Ok, hi everyone, haven't posted any articles in a while because I had nothing to write. Warning, this is going to take a while... bare with me. Just remember it'll take you a lot less time reading this than I did writing it.
But let's get right into it. The headline to this article I didn't just write up to gain attention or interest, I mean if it does, then well good for me, but I really do stand by that.
In arguments, when I tell someone that First Class is better than The Dark Knight, of course no one takes me seriously, and they wouldn't even be interested in my reasoning, and even if they were, I couldn't tell them my reasons in just a couple of sentences, I have to literally write it for them. So I'll do just that.
The Dark Knight is in the realm of movie "Untouchables," a category I place movies in because of people's feelings for them, when you say something bad about the movies in that category, no one's gonna take you seriously, they wouldn't even listen to you. Maybe they're afraid you're right, or maybe they're just too stubborn, but either way it's never any harm to listen to someone's opinion.
Why do movies go into my category of "Untouchables"? Simple. Hype. That is all. Other movies in that category for me are Inception and James Cameron's Avatar. There's literally nothing bad you can say about those movies that anyone would listen to. Because of the hype. I mean if I asked someone to write for me a full report of why they loved Inception, Avatar or The Dark Knight, many of them wouldn't be able to, or if they did it'll take them a few hours to really think about it, but yet when I ask what's the best movie ever, within half a second, I hear the response "Inception, Dark Knight, Avatar... " and so on. It's all just hype. If they really felt like those movies are the best, then they could give me a reason, other than it's action or effects and what not. Me personally, I love The Dark Knight, and Inception (Avatar, I absolutely hate), but I see those two as movies, and not the hype they're surrounded by, in example nobody wants to admit that Inception has the same exact basis as The Matrix, even though it's so painfully obvious, even Christopher Nolan mentioned The Matrix as one of the inspirations when he wrote the script.
I feel like after the release of those movies, everything that comes afterward has no chance to compete with them, because the comparison will not be taken seriously. That's where First Class came in. I followed the production of this movie every closely. They announced three movies after X-Men The Last Stand. One was X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which is the one everyone focused on) X-Men Origins: Megneto(which was canceled and instead incorporated in First Class) and X-Men: First Class, which was supposed to be about Professor X and his gather of the X-Men, but i guess they realized they couldn't do this without Magneto, so they put the two movies together. When Origins Wolverine flopped, which it did, I focused on First Class and followed it throughout. Back in April, I worked for my school's Magazine as a movie writer, they wanted me to focus on hyping up upcoming movies. So I wrote about Thor, Captain America, First Class and The Adventures of Tintin.
When I got into writing my article for First Class, going through the production, I concluded that this was going to be the best X-Men movie. Because of the cast they chose, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Kevin Bacon. Their cast looked a lot better than the Wolverine cast. Of course back then it was just a perception that I had. No real reasoning.
When the movies came out, after those 2 hours and change, I went home right away and re-watched The Dark Knight. Why? Because in the race for best comic book movie, The Dark Knight had the lead. Even for me. And i felt like First Class was better, and it happens to all of us where the last movie you saw is always the one you think is the best. So i re-watched The Dark Knight, and the movies, in terms of theme and character built were very similar. The one thing I loved about The Dark Knight was its justice for Batman, because he's not a lovable popular hero that Superman is, he's a public hated vigilante that has 10x more enemies than friends. And his decision at the end of the movie to take the blame for Harvey's death finally gave justice to his character, because now everyone does hate him, even if it's for something he didn't do, but for something he let happen, because we can all agree that entire movie was his fault.
But even so, First Class had many of the aspects that made The Dark Knight popular, to movie critics not to their fans. And those aspects are, great acting, great character development and good theme. In comparison, X-Men Origins: Wolverine had adequate acting, horrible character development, and pretty good theme. Let's focus on character development for this post because that's where I see First Class has the edge on The Dark Knight. For Wolverine, besides Logan and maybe Gambit, no other character had any substance. His brother maybe, be he was a typical hardheaded villain that does what he does because he loves to hurt people. Gambit well, he had NO character development, but he did has like 12min for screen time, whereas literally everyone else just dies within 30seconds of displaying their powers. Even Gambit went from badass who kicked Wolverine's ass to just just a pilot who drops him off within 10 min. They just wanted to show off these character's moves and them write them out 10min later.
The Dark Knight has great character development, every character was important. Not just Batman and The Joker, but Harvey Dent, Rachel Dawes, Alfred, and even commish Gordon. They all played a major role in the climax of the movie, and what happened to one affected the rest. Another movie that completely ignores this concept is Captain America, besides Rodgers, NOBODY else is important, not even that red face skull guy. He was the most boring villain I've ever seen in a movie. First Class also had that concept, where the central characters aren't the only focus. I mean sure you expected Prof X and Magneto to have importance in the movie, but everyone else was just as important. Mystique of all people played a major role. So that's where the argument begins on who did it better, The Dark Knight or First Class. Well to me, First Class. I know Heath Ledger's performance was the best and that also adds to the hype on why The Dark Knight is untouchable. Some people have even said that the only reason TDK was this good was because of The Joker, which is complete bull, the movie is a lot more than just that. Michael Fassbender did just as good a job playing Magneto that Heath Ledger played The Joker, of course The Joker is a whole lot harder to play, but in terms of playing to the full potential of the character, they both did a great job. So to me, character development of the supporting actors(The Joker, and Magneto) is a tie between the two movies. Now let's look at the main characters, development of The Batman vs Prof X. Well from when he was a kid to his wheelchaired self right now, prof X was the exact same person, his views about the world and about the mutants were the same and stayed that way. His role just developed that made him a key member in their world. As for Bruce Wayne, he was confused, as to what his role is and what he has to do. He still hasn't accepted what he must do as Batman. Alfred was my favorite character in the movie. He was that no nonsense guy that told Bruce the truth because Bruce wouldn't accept it. Alfred since the beginning of the movie warned Bruce that if he continues what he does, things will go bad. And he also goes on to telling him, people will die, and those are the people closest to him. Also The Joker has been telling him that the people of Gotham, in their darkest hour will turn on Batman and hate him. Bruce didn't accept any of that until the very end of the movie where he finally accepted his place as a "hero" and what he has to do. Which is "Die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." and "because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one he needs right now." So the battle between Batman and Prof X is in favor for Batman, his character was a lot more developed and way more battle tested. So right now it's TDK 1,First Class 0.
Now here is where First Class takes the lead. The movies itself takes on many aspects of human nature, like revenge, love, redemption, the battle between "Right" and "Wrong." and so on. The Dark Knight correlates mainly to one nature, which is the battle between what's right and what's wrong. Bruce was trying to do the "right" thing from the start, which is save everybody, which we all know, in the real world, is impossible. The Joker knew it, Alfred knew it, Bruce didn't wanna accept it. Until it was too late. Us in the real world, at least I do, know that you have to do what's necessary for the moment, and there are going to be consequences that you just have to live with. And that was the point of The Dark Knight that Bruce Wayne finally realized at the end, whether or not he will live by that in the next movie is up for grabs because the death of Heath Ledger really put a dent in the whole production of the movie. They had to change everything about the 3rd installation because his character just can't be reinstated. So expect an okay movie for The Dark Knight Rises. I think it'll be hard to follow up from the end of The Dark Knight, without The Joker. So anyway, that's all, that whole Dark Knight movie was mainly about right and wrong, and what Batman has/had to do.
As for First Class it tackles on more human nature. At this point you can realize that this is the most important aspect of a movie for me. This is what I look for. None of the special effects, none of the great action or beautiful actors. No. The substance. So yea, Erik(Magneto) was an emotionally driven psychopath to begin the movie. Because he was a holocaust jew, whose parents were killed, his mother killed in front of him, and he wanted revenge. We all can relate, not about the dead mothers, but to being emotionally driven at some point in our lives, because we didn't know any better. Towards the middle of the movie, Erik was trying to find himself as to who he is and what his role is in life, because he lived a majority of his life just thinking about revenge and killing the one who killed his mother. Prof X helped him see that there's more to life that just that, and that he has a gift that can help people just as easily as it could hurt them. But because he was psychologically impaired through years of mental torture, he didn't see life that way. Again, some of us can relate to that, not knowing who you are in life and what it is you're meant for. Also having a certain skill that you decide to waste, not by killing people of course, but by keeping it hidden and not exploiting it further. Many people are shy of what they do and they decide to keep it secret.
At the end of the movie, Erik becomes "awoken," the years of torture and hatred he had in his head and heart was just too much to take out. Prof X tried to help him, and even he tried to help himself, but all those memories and experiences just can't be held down. And it overtook him. He becomes a villain because he's already grown to hate every normal human for what they did to him, and their ignorance of the world they live in. That's a theory in psychology that suggests that many bad people are made, not born. What happened to them growing up made them who they are now, the sanctions other people put on them stunned their brain development, and they couldn't properly grown up. They weren't born killers. They were made that way.
Prof X was a lot like Bruce Wayne, he wants to help everybody. And he sorta has the ability to, but there's a difference between forcing people by your abilities to doing something, than to make them believe in the idea. Prof X tried to make them believe in the idea, he wouldn't force them to change their minds, because you can't do that. So he saves those that he can, and those that are too stubborn, he tried anyway, and he doesn't grown to hate them. In other words, he's the "ideal" human being who accepts people for who they are, and will try to help them but not by force.
I won't get into the many human natures that each movie brings, but First Class takes on a lot more than the Dark Knight. Of course it has to do with the kind of people that are in the movie, but The Dark Knight's messaged were limited. Writing a character for a movie takes a lot of time and thought, it's easier for comic book adapted movies to do this because the character has already been written for them, but the writer of First Class I felt really went beyond just the Mutant vs Humans, and X-Mem vs Brotherhood theme that the first 4 X-Men movies had. The Dark Knight also went beyond just Batman vs the world, and Batman vs The Joker theme, but at a lesser extent than First Class. First Class is more thorough, more expanded and more thoughtful than The Dark Knight.
I certainly believe that it's better than The Dark Knight. Even if it's just slightly. And if you don't, I hope you have something better to tell me on why you think so other than "No it's not" or "It's just better"
Because I know movies.
So thanks for reading, any follow ups on the points I put above will be elaborated upon request. I know I left a lot of things out, but I felt I was at least fair in talking equally about both movies.