While we all have our favorite movie of all time, we also tend to have a movie or two that we just don't like. Usually these movies that we don't like tend to be hated by the general public, every now and then we tend to have a hatred for a movie that most people actually enjoy. In this case I'm talking about a series currently known as the Dark Knight trilogy, which is currently considered the best superhero trilogy ever made.
Now I can't tell exactly how many people have a particular hatred on this series, but I know that it can't be a whole lot considering all three of these films have a certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and are successes at the box office. However anyone who has ever looked up news on a Batman movie on this site can tell that there are people out there who don't like this series, and they make sure you know about it any chance they get.
Please keep in mind that you are entitled to your opinion (just as I'm entitled to disagree with you) but certain people tend to constantly repeat their dislike of this series often with the same tired arguments over and over again like a broken record. In fact several times people tend to write hate arguments on this site that are clearly aimed to enrage anyone who enjoys these movies. It even lead to the war between Nolanites vs. Marvelites.
Let me just say that I'm not a Nolanite. In fact I'm tired of certain complaints with the Amazing Spider-man and the Avengers as well, but in this case I'm focusing on the Dark Knight trilogy complaints because these are some of my favorite movies out there and the people making these complaints just want me to feel ashamed about that fact when in reality I'm not alone on this. So please enjoy this list of the top 5 complaints about the Dark Knight trilogy that I'm tired of hearing. (P.S. POTENTIAL SPOILERS).
5) BATMAN QUITTING
This particular complaint only applies to the most recent movie and therefore has only been used in the past month. I personally got wind of it when I wrote an article about loose adaptations (one that had to do with CBMs in general and only used the Dark Knight as an example by the way). But I have to say this complaint still annoys me when people continue to bring it up.
Basically the complaint deals with Bruce Wayne several years after the events of the Dark Knight having retired at some point in between films. Many fans have pointed out that Batman would never retire and only ever quit for short periods of time when suffering from sever injuries. They claim that Bruce would never permanently retire because of some girl (yeah just some girl that he knew his whole life and he was in love with).
Now to those fans I should point out something that they forgot, BRUCE WAYNE IS CRIPPLED! Do you guys think that he's just carrying that cane for the fun of it? Also they must have went to the bathroom when he went to the hospital where they explained the lack of collagen in his knees. While he does get a robotic brace that let's him fight crime again, it's probably something that took a while to develop since that's something we don't just have at our local Walgreens.
For those claiming he wouldn't quit in the comics, he actually does in the well known comic story the Dark Knight Returns that the movie was based on (and Batman Beyond which was later adapted into a comics series). I actually like seeing Bruce after retiring since we see just how important being Batman is to him (and also because it reminds me of the Dark Knight Returns which I love).
Ok, I'll admit that you have a point that he doesn't quit in the mainstream comics and only in elseworlds stories. To that I say the Dark Knight trilogy isn't in continuity with the mainstream universe. In fact no live action superhero movie is in continuity with any comic book. If we can forgive it in an elseworlds story, why not in a movie which is technically an elseworlds story? You want a story in continuity, then read the mainstream comics.
In case you are wondering though I do agree (somewhat) about him quitting at the end despite being able to continue his heroics. It works for the story being told but doesn't match the character from the comics. To that I have just one question. Why do you care? Nolan made it clear he only wanted to make a trilogy and WB claim their desire to reboot Batman for the Justice League movie so why bother with this Batman quitting when we won't be seeing another movie about him? Just let us who enjoy the ending enjoy it while you wait for the next reboot.
4) THAT "NO ONE LIKES THESE MOVIES"
Let me start off by saying I did some debating in high school as well as a mock court case and the teacher specifically told us not to use this kind of argument or we'd fail.
This one is pretty obvious but I'll describe it in a bit more detail. Essentially when someone wishes to talk bad about the franchise they claim no one else likes these movies and that the studio should just stop and reboot the series. To this I say stop dragging me and the millions of other people who liked these movies into this.
This debate isn't claiming someone's opinion but saying they know what everyone else is thinking and is speaking for them. I can easily prove this false by just telling you to look at the Rotten Tomatoes and the box office results for these movies. If "everyone" hates these movies, then why did these movies all get the "certified fresh" from both critics and general public? And why did the series make all that money if everyone hated the series? If you don't like a movie then you don't have to like it, but don't go around pretending that it was a failure that no one likes when clearly people love it.
3) THE VILLAINS ARE "RUINED"
This is a common complaint where "fans" claim that some element of the character isn't present meaning that the the character simply isn't the same one as in the comics. It ranges from Scarecrow not wearing his full costume until the end to Bane not having his famous Venom or his luchador outfit. Also another complaint comes in the form of Two-Face not appearing until the end and Ra's al Ghul not having his Lazarus Pit. I'll go down the list one at a time.
First of all is Scarecrow, which I just don't understand. How is he not the Scarecrow? He wears the mask and uses his fear toxin in order to achieve his goal. Just because he doesn't have the costume doesn't change anything. The story also explained why he has a mask at all since he uses it to take advantage of the fear toxin. Also Cillian Murphy did a great job in the role to the point that they had to bring him back in a cameo for the sequels.
Second is Ra's al Ghul who many fans complain that he needs his Lazarus Pit in order to be the same character. Ok, anyone who has simply read Tower of Babel knows there's much more to this character than literal immortality. For those of you who don't know, the comic tells the story of how Ra's steals Batman's list of weaknesses for each of the Justice League member and utilizes a plan to take them all out. Does this sound like someone who absolutely needs to be immortal? Also I enjoyed how they handled immortality in the movie, being more about concealing his identity and making his name legendary. It works for the realistic setting and also works for the theme of Batman Begins which is symbolism.
Next is Two-Face which many people complain about the CGI face and the fact he isn't Two-Face until the very end. For the CGI face all I can say is that it's a rather difficult effect to do practically. They tried something similar with Jonah Hex but the prostetic made it difficult for Brolin to talk. Also it wasn't all that bad and was kept in the shadows most of the time. As for him only appearing in the end then dying, I actually think they did everything that was necessary with the character in this universe. Think about it, he was Batman's friend turned enemy for him to face because of Batman's own mistake. That's basically Two-Face, the villain known as Batman's biggest mistake. I'll sort of agree that they didn't explore his split personality in the movie but they showed his dark side and subltly hinted at the possibility he had a split personality.
Finally there's Bane, who's apparently not Bane because he chooses to not dress like a luchador. Keep in mind that this was the introduction to Bane to the general public (I'm not counting Batman and Robin). Do you honestly feel that Bane would have been taken more seriously if he dressed in spandex? And why would a strategic genius not wear some form of body armor (and don't tell me that it's because he doesn't need it). Unless he feels no one in the city would try and shoot him while he's taking over the city, spandex shouldn't be his first choice. I will say that I would like to see the comics mask which has an intimidating factor but I like that they showed his eyes allowing much of Tom's performance to be shown with some facial expression. As for Venom I'm glad Nolan decided to not include it. Bane's so much more than a hulking brute. In fact in the comics before the relaunch Bane made the decision to stop using Venom because he felt that it was more of a weakness then a strength (you know because he can actually think). Also how can anyone complain about Bane after Batman and Robin? Unless Bane comes in in a tootoo, I think we have a more accurate Bane here.
Also you may notice I'm not including Joker here. Don't worry, I have plans for him.
2) THE TECHNICAL STUFF
This applies to what some people say about all movies and it's by definition nitpicking. Here's where a person claims issue with a scene that has minor changes between cuts. Examples of this is when someone in a scene is holding a cup in one hand that moves to the other hand in the span of a cut.
To this I think anyone who enjoys movies can say this, I don't care. I don't care that the Joker changed hand positions in between cuts. I don't care about spelling errors on a newspaper in a scene. And I certainly don't care that the wind seems to change direction in the span of a cut.
You know why? It's because I can never notice them and that's just going to happen with movies. How it works is that a scene is filmed several times from many different view points. Even minor scenes can take several hours to film and get just right. In the editing room they try to get the takes that flow together the best which is another long process. Because of this mistakes are going to happen. And the editor may not notice these minor mistakes because they are too busy focusing on making the movie flow as well as possible. Also I don't notice these because I'm too busy watching the awesome fight scene between Batman and his enemy or getting emotionally invested in what's going on.
So on behalf of all the people who worked on these superhero movies, I'd like to apologize for these editing mistakes. now they know to stop focusing on things like acting, story, or amazing special effects filled action. Instead they will focus all their attention on making sure mistakes like the Joker's arms moving position won't happen again. Thanks internet person with too much free time.
1) JOKER NOT BEING JOKER
I decided to make this separate from the other villains on the list because of pretty much everything that happened behind the scenes with this character. Now I'm not talking only on Heath's tragic death but on everything that happened behind the scenes. Also I'm not talking about people who just didn't like the performance or felt that it shouldn't have even been nominated for an Oscar (I sort of agree but am also impressed by the performance).
Instead I'm talking about those people claiming that "the Joker doesn't wear make up" or "the Joker needs laughing gas" and then claim his performance fails entirely because of it. To that I can only say grow up you insensitive idiot.
Let's get away from his death and focus instead on how Heath prepared for the performance. He locked himself into a hotel room for a month and studied up on the role. How did he study? By reading comic books about the character. More specifically Project J, the Killing Joke, (both widely recognized as some of the best comics featuring the Joker) and several others. From purely the comics he worked on how the Joker walked and talked. Any self respecting fanboy would love to have their favorite character portrayed by someone so dedicated to the source material. In fact Heath was the one who made the suggestion to include a few contradicting stories on his origin into his dialogue (you know, because of the COMICS).
And yet those people claiming his performance failed say it's because of how the make up isn't his skin color because of acid (because that's how acid works). Why is it that big of a deal? He's only ever seen once with the make up off throughout the entire movie and the smile's still permanent meaning he still has the same psychological damage. Also I like how Batman isn't directly responsible for the incident (maybe indirectly?) which adds more mystery to the character which makes him that much more terrifying.
Also about laughing gas, you guys do know he uses more weapons than that. In fact I don't think he used it much in the Arkhamverse yet so many of you claim that's how the Joker should be portrayed. If there's one thing that the Joker should have, in my opinion, is a deep desire to cause untold destruction and death while laughing the whole way (which Heath did in full).
If he didn't put in so much effort or if he was alive today I'd probably put this with the other villains on this list, but because of that it just feels so insulting to the legacy of a great actor. It's especially tragic because he couldn't live to see what people though of his performance after all that work. So show some respect and let us enjoy a movie we all love.
So there's my look at some of the complains I'm tired of hearing. Like if you liked and comment below on what you thought of the movies. Also comment below on other list ideas you have for me to do. See you later.