Unless you've been living in a cave in the outer reaches of Mongolia, you know that tomorrow, July 18th, is the opening of the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan's sequel to 2005's great Batman Begins is bar none the most anticipated movie of the summer and perhaps the year.The hype surrounding this movie is unbelievable (Oscar talk for a superhero movie?), and something I haven't seen or felt since the first Spider-man movie was getting set to unspool back in 2002. Reviews for this thing have been pouring in recently, and they're insanely favorable even from the most pretentious of elitist movie err sorry, "film" critics. (Well except for this asshole, but there's always one I suppose...) I know Heath Ledger's untimely passing has something to do with this, but it's only a tiny part of it. The truth is most of the hype around this movie is due the fact that Nolan has created one hell of a franchise that most fans and non-fans want to experience again and they want to immerse themselves in one of the best comic-to-film character representations in a long time. Imagine that.
Granted I really like the character of Batman. I read his comics, watched all of the TV shows, and have seen and own all of the previous films. But I've never considered myself a "Batman fan." When asked, I would always tell people (pre-2006 at least) that I was a Superman fan. The truth is, as much as I'm enjoying all of The Dark Knight hoopla, part of me is really jealous that this can't be for MY hero. I'm jealous that this generation can't experience Superman with the awe and anticipation that I did as a kid in the late 70's and 80's with the Reeve films. I'm pissed that after 19 years the "Superman" we did get was a piss poor, half-hearted attempt that completely missed who the character really is.
Superman deserves better. He deserves his moment in the sun and he deserves to be held in high regard by yet another generation of fans. He doesn't deserve to be put back in production limbo because some egomaniac of a director used him to write a personal love letter that depicted his own personal plight. Nor does he deserve to appear in some ill-conceived teeny bopper Justice League movie.
So when you're in the theaters this weekend watching TDK undoubtedly kick all crazy kinds of ass, remember that this SHOULD be happening for Superman as well, and remember why it isnt. Next summer, we Superman fans SHOULD be getting OUR own Dark Knight. We SHOULD be going bat shit (pun intended) for months on the Net in anticipation. This blog SHOULDN'T even freaking exist. But instead, we never even got our Batman Begins and are left to play the "What if?" and "Maybe" games.
As such, I'm always reminded of this great manip:
Boot Singer. Reboot Superman.
