Dinner dinner dinner dinner Batman!!!!! Kerpow, splang, twat, fuck!

Wooohoooo! Just got back from seeing ‘The Dark Knight’ up at BFI’s Imax theatre. Quite frankly I’m almost at a loss to express how immense the experience was! I had already seen the film at my local Vue cinema with my nephew Kai and thought afterwards it was an exceptioanlly good movie, but seeing it today felt like the first time I’d ever watched it; or any film if I’m honest.

The BFI Imax screen is 20m high and 26m wide and has one of the best sound systems in Europe apparently, I shall try not to get too geeky during this post…….bugger, too late. I had brilliant seats (which you can pick online, no race against the chimps required when doors open; pet hate of mine), dead smack bang in the middle, and the screen is so close that it draws you right in. Literally. At times I had totally forgotten where I was and became so utterly absorbed by what was going on in front of me that I felt a bit of a plum when reality kicked back in.

The clarity is crystal clear, and the fact the film was shot with an IMAX camera is only too apparent when landscape scenes fill up the entire screen with perfect resolution; my favourite panorama has to be the scene where Batman is poised atop a skyscraper in Hong Kong which overlooks the harbour, it brought back very fond memories of my time there let me tell you. I could almost smell it.

What is there to say about this film that hasn’t already been said? I couldn’t do justice to Heath Ledgers sublime performance of the Joker, but I do feel that Gary Oldmans effort as Jim Gordon largely went unsung in the press. He’s just as perfect as the clown in my opinion. Both Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are both standouts as well, the latter always manages to steal the limelight doesn’t he? His Alfred is brilliant. Whoever cast this film deserves a very firm pat on the back. And a big bag of cherries for good measure.

I genuinely hope that they make another film, purely because the franchise is going from strength to strength; ultimately I don’t think there is a film around at the moment which hits home with such spot-on social commentary as this one does. I’d go as far as to say that it’s probably the most intelligent Hollywood film I’ve ever seen.

Saying that, the thing that makes this film so special is the emphasis put on character development, and even intelligent commentary runs behind the importance of Jokers jawdropping scene with the hood and the pencil trick (my favourite scene by FAR, those who have seen it will know what I mean), also Batman dropping a Mob Boss off a building just high up enough not to kill him but purely to be vindictive is genius. I can see why the intensely powerful scene where Joker describes how he got his scars to before slicing Gamble up with a knife is compared by some to how chilling Jack Nicholson is in ‘The Shinning’, or Dennis Hopper is in ‘Blue Velvet’. These three scenes totally define each character and set them aside from any previous incarnations they may have had. Way, way beyond in fact.

Anyway, the IMAX screenings of Batman run into October, and I urge everyone to get up there and experience it if you can; after seeing the trailer for ‘Watchmen’, one of my all time favourite graphic novels, I can assure you It won’t be long before I go back!

At £12.50 it’s only £4.00 more than going to your local cinema, AND you get to do a cockney walk along the Southbank for good measure. Spiceworld.