Is The Dark Knight the first film of the season to fully live up to the hype? Depends who you ask, really. Indiana Jones certainly lay a beating on the box office, but the critical response was mixed. Iron Man? I'd say that one came as more of a surprise. But The Dark Knight? Expectations have been sky high pretty much from the day it was announced and it's delivering on all fronts: Nolan has proven to be a master of the genre, Bale is still strong and Heath Ledger is flat out incredible in this thing. So, hype away, folks,The Dark Knight can handle it.
Looking beyond The Dark Knight, superheroes in general prove to be mighty this week. Three of the top five spots go to comic book adaptations -- it's a good time to be a geek.
| SciFi Power Rankings | |||
| Rank | LW | Movie (or Comic, etc.) | |
| 1 | 2 |  |
The Dark Knight How do you know when you're hot? When your film sells out its midnight sneak previews a solid week in advance, prompting the distributors to add 3 a.m. shows... and then those sell out, too. |
| 2 | 4 |
 | Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog How else do you know when you're hot? When there's so much demand for your new web series that launching the first episode immediately crashes your website. Joss has another hit with his singing villain. |
| 3 | 8 |
 |
Watchmen I doubt it's possible for anything to live up to the expectations being placed on Zack Snyder's Watchmen but Snyder's certainly giving it a try. Trailer's out, looking gooooood... and, surprisingly, Alan Moore hasn't started sniping yet. |
| 4 | - |  |
Hancock I'd been keeping Hancock off the list thanks to some dodgy marketing and shaky numbers, but let's give credit where it's due: Hancock rallied to beat Hellboy throughout most of the past week and you have to respect success. |
| 5 | 1 |  |
Hellboy II: The Golden Army Big Red a big flop? Sure, the new Hellboy opened at number one with lots of critical love but it couldn't even hold that position longer than three days and is dropping like a stone. Though it hurts to say it, the cult's just not big enough. |
| 6 | 3 |
 |
Wall-E Pixar's little robot just keeps on trucking along, showing few signs of slowing down. And why should it? It's one of the best films of the year and a lock for the animation Oscar. |
| 7 | - |  |
Terminator Salvation Curse you, McG! I was ready to mock the latest Terminator flick but then you went and landed a killer cast and backed that up with a killer trailer. I guess I'll have to replace mockery with anticipation. |
| 8 | - |  |
The Spirit Can Frank Miller handle the director's chair solo? The brand new trailer for The Spirit has definitely gotten people talking, but it isn't all positive. Getting a little nervous about this one... |
| 9 | - |  |
The X-Files: I Want to Believe T-minus four days until we find out just how much was left to squeeze out of the once proud X Files franchise. There was a time I'd have been bouncing around with excitement over this film, but all that's left is morbid curiosity. |
| 10 | - |  |
Heroes The coming TV season is going to be the most scifi heavy in YEARS and while things were quiet on the Fringe and Dollhouse fronts NBC, slipped out a new trailer for Heroes. Linderman's back? Sounds that way. |
