Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered

When we got to the Vue last night, forty minutes before the film was scheduled to begin and the queue was already halfway to the door, a sea of Batman t-shirts were ahead of me. The staff were having to arrange the line neatly while those who were there for other films looked rather bemused at having to wade through the crowds. You could tell that even though quite a few weren’t die hard fans (”Harvey Dent? Whose that?”) there was still a heavy atmosphere of expectations and I’ll admit that as we filed in, I wondering if my expectations were likely to be met, doubting they would be. I knew it would be a good film however I wondered cynically just how much of the hype was down to the fact that Heath Ledger has died, rather than purely down to the merits of the film.

What followed was two and three quarter hours where my expectations weren’t met but exceeded in every single way, they were exceeded in ways I didn’t even think were even there. The Dark Knight left me chilled, shocked and absolutely speechless and received a round of applause as the credits rolled. It deserved all of it, it has been a long time since any film stunned me the way this did and I really don’t see anyone being capable of topping it any time soon.

Doctor Who – The Stolen Earth Ep 12/13
Saturday 28 June
7.00-7.45pm BBC ONE
www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho

Earth’s greatest heroes assemble in a time of dire need, in tonight’s penultimate episode in this series of Russell T Davies’s Bafta Award-winning time-travelling drama. But can the Doctor’s secret army defeat the might of the new Dalek Empire?

With battles on the streets and in the skies, the Doctor and Donna must brave the Shadow Proclamation to find out the truth. However, a fearsome old enemy waits in the shadows…

David Tennant plays the Doctor and Catherine Tate plays his companion, Donna Noble.

It’s frankly scary just how spot on one member of the Doctor Who Forums managed to get this title, however it’s pretty much how I expected.

As I said in Partners in Crime, a little bit of travelling really wouldn’t hurt the show, especially during the finales…this would be the third time in a row that modern day Earth has had to be saved from the brink of destruction!!!!

I’ll start by saying that I never considered any of the previous Indiana Jones films to be on a par with the Shawshank Redemption. I only say this as many reviews of the newest instalment seem to have been expecting something like that, rather than the exceedingly enjoyable and memorable action films the predecessors actually were. They asked you to suspend your disbelief with the Ark melting faces and the Chalice bringing Sean Connery back from near-death. They immersed you in comedy and a world where an archaeologist rather than delicately excavate a site will instead choose to negotiate it’s traps (setting them off in the process) purely to get hold of a single item of interest.

They were about a man in a hat discovering legendary items which we were asked to believe were real and we believed because there was no better way to enjoy a Sunday evening than with that theme tune spurring on the man with the whip.

I say all this because that’s exactly what the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls was and it was glorious. I wasn’t left with the bad taste in my mouth I had when I saw The Phantom Menace, the taste of a much loved old classic having been modernised and idolised to such an extent that the magic had gone. The magic was here in bucket loads and it was glorious.
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Yet another of Hollywood’s true greats has passed away. I really loved everything he directed and starred in, though I’m quite surprised his last acting role was in Made of Honor given the quality of his previous roles.

He’ll be sorely missed.