. (sorry, but i thought that movie was dreadful! Slow, boring, brooding... blech) Heath as the Joker was the kind of performance where nobody else is probably ever going to attempt to play the part because his will go down as the pentultimate Joker. Jack Nicholson was quite good when he did it but it was a different kind of Joker. Graham said that this movie was the kind of Batman youd' see if it was real. It wasn't camp, it was gritty and edgy and the Joker was a real nutter and scary along with it. I did find the movie long and the plot just seemed to go on and on and then it changed focus a bit over to Howard Dent, the DA and then it went on some more, almost as if it was two movies in one.

I've never been to the IMAX before. I expected it to be taller and surround around to the sides a bit but itwasn't quite that wide though yes, very much larger than a normal movie screen with excellent sound. You really felt small in a big city! Quite a lot of cgi as you would expect. The one sequence with the "sonar" type vision was a bit hard to watch and a few sequences were bit too full of motion for me but it was better than i expected. I found if i concentrated on the characters and ignored the background, i wouldn't mind the motion so much.

The performances were all quite good. Christian Bale was... well, understated. Not sure why, when he's in his Batman cossie, his voice is gruff and harsh. That may have been explained in the first movie. I still like Michael Keaton's Batman/Bruce Wayne but Christian's is far more physical. Aaron Ekhart as Dent was quite good too. I never quite trusted him but he was clearly meant to be a good guy at the start of the movie. Batman certainly encouraged it. Heath, we've already talked about. Do they give Oscar awards posthumously? If they do, he's probably got a lock on it. Maggie Gyllenhall was Rachel, Bruce's long time friend and Dent's girlfriend. I like her in most things i've seen her in and i liked her in this too. Last but not least was the dignified and always just right, Morgan Freeman as Bruce Wayne's corporate aide and accomplice, Lucius Fox. I do like him and he never disappoints. I can't write too much without spoilers but there were a few things in it that surprised me. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much without Heath Ledger's performance because as i said, it's not my usual sort of movie but sometimes i do enjoy them if they've got a particularly good actor in that i like, like Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man.

We're pootling around for the next couple of days and heading to PEI and Cape Breton over the weekend. Say a little prayer to the weather gods.