This is the summer of The Dark Knight

Rating: 10/10 (5 August 2008)

Before "The Dark Knight" was released, I mulled over the uniqueness of Titanic's success. Perhaps not worldwide, but in the United States, Titanic's success was certainly unprecedented. Back to "The Dark Knight". Growing up, there had only been one movie that had enveloped almost every possible area of media before its release; "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace". Rightfully so, because Star Wars was and still is the highest grossing trilogy in U.S. history. Until recently, that had been the most "hyped" film I have been alive to see open in the theaters. That was of course until "The Dark Knight".
I remember my friends buying tickets 2 weeks in advance for the IMAX screening of "I Am Legend" in December, just so we could get the 6 minute sneak of "The Dark Knight". When the sneak of "The Dark Knight" was over, it was met with uproarious applause. Right then I knew this film was going to be special. And then came the unfortunate passing of Heath Ledger. But instead of deterring those to see the movie, the buzz surrounding his take on "The Joker" began to spread like the plague. And as the time approached for the film's release, words and phrases like "Masterpiece", "Oscar-Worthy", and "Best of its genre" began showing up in various media outlets. The controversy of Ledger's death, matched with this buzz of his performance, matched with the media dubbing this film "Not to be missed" made this the most anticipated film release in my lifetime. Much more so than any of the 3 Star Wars prequels.
In closing, for those of you who haven't seen the film... In fact for those of you who haven't seen any Batman films... This film certainly lived up to its hype. Chris Nolan pushed the envelope for what is considered a "comic book movie", because unlike 99.9% of comic book films, when watching "The Dark Knight", everything in the movie is most certainly possible in the real world (perhaps even the bat-pod). So the movie plays off as more of a Crime-Action/Drama than it does a stereotypical Comic book flick. At the rate this film is going, it will at the least become the second highest-grossing film in U.S. history, and at the most, it will soar over Titanic.