Dark Knight - Cathartic Eye Candy

Apparently I am a sole critic of the newest box-office hit, Batman – The Dark Knight. Themes of justice and mercy are paraded; Batman as "Christ figure" lauded; Joker as satan, pure evil, etc.

But I came away witnessing a great undifferentiation between spectacle and audience; a cathartic denouement that I associate with crowd participation in the rituals of the primitive sacred. This crossing over a line between "entertainment" and sacrificial event, it might be argued, can even be seen structurally in the actual death of the actor who played The Joker, Heath Ledger, shortly after the filming, and the events just prior to the film's London debut that entailed the lead himself, Christian Bale, allegedly attacking his own mother and sister.

The first Batman gave reflective moments. This Batman film is sheer adrenaline, sugar high, gut wrenching manipulation of the senses and emotions from scene one. If anyone needs a rush of false transcendence and mimetic eye candy, go see Batman - The Dark Knight.

If anyone wants to know who are the "priests" of this cinematic form of false transcendence, they are the screenwriters.

UPDATE: The New York Times' estimable A. O. Scott chimes in with his usual smarmy comment, making his approach from the usual postmodern, liberal, "why the heck do the masses want to shell out cash for this tripe?" He misses the apocalyptic ramifications altogether.