The Dark Hype: IMDb #1 Movie?

The Dark Knight. Great but greatest ever?

The Dark Knight. I will have a post with a full review, but before then I just want to review what has been going on since last weekend. As you probably know unless you have been chillin in a cave with Osama for the past week and a half, the lastest installment of the Batman franchise and probably its greatest effort to date The Dark Knight came out with a historic box office opening last weekend, not only setting records but also seeing both critics and average movie-goers gushing over how good the movie is.

I have seen it myself, the first Saturday it was out. I would have to say with all the hype behind it, it certainly proved its worth. What is crazy to think about is not how the movie lived up to the hype, but how much hype it has received even after the release.

Many an internet user hits up the Internet Movie Database or IMDb.com for those savvy to it. And about just as many people regard its rating system as a great indicator for how good a movie actually is. They have a Top 250 best movies as well as a Bottom 100 worst list. The movie ratings are kind of a mystery in of itself, for they are from registered users who meet certain criteria that is actually unknown to most including myself. From my estimation, half are those film efficianados who do nothing but watch movies and the other half are fanboys of a particular genre/actor and drive up the ratings.

No matter how the breakdown may be, the IMDb rating system has been regarded by even professional bloggers and media as a reliable judge of what the best movies of all-time are. For those who keep up, the reigning #1 before the latest Batman came out had been The Godfather rated a robust 9.1/10 while perennial top 5 movies would take turns at different spots but for the most part had been as follows: The Godfather Part II (9.1); The Shawshank Redemption (9.0); The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (8.9); and Pulp Fiction (8.9). (I have my own opinions about those films, The Godfather series in my humble opinion highly overrated, and Pulp Fiction although a classic is no where near as good as Reservoir Dogs when it comes to Tarantino flicks). So for the most part this top 5 has been the same for the better part of a decade, or at least since I had been frequenting the site in 2001.

The Godfather...a rating you can't refuse?

Then just as the Joker put chaos in Gotham, the chaos began at the top of the IMDb list...but oddly enough it didn't start with The Dark Knight. Nope, it was last month's release of Wall-E that stirred things up. No other film this decade had even touched the top 10 (Return of the King, the third Lord of the Rings installment was the closest at #14) until Wall-E in its first weekend took the #1 spot with a 9.3 rating. Things did calm in the coming weeks and we now find Wall-E at #25 with a still very respectable 8.8 rating.

Wall-E now looks up at the top spot.

Then along came the Bat. Since its midnight release on July 18th, the Dark Knight has been at the #1 spot. That opening weekend it was at an astonishing 9.6 rating, about .5 points ahead of the longtime #1 Godfather. Now, given my opinions on the Godfather, I did like that another film was a the top. It just felt odd though. I know the Dark Knight is probably one of the best films I've seen this decade (even though I have a hard time actually recalling what has come out in the 2000's) but really the #1 of all time?

Since the opening, the Dark Knight has settled at 9.3 rating, still putting it at #1 while The Shawshank Redemption (probably my favorite of all time) is at #2 now with the mob classic at #3. It will probably be a couple months before we find out if the Dark Knight is just riding fanboy hype at IMDb or if it has that staying power to stay on top.

If it were my list, I would have Shawshank at #1 but I know I would have to deliberate and actually sit down and think about the rest of the list.

The Shawshank Redemption...Greatness.

My full Dark Knight review coming...