The Dark Knight (2008)

The second outing of Batman since the reinvention of the franchise has set the movie-going public into a frenzy. I have never seen a cinema quite so packed on a Tuesday night. But does The Dark Knight deliver?
Yes it does.
Christian Bale seems to have comfortably assumed the Bruce Wayne role, effortlessly shifting from the playboy put-on to action hero. Michael Caine's Alfred skewers with his cutting wit. Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent rides the razor's edge of driven (or maniacal) public servant. And one hopes that Katie Holmes is kicking her husband's ass for interfering with her career and letting her part go to Maggie Gyllenhaal, who does a fine job, by the way.
And then there's the Heath Ledger. The central villain of the piece, the Joker never completely steals the show, which makes this movie a better balanced outing than the Tim Burton version. In fact, he comes across just creepy and tentative at first when we really get to see him dealing with Gotham's underworld. But as the scene unfolds, and the crazy keeps unrolling, the Joker becomes genuinely and brilliantly disturbing. Warped to the core, the Joker brings chaos while the Batman tries to determine his place in Gotham now that his pressure on the gangs have caused them to let a sadistic genie out of the bottle.
The action dark and brutal. The psychological space the movie inhabits matches the action, punch by punch, gunshot by gunshot, as Gotham spirals downward. The body count is substantial and Batman pulls few punches. If I were to find fault with this movie, I would point most to two things: the voice Christian Bale affects as Batman is a hoarse, guttural whisper that sounds so labored that I wish they had come up with some other way for Bruce to disguise his voice in public, and the Batmobile action sequences push the gritty and dark envelope with a bit of cheese. The rest of the movie is an experience to enjoy even while gleefully shuddering at the Joker's explanations for his facial scars...
Grade: A-

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

In the much balleyhooed return of Indiana Jones to the silver screen, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we find an older Dr. Jones (Harrison Ford) in the late 1950s, many years after his experiences in the previous three movies. Despite the passing of a good 20+ years, Jones still has a knack for getting into difficult situations from which he must then fight or desperately scramble his way out. Instead of Nazis or Thugees, this time it's Soviet agents under the direction of Doctor Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Both Jones and Spalko are dealing with the same thing, the possibly demented ramblings of one of Jones's colleagues and how they relate to a mystical crystal skull found in ancient Peruvian ruins.
This movie marks the return of Marion Williams, nee Ravenwood (Karen Allen) to Jones's life, but also the introduction of her son Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) as a rebelious greaser. While I can applaud the return of Marion, I don't think the same chemistry is really there. She still tough as nails, but I don't think there's enough screen time focusing on the two of them (aside from fast-running action sequences) to re-develop the relationship in a way that would be satisfying.
Ultimately, I found the movie to be fairly disappointing. There were a LOT of action sequences that had to fit into the movie because, for some reason, these movies all have to top the last one rather than just be different from the last one. As a result, I felt the rest of the movie kind of rushed. I would even go so far as to compare Crystal Skull's investigative storyline elements to be reminiscent of Dan Brown's novels, too rushed from clue to clue and too patly solved by the main characters.
Plus, the action was along the lines of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade more than Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that means it tripped my "AW, c'mon" reaction more often than I would have liked. I remember that a lot of people criticized the non-stop nature of the action in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and I think they had a point. But it's not like the movies got significantly better on that issue from that point, just even more over the top and without the really different plot driving the story.
Letter Grade: C+

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Kung Fu Panda appears to be a light romp of a kidflick at first glance. I wasn't particularly keen on going to see it, frankly. But a particular opportunity presented itself (went with another family to a drive-in movie and saw this as a double-feature with Indiana Jones - an overall fantastic experience for those nostaligic for family drive-in outings) so I went. I was not only not disappointed, I was impressed.
Chock full of star-power led by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, Kung Fu Panda is a story of an unabashed kung fu fanboy shlub of a panda thrust into a very precarious situation. A long-time fan of the martial arts and its practitioners, Po (Jack Black) gets selected as the mythical Dragon Warrior by old and possibly nutty Master Oogway. Everyone, of course, assumes this is a mistake except Master Oogway. The main instructor, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), is resigned to begin the training but also resolves to drive Po away with the challenge. Complicating matters, a great criminal, Tai Lung, escapes captivity bent on stealing the monastery's great secret scrolls and increasing his power. Po, as the Dragon Warrior, must somehow bear the responsibility of confronting and defeating Tai Lung, after becoming trained, and without making enemies of the monastery's other, more accomplished, students.
As the movie progresses, Po worries that he never will fit in, either in his previous life as a noodle restauraneur or as a martial artist. Nevertheless, he perseveres with good-natured stubbornness of a doofuss determined to see his fate through. Master Shifu, in turn, is confounded by this perseverence and the challenge of whipping Po into shape to resolve the problems left by his own past history that threaten them all.
Ultimately, the movie explores topics ranging from how to motivate someone to exceed your and their own expectations, winning the respect of your peers, and the secret to... well... secrets. It does all of this with a fairly predictable kind of anthropomorphic and martial arts humor that, nevertheless, manages to be consistently entertaining.
Letter Grade: B+