The Dark Knight Trilogy Retrospective - TDK (2008) Review

The Dark Knight Trilogy Retrospective - TDK (2008) Review

I look back on one of the most praised comic-book movies in the genre and give my thoughts on it's background, merits, faults, and how it holds up in today's world of films and its impact on other franchises...

Review Opinion
By ClarkKent89 - Mar 29, 2014 05:03 AM EST
Filed Under: Batman

I'll address complaints, statements, and try to justify why I think this film is great while not being biased. I'm not trying to force anyone into loving this, but maybe just consider my opinion. I think this movie's awesome.


"The Dark Knight is the best comic-book film ever"


Since its release in 2008, the general public of critics and film-goers have agreed that no other superhero flick has been able to top the success and/ or awesomeness of The Dark Knight. Of course, you have those who think that TDK is overrated, and you have some that think films like Marvel's The Avengers  or even Batman Begins are better experiences than TDK. I haven't seen every single comic-book movie, so it's not my place to say that it's the best one out there, but I can claim that it's one of the most ambitious. Many have complained that there's too much talking and too many scenes based around court cases, arrests, crime scenes, and at one point political commentary; but I feel that's just Christopher Nolan and the crew bringing Batman into the real world. As far as I'm aware, the words "villain" and "super" are never mentioned in the entire trilogy, so needles to say that if you're not going to portray the Joker as a common crook or master clown of crime, then you're going to refer to him as a terrorist. You might say that that word was never said either, but it doesn't take a genius to realise they're portraying him as such a thing rather than a laughing supernatural force that has  fist-fights with the protagonist.

"The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules"


For a while I, and many others were criticizing the Joker for continuously saying that he has no plan, and that he just does things while contradicting himself. Even if you suspend your disbelief by ignoring the fact that all of the explosives in the film must have been set up ages before he apparently "did it on the spot", it still doesn't add up because Harvey Dent's downfall and the obvious prison escape makes it impossible for him to be a man of his word and have no strategy. I thought that Christopher Nolan might have just let that slip in  the writing and it was a mistake until I thought of another theory that may or may not be deliberate. The Joker says that the "only sensible way to live in this world is without rules" to Batman which I basically translate as "I'm unpredictable". The Joker wants Batman and all of Gotham to think that his (sort of) rule is that he just does things with no scheme, but he defies this by doing things that could only have been thought up in advance. The Joker isn't a man who just does things, he's a man without morals, without rules, no guidelines.

Batman Creates His Villains


It's been a long thought of gesture that Batman creates his villains. Although he doesn't do it manually, if he didn't exist then you have to ask would the Joker? Although it's one small scene and if you're not a cinephile like me, it will just go over your head. Again, I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but Harvey Dent lets his coin make all the decisions for him by the climax but there's one big catch... Batman gives him the coin. Batman comes into the hospital and places the coin by Harvey's side while he rests and I highly doubt that he would've got his hands on it if it wasn't for the Caped Crusader. When Harvey picks it up and sees that it basically mirrors him with one side fine and the other brunt, he freaks out and from then on uses it to tell who lives and who dies by pure chance rather than fairness.

"Why did Batman take the blame. That's stupid"


For a while I was asking the same thing, but why would Batman and Gordon not blame the Joker for all of Harvey's killings?... The way I see it; Bruce seems to be looking forward to the day he hangs up the cowl and him and Rachel can be together. Batman was always going to be a symbol, not a man. Bruce doesn't want to be the only Batman to have lived. This is a concept expanded on in The Dark Knight Rises, but when Harvey is cleaning up so much of the streets with a mob (almost crime) free environment, Bruce thinks that Harvey can be his successor, a "hero with a face". Although once Harvey becomes corrupt, Bruce realises that all the crime he locked up will be back on the streets and his hard work would've been for nothing. At this point, Rachel is now dead so he sees no future with her and is probably not prepared for another woman, knows that there are mixed opinions on the Batman and how he operates, so ultimately picks a way out of the situation by trying to make Harvey a symbol, the man he once was. Bruce makes things black and white (or dark and white) by saying Batman's a murder, Harvey's the good guy and gives Gotham someone to rally behind, a face/ symbol to have hope in, the hero Gotham needs, the white knight.

"Heath Ledger's good, but there's no story"


I believe that saying The Dark Knight has no story is a false statement, because there are so many layers to the plot that it becomes easy to assume there is none. In its most basic form, the Joker's causing chaos, so Batman tries to stop him while looking at a life beyond the cape in his romance with Rachel Dawes and replacement in cleaning up the streets with Harvey Dent. Among this is political commentary particularly with the scene in which Lucius is hesitant to use a machine that can tap into all of Gotham's mobile phones to find the Joker, many court cases, crime scenes and systems, and an incredible amount of themes, and deeper meanings. Heath Ledger is phenomenal, there is no denying he put every atom of his body into that performance with such enthusiasm, but for me when Harvey turns corrupt, Aaron Eckhart makes what could've been a cringe worthy sequence into something truly heart-wrenching almost like he'd turned to the dark side. For those of you who say there isn't enough action or Batman; there's the opening bank robbery, Batman's first appearance on the parking lot, the Hong Kong sequence, Harvey's fundraiser, Commissioner Loeb's memorial, the night club fight, the SWAT chase with the bat-pod, Rachel's death, the hospital explosion, and the last sequence in the building where Joker takes on Batman.

Verdict & Its impact on other properties


The Dark Knight is a gem which pushed the boundaries for what a comic-book movie is capable of with many conventions and cliques being chucked out of the window, masterfully handled themes and deeper meanings with a superb production crew and cast to pull it off. It's a film which is great to watch, but even greater to analyse. The Dark Knight gets 5/5.
It's a justified argument that many films after TDK took a darker approach although it's strange to think that two realistic comic-book films came out in the same year with this and Iron Man. This is the film that totally put comic-book movies on the hot spot with studios after Spider-Man (2002), and X-Men laid out the recipe proving that it can work. Critics love The Dark Knight as well as most movie-goers and it grossed over $1 billion across the world. Next time, I'll be reviewing Batman Begins. 

Hope you enjoyed this review and check out some of my editorials. Peace..
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LEEE777
LEEE777 - 3/29/2014, 6:39 AM
Cool read, BEGINS is a great film, TDK is awesome, RISES on the other hand was a horrible movie I never even managed to watch a second time it was that bad, real shame.
SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 3/30/2014, 12:22 PM
Cool review! Just a few minor quibbles though:

"you're going to refer to him as a terrorist. You might say that that word was never said either, but it doesn't take a genius to realise they're portraying him as such..."

They actually DO refer to him as a terrorist outright, such as when Harvey Dent holds the press conference so that Bruce can give himself up as the Batman. I appreciate that, because they don't even try to dance around that issue. For all intents and purposes, the Joker IS a terrorist, so why not call it what it is?

As for the Joker's "plans"...well when you think about the MASSIVE amounts of planning and contingency plans and ridiculous, almost-psychic levels of foresight for him to do what he did...it really is a stretch to believe. But that's not a "plot hole" or anything...it's just exactly the point to it all. Sure, the "unpredictability" of the Joker factors into it a bit, but it can't explain it all. It's simply what made for the most exciting movie we could've possibly got.

Seriously, everyone whines about the how "realistic" everything is supposed to be, but if Nolan really did stick to realism as much as everyone thinks he does, then we'd NEVER get scenes like Batman having to rescue Rachel or Harvey, or the Joker attempting to blow both ferries up, or anything like that.

Are people THAT worried about how realistic everything is rather than just sitting back and enjoying the ride? New flash: NOTHING about Batman is realistic, and so of course Nolan took certain liberties in his trilogy. The Joker and is near-omniscience is just one of those things that happens in movies in order to make the villain is interesting and threatening as possible.
SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 3/30/2014, 12:30 PM
About Batman creating his villains:

I think you're a bit mistaken about Harvey's coin. Dent already HAD it at the very beginning of the movie. He explains it's his father's "lucky" two-sided coin. Then Harvey flips it over to Rachel before they spring their trap against the Joker, she still has it when the Joker captures both her and Dent, and Batman recovers it from the explosion site. He DOES it give back to Harvey, and that has some meaning to it I suppose, but I think it's safe to say Harvey would've still gone on a killing rampage even if Batman didn't give him back his now-ruined coin.

Apologies for droning on and on, but I also gotta comment on why Batman didn't simply blame the deaths on the Joker.

Everything you said about that is right...but I think there's a much easier, more logical explanation: The Joker was already in police custody. Sure, they could've blamed the Joker for killing Weurtz in the bar, Maroni and his driver, etc...but they couldn't blame the Joker for actually killing Dent himself. The timeline just wouldn't match up. So rather than falsely blaming two different people, it's much easier to pin it on one guy: Batman. For a spur of the moment thing, coming up with the idea that Batman killed the people that Harvey killed, and then saying Batman killed Harvey, that's probably the easiest, most air-tight explanation IMO
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