The Day After....

You know what pisses me off? The fact that there is a Batman movie out there that is not part of my DVD collection!! When will I finally be able to purchase "The Dark Knight" to add it to my home library?? I mean the film has been out since.....well, I guess it hasn't been released yet. It's been 24 hours since I've seen it though. Uncool! I want to see it again!!

Last night was great! My friend Doug treated us like royalty at the IMAX theatre. As we stood, probably 200 people back in line, he came up and led us to a locked elevator. We went up to a floor for which you needed a key and walked down a long hallway. As we passed through the door at the end of the hall, we found ourselves inside the theatre which was still being cleaned after the 7pm media showing! He prompted us to "pick your seats!" and we had our choice from the entire empty theatre!!!

The movie started and we were treated to select scenes from the forthcoming adaptation of Alan Moore's "Watchmen!" It looked incredible! It was a bunch of shots of all the main characters, even Dr. Manhattan, set to some dramatic music. I had many doubts about this project before, and I'm still pretty certain that they will end up cutting out too much of the story to get it to fit in one film, but some of those doubts are now gone. Something I learned from the preview is that it's directed by Zack Snyder, who we all know and love from "300." I hope lightning strikes twice for him. While Batman is my favorite comic character, "Watchmen" is my favorite comic story, so I'll be monitoring this situation closely.

The movie started and it sucks you into the action IMMEDIATELY with some eye-popping shots. I don't want to go into any detail because I loathe spoilers and those who fling them. All I want to say is that I actually told myself to lower my crazy fanboy expectations because there was no way the film could live up to what I was hoping for, but guess what: it did! It is a masterpiece! See it this weekend and decide for youself.

Meanwhile, here is the picture I promised you last night. Me and my friends at the premiere of the 1989 "Batman" movie. I still have some pretty vivid recollections of that night, 19 years ago. It was one of the best times of my life because suddenly the entire country was going crazy for the character that I had been following for over a decade. I felt totally vindicated in my love of Batman, but it wouldn't last long as Warner drove the franchise into the ground over the next decade.

Anyway, enjoy this yellowing picture from right at the end of my youth. Two months after it was taken, I started college and began walking the road of adulthood. I guess I left my cool, long cut-off shorts lying on the side of that road somewhere....