we all need a hero

for our anniversary date night, we decided to watch the dark knight. i know...it may not be one's idea of a romantic anniversary evening, but when you only get a few date nights a year you have to maximize the time that you have.

we had wanted to watch this batman for a while, and especially wanted to watch it before we decided whether or not to allow tyler to watch it since i've heard plenty of comments about the dark nature of this movie. well...i don't think we'll let him watch it in the theatres for sure. this one is much darker than the previous batman, and allowing him to watch it in the theatre would seem to intensify everything in the movie. however, we may consider allowing him to watch this movie once it comes out on DVD.

aside from that, the movie was great. so great in fact that i actually cried at the end. yes. i cried. i was the only one in the movie theatre crying at the end of the dark knight. i wouldn't be surprised if i was the only one that's ever cried at a batman movie.

no. it wasn't because i was moved by the cinematography. or lovers being torn apart forever. nothing like that. in fact, it was the words of commissioner gordon that got my all choked up. at the end of the movie, [i don't know if this next part will give away the ending so if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to take any chances skip to the next paragraph] he (gordon) points out that the batman must be what the city needs him to be. and to do that he willingly sacrificed his own safety, his livelihood, his own life, to save gotham city and bring it back to normalcy. it didn't matter if the people would end up pursuing him, hunting him down, hating him, punishing him for something he did not do. he must be what the city needs him to be. he must be what the people of gotham could never be.

that's when the tears came. the lump in my throat. the throbbing in my heart. because it reminded me of the same sacrifice that God was willing to make for us all.

but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (isaiah 53:5 niv)

to me, the movie had a beautiful and very powerful ending. a clear message of God's love and his glory displayed through a superhero movie. pretty amazing.