Be warned: SERIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD
Still recovering from the awesomeness of THE DARK KNIGHT that is still lingering in my system like an unshakable hangover, I realized that the one major flaw of the movie was that it may result in the franchise becoming a victim of its own success.
How could a third Batman movie possibly top THE DARK KNIGHT?
I’m not just talking about quality, but rather how can any Batman villain be a more suitable and amazing adversary than the Joker? Most of all, how could any potential sequel raise the stakes any higher than they were in THE DARK KNIGHT?
There were times in the film were I endured sucker-punch upon sucker-punch, wondering how much bleaker, darker, despairing the film could get. Repeatedly I wondered how what The Joker was doing to Gotham could get any worse. Then he just upped himself again and again in exponentially escalating acts of anarchy. All I could do was hope for a brighter turn of events. They rarely came. I felt about as hopeless and terrorized as I imagine any Gotham citizen would have been feeling during The Joker’s rampage. It seemed like nobody could get a break, nobody could win. In the end, I’m not sure anyone really did. Actually, I think the only person who did was The Joker. There were little victories perhaps (the ferry people, Batman doesn’t kill The Joker), but in the end Gotham’s white knight - Harvey Dent - has been destroyed (at least to those in the know) and Batman has become a wanted man.
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Everything you have heard about THE DARK KNIGHT is true. It’s not just an amazing superhero movie, it’s an amazing movie. Period. It proves what many avid comic book readers have known for a long time. Comics are not just silly adventures involving uninteresting do-gooders in tights, but have the potential to achieve dramatic depth and insight on the level of all fine art.
That being said, THE DARK KNIGHT is most certainly an exciting superhero adventure (albeit, far from a silly one). Batman’s battle with The Joker features no end of finely shot, deliriously orchestrated, expertly choreographed and highly destructive action sequences ranging from Batman’s brutal fist fights to intense car chases. They’re also intoxicatingly exciting, of course. Throw in great characters immersed in a thrilling, twisty plot that increasingly escalates the tension, and fantastic performances from Christian Bale and especially Aaron Eckhart, and you’re in for one hell of a ride.
It’s the nuances and thematic aspirations though that raise the film to an entirely different level, one that is stimulating and smart. So much so that I saw it a second time not only because it was awesome, but because I felt I needed another shot to appreciate the movie’s complexity and nuances. My brain is still running through them, which should - if anything - mean it passes that age-old “A good film has you still thinking about it a week later” test. It proves that THE DARK KNIGHT isn’t so much a superhero film as it is an intelligent crime drama that happens to feature a guy who dresses like a bat, and another who wears clown makeup.
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