A little over two months have passed since The Dark Knight premiered in movie theaters going on to become perhaps the second highest grossing movie of all time. I didn’t write a review of The Dark Knight for This Lamp simply because I was too busy at the time, but I did make opportunity to see the movie in the theater twice--something I rarely ever do these days.

I grew up reading comic books, transported away to a land of super heroes and super villains. I don’t buy comic books anymore except perhaps a rare purchase of a graphic novel or a collection of stories that have received acclaim. But even to this day, in any life or death situations I might find myself in, I often ask “WWBD?” (What would Batman do?).
The Dark Knight was one of the most intense super hero movies I’ve seen to date, and while I am not going to write a review this far after the fact, I thought I would offer a few thoughts for conversation now that I’ve been able to reflect upon the movie.

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  This was the first Batman movie to not have the name “Batman” in the title. I was very pleased with the title itself, The Dark Knight, because it sets the stage to one day produce a movie based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. If you aren’t familiar with Returns, this is the story of an aged Batman who, with the help of technology comes out of retirement to face old foes and his own mortality. People often point to Frank Miller as the greatest influence on the Batman stories that have been told since 1989; however, I would suggest that Miller was building upon the Batman from the Denny Miller and Neal Adams stories of the seventies. Miller and O’Neal singlehandedly rescued Batman from the camp of the 60’s television show and took the character back to his darker roots. To this day, Adams may still be my favorite comic book artist of all time. I would hope that Warner Bros wouldn’t wait 20 to 30 years for Christian Bale to get older for a Returns movie, but I’m not certain who would play an aged Bruce Wayne right now among current Hollywood actors. In ten years George Clooney would be a good pick if it weren’t for the fact that he’s actually played Batman and the movie was absolutely horrid.
  

• Heath Ledger was magnificent as the Joker. His tragic death at such a young age is, indeed, an incredibly unfortunate turn of events. To say what I’m going to say next would have been deemed insensitive a few months ago, but perhaps now we can ponder where his death leaves us in regard to the current film series. My long complaint against superhero movies is how often a villain is killed off at the end. Comic books, which have to produce multiple stories around the main characters every year can never afford to kill off villains. They have to return by the nature of the medium. Contrary to the ending of 1989’s Batman, in The Dark Knight, the Joker actually lives to face his nemesis another day. There was even dialogue in the movie about how much the two characters needed each other. I’d heard rumors that originally there was discussion that the next movie might be loosely adapted from The Trial of the Joker. But now with not only Ledger’s death, but with Ledger’s magnificent performance we probably won’t see the Joker again until the series is rebooted yet again in 15 to 20 years. My friend Rob Carson suggested to me that if anyone could take over the reigns of the Joker, it might be Johnny Depp. However, now it’s been confirmed rumor has it that Johnny Depp may play the Riddler in the next movie.
  

• Christian Bale makes for an excellent Batman (although I think his voice became too gravelly near the end of the movie, making him hard to understand). However, I think he could do better with his portrayal of Bruce Wayne. Few characters in comic books are as complex psychologically as Bruce Wayne. On one hand he has to portray himself as the millionaire (now billionaire) apathetic playboy, yet in reality from a psychological standpoint, he’s slightly batty (pun intended) himself. Batman is a bit on edge (and much meaner than Superman) because he’s not quite right in the head as Bruce Wayne. And he’s not quite right in the head as Bruce Wayne because he has to dress up as a giant bat every night. Michael Keaton wasn’t as good of a Batman, but he may have been a better Bruce Wayne.
  

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  Speaking of the psychology of these characters, I believe that Harvey Dent/Two Face got a bit short changed (another pun, but I’m stretching it this time in regard to his silver dollar). Actor Aaron Eckhart said that he actually studied split personalities in preparation for the role, but really there’s not much in the script for him to make use of this background. In the comic books, Two Face actually has a split personality. At one moment, he might be able to talk to someone rationally as Harvey Dent, but then in the next, he flips a coin and kills the person in cold blood as Two Face. I originally thought they were building the Harvey Dent character up for the next movie, and I really feel his short time as Two Face was wasted. My biggest gripe about most superhero movies is that they try to do too much. They fit in two bad guys when it would be much better to just focus on the one. I really wish that the Joker had been the main antagonist in this movie and perhaps Two Face in the next or even the one after. By the way, if Two Face was underdeveloped for this movie, that means by necessity that killing off the Rachel Dawes character was a bit of a waste as well.
  

• Did you notice that the director went out of the way to never show the face of Commissioner Gordon’s daughter? Contrary to the awful Batman and Robin of 1997, Batgirl is not Alfred’s niece but rather Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, Barbara Gordon. Evidently, the PTB did not want anyone’s face associated with Barbara Gordon/Batgirl this early in the stories.
  

• Personally I thought the ending of the movie was a bit convoluted. So...Gotham needs a hero besides Batman to look to, even if it’s not true? Why did Batman have to take the blame for Dent’s death? Why couldn’t it have simply been made known that the Joker was at fault but that Batman had beat the Joker? And ultimately, does that mean that the Joker, in his desire for anarchy and chaos simply for their own sake, ultimately won? Now granted, many movie trilogies present a middle story with a somber climax (Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future II, The Two Towers, etc.) so that the final victory in the third part is magnified. However, knowing that the script for the third movie isn’t written yet, I have doubts that Christopher Nolan and company have that solid of an overaching plan. I don’t believe we are going to see the unity of subplots that we saw in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy in these movies, especially with the death of Rachel, but that’s not necessarily their goal either. They may simply desire to create a series of movies that focus on the character more than the events in the character’s life--much like way the James Bond movies have traditionally been made.
  

In my previous post, I mentioned my friend Andrew who died in 2006. His favorite Batman movie had been the much darker Batman Returns (1992). I wish I knew what he thought of The Dark Knight. His interpretation of the style and plot points would have been interesting to hear.

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Finally, on a barely related note, the future of Superman movies is currently up in the air. Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns was a nifty tribute to the Christopher Reeve series of films, but it just wasn’t as great of a movie as everyone thought it would be. Although they introduced a number of interesting subplots (Lois involved with another man, Superman is now a deadbeat dad), none of these storylines may ever be resolved since Warner Bros may be more interested in restarting that series as well to see if they can have the same kind of success they’ve had with Batman.

Personally, I think it would be a mistake to go to too radical of a revision (say a cyborg Superman or a Superman with long hair and sunglasses as they’ve done at times in the comic books). A radical revision would drive away the moderate fans who just want to see Superman in action.

However, after watching the two most recent 8th season episodes of Smallville, I have to think it would be a shame if Tom Welling never gets to actually don the costume. I believe that if the PTB at Warner Bros were smart, they’d cap off this final season of the television show and immediately launch Welling into the full blown Superman role. They could keep the continuity of the television show for a series of movies. For what it’s worth, Welling is actually older than Brandon Routh who portrayed Superman in the most recent movie.

Tags: Batman