Favorites

A good portion of my attention this week has been devoted to The Dark Knight Trilogy, the home release of which was inaugurated this week with TDKR. I base how much I love a series by how hard it is for me to select a favorite from it.

For example. The original Terminator film is my favorite out of its series. Taught action and one of the best love stories ever. Give it to me.

Out of the original Star Wars trilogy, I favor "The Empire Strikes Back" over all others and rank "Star Wars" and "Return of the Jedi" in that order beneath it.

With the Alien series, the original would take top spot, with "Aliens" and "Prometheus" following in that order. "Alien 3" and "Alien Resurrection" are off somewhere in the realm of I don't care.

TDKT is an anomaly to that "formula." If I were to rank those films, it would be a hard decision given the wealth of memory and enjoyment attached to each film.

I saw "Batman Begins" at its midnight showing, June 15, 2005, the awkward space between my Junior and Senior years of high school. Totaling at three viewings throughout that summer, it became something to do. Each time, I crooned with the crowd at the reveal of the Joker card at the film's climax, eager to see the sequel already. In addition, I read the comics that influenced the film, primarily "Batman: Year One" as well as various comics revolving around the film's villains. I even purchased a Scarecrow action figure for no reason but to have it. A Halloween mask followed in the fall even.

Fast forward three years to July 18, 2008. My midnight showing tickets were purchased weeks in advance, three in total for myself and two friends forced on the ride. "The Dark Knight" has the Joker, my single favorite villain ever. Thus my anticipation for round two exceeded that of its predecessor. Comics were purchased, namely "The Long Halloween" and other works that influenced or would influence the remainder of the trilogy ("The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller). Yes, a Joker action figure was also purchased, for no real reason.

"The Dark Knight" is one of my favorite films of all time, but when stacked with its predecessor and sequel, its hard to rank them. Surprisingly I saw TDK the least amount of times in theaters: twice. My initial second viewing was circumvented by a tag-along who insisted on "Stepbrothers." So instead of witnessing the Joker destroying Gotham, I had to sit through Will Ferrell not being funny. Oh well, my second viewing came a few days later.

Four years later, my tickets for TDKR were pre-ordered, this time for myself and my partner, who graciously took my non-stop yammering about the films in the weeks before. Considering my status as a broke twenty-something, no comics or figures were purchased, granted most of the material the film was based on I already owned or read. TDKR did however, get four theatrical viewing from me (almost five) and all in a week. It had been the first time in years since I had enjoyed a film that much in theaters.

So if I had to rank this spectacular saga it would go:

"The Dark Knight"
"The Dark Knight Rises"
"Batman Begins"