I’ve come to accept it. I wear two different color high top Converse at times (fuck you, Punky Brewster). I wear shorts to work. I’ve got tattoos. My ears are pierced (though the earrings are long gone) and I even had my lip pierced. Sure, some may say rebel without a clue.

When Batman Begins came out, I still fought that Batman Returns was better. Who could deny Michelle Pfeiffer’s epitomous (my word) portrayal of Catwoman (“Honey, I’m home!” – the whole transformation of Selena Kyle, while many complained detracted from the story of Batman which clearly the audience had tired of hence the fascination with the villains in every film, could have been a self-contained film from the snooping to the fall to the answering machine and sewing and rapist attack fail – and Daniel Waters’ unexpectedly hilariously dark screenplay. But I was in the minority and was scoffed at.

So now, despite the fact that some people in the theatre watching HEATH LEDGER’S LAST PERFORMANCE BEFORE HIS TRAGIC DEATH didn’t even know there were other films in the Bat-oeuvre. This was THAT film. And everyone had to see it. There were scenes shot with IMAX CAMERAS, yet the director and DP couldn’t manage to use the anamorphic lens they used on the 35mm footage so the 65mm footage would match. Really? It’s like shooting some scenes in black and white and expecting no one to notice – however you’ve fucked the long-time debate about aspect ratios and letterboxing vs. pan&scan far more than James Cameron did with Titanic. Look at the lights in the background. Look at how blurred lights become tall ovals when anamorphic lenses are used (which use the ENTIRE frame of film, despite the wide aspect ratio) and how they suddenly become ROUND when the IMAX film is used. I saw the film in a regular theatre and still noticed the change from 35mm to 65mm; I may have ran out of the theatre in an IMAX presentation where the aspect ratios actually changed.

I won’t deny the film was fun. It was. If there wasn’t so much goddamn hype. No, Mr Ledger does not deserve to even be nominated for this performance. He was good, but far better in Candy for which he wasn’t nominated, nor barely recognized until after he died. But, that’s not how the majority think, and I – as has been established – don’t think that way. Stupid me.

It was better than Batman Begins – though I miss Scarecrow’s intensity and fuckedupedness. And hate his useless cameo here and feel kinda cheated that they brought back Cillian Murphy for such a cheap return. There was just too much of the same thing for too long without a good enough payoff. Like courting the sexy blonde all through your junior year in high school only to have her leave your car after prom with a quick, teasing, gratuitous – better had it never happened – pull-down of her top as she approaches her front door, so you only get a passing glimpse of nipple before she goes in where daddy’s been waiting up.