Scene opens. Mid-day over Gotham City, a city that never sleeps because it is constantly victim to slews of super-villains. The camera sweeps over dozens of skyscrapers that look so real you swear you were flying over Gotham City in a helicopter. A deadening “thump” reaches all the way down to your gut as the camera zooms in and you follow the bank robbers in the opening scene as they prepare for one of the greatest heists in history. I waited all summer for this, and now, finally, I was seeing The Dark Knight in IMAX.
This was July 19. I have seen The Dark Knight one more time since then and am considering seeing it once more before it goes out of theaters. So I admit it: Being the end of August, this review is a little dated. But let’s be honest — you loved The Dark Knight, didn’t you?
Director Christopher Nolan’s box-office smash has broken several records since it opened July 18, and it continues to be one of the hottest movies in theaters today, more than a month after its release. It easily blew away Spiderman 3’s record for biggest opening-day revenue, grossing over $67 million. And, because of its lasting popularity at the box office, it continues to gain strength; it is now creeping up behind Titanic to be the highest grossing film domestically in history.
The Dark Knight’s success put a lot of things in the spotlight, namely the untimely and utterly tragic death of Heath Ledger, who, as his role as the psychotic Joker proves, was just hitting his stride as a serious actor. But another interesting issue the movie brings to the foreground is America’s demand for more superheroes.
I’m not talking about your average run-of-the-mill superheroes who save the day, get the girl and all that jazz. The Dark Knight’s success resides in the psychological struggles that plague these vigilantes and play out before our eyes on the big screen. These newfangled superheroes fight the good fight while carefully walking the line between right and wrong and between their personal and professional interests. Christian Bale as Batman wrestles with whether he should just kill the Joker when he has the chance, despite the fact that Batman’s central credo is to never kill.
And there is, of course, Ledger’s Joker. For a long time questions surfaced about whether the role was simply too much for Ledger, who was in poor health (mentally, emotionally and physically) during shooting. The Joker’s evil in The Dark Knight is a new kind of evil, one that is not done out of greed, passion or even vengeance. It is an evil that is purely for play, an evil so chaotic that throughout the movie, The Joker becomes less of a character and more of a metaphor, a manifestation of all the evil that is too crazy to be bottled up in one act or purpose. The Joker becomes the little devil playing on Batman’s shoulder, edging him on to keep up the good fight — it’s what gives the Joker a good laugh.
With characters like these, we don’t just have a good time at the theater. These characters do much more work with much larger questions, specifically ethical quandaries. They question the power of the individual in relation to his responsibility toward society. You can bet that more comic book — sorry, graphic novel — movies are going in this direction. Superherohype.com, a hub for everything super and extraordinary, recently posted a release that confirms this new direction with films based on graphic novels. Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov told The Wall Street Journal that “[Warner Bros. is] going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” and that the “dark, brooding tone” of Batman in The Dark Knight is the angle the group seeks in superheroes. The upcoming Watchmen is exemplary of this, as will contain darker versions of classic characters like Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. Even the ultimate superhero gentleman, Superman, is getting a darker makeover in the not-too-distant future.
So what does this all mean for graphic novels? All I can say is don’t expect any more smart-mouthed funny guys like Hellboy or the first Hulk. From here on out, our superheroes are getting a lot scarier, a lot denser and way more interesting.
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