JJ's Batman review

I'm going to state upfront that I've never been a huge fan of the Batman franchise.

Val Kilmer?

Michael Keaton?

Please.

George Clooney...

Him I can forgive.

But really, the whole thing was too cartoonish. Too unrealistic to be taken seriously as a film, never mind the acting, scriptwriting or directing.

Completely forgettable.

But then along Christian Bale and the new revival of the masked crusader with Batman Begins.

And I admit I was intrigued. Finally, here was a Batman I could sink my teeth into. He had more dimension. He had flaws and strengths and a reason for doing what he did.

Then came the fever over the new film The Dark Night - with critics hailing it as a dark, grim picture, but trumpeting Heath Ledger's disturbed and twisted performance as The Joker.

So with hesitation I went with hubby to see it tonight.

I am still on the fence about whether or not I liked it.

First, it gruesome and gory and little too realistic in some parts.

Second, I'm not sure I was in the mood for a dark tale about evil and those who enjoy it and enjoy inflicting it upon others.

Third, Heath Ledger's Joker is the first Joker that has made sense to me. Strange as that sounds give his bizarre, insane schemes.

Jack Nicholson? Jim Carrey. Compared to Ledger's performance they were pathetic and anemic. No comparison. Hands down.

I'm not sure the late Ledger's performance is Oscar-worthy as some are saying, but definitely one of the finest performances I've seen.

That's if you can get by his brutality.

And that's where I got stuck.

I don't want brutal right now. I don't to laugh or enjoy evil right now. I never do. But particularly right now.

There are too many that I know that are suffering right now. Too many struggling with evil. And it's not funny. And it's not comical.

In short, I'm sick of evil winning. I'm sick of hearing about crazy people killing their families, or some stranger on the bus, or gunning down worshippers at church.

I'm sick of sadness. I'm sick of broken homes. I'm sick of people hurting the ones they've vowed to love the most. I'm sick of the innocent bearing the pain and the guilty being set free. I'm sick of twisted and wrong being presented as right and true.

In the movie to overcome the Joker's insanity and chaos the characters look to themselves. But I'm so grateful the true cure for evil isn't found within me. It isn't dependent on my own scheming or planning or lying or breaking the rules or trying harder or blackmailing the next person.

The true cure for evil comes from my Savior Jesus Christ.

And when I'm sick of the world and all the filth it wallows in, I always come back to him.

It is his righteousness and his power that will prevail in the end.

So yes. The Dark Knight is a very dark movie. Yes it is grim. And yes it offers a pretty bleak picture of the world of Gotham.

And yes, our world seems very dark to me today. But the cure is still the same. And for that reason I am grateful for The Dark Knight.

Things are always darkest before the dawn.