BurntFilm

The Dark Knight would have to be one of the biggest hyped films since Titanic. It’s being lauded as one of the best films of all time and currently sits at the number one spot on the IMDB.com top 250.

So how do you review a film like this? Either you really liked it and fall into the pit with the endless fanboy reviews gushing all over the film, lost in a sea of sincerity. Or you didn’t like the film, which makes you a bitter old man screaming at the kids to get off his lawn.

No need to worry though, because I loved this film. This is an epic narrative filled with intense characterizations and Shakespearean themes. The dark tones of the film are mirrored by the moody cinematography and the excellent chilling soundtrack. There was hardly a moment that I wasn’t completely enchanted by this film.

It should be noted that I ended up hating Batman Begins, the last Batman movie in the franchise by director Norton. Norton did well in creating a new origin story for the caped crusader, but wasted all the work he put into creating a superhero movie firmly based in reality by a frenetic and silly third act.

Although the third act here isn’t perfect, the slow and deliberate plotting of the film pays off with more clarity. The characters and themes are laid out bare. Each character is complete.

So is this better than Burton’s Batman Universe? That’s maybe not a fair question. Burton created a fable, bringing Noir to a new generation. It was striking in it’s time. A comic book movie that was dark. That’s now what we demand from our comic book movies. No longer are they allowed to be popcorn movies, we expect deep, emotional impacts. This is why The X-Men thrives and The Fantastic 4 fails.

It’s fitting that with the 20 years between these two Batman movies Nolan has taken this trend to the logical conclusion. This movie is nearly stripped of all the comic book features there could be. If Batman didn’t put his suit on you would be hard pressed to know that this was a comic book movie at all.

Where do comic book movies go from here? Well go any further down this path and they just won’t be comic book movies anymore. But audiences won’t accept going the other way either. With the slew of comic book movies coming out over the next few years it will be interesting where Hollywood takes us next.

This post is tagged batman, Review, thedarkknight