I never really read comic books, but I grew up watching re-runs of the Batman show with Adam West. He was instantly my favorite superhero, way more interesting, complicated and human than that alien Superman who seemed indestructible. I bought a few issues of the comic, but comics couldn’t really hold my attention the same way that a film or television show could. But one thing I noticed in the few Batman comics I read was how much darker and grittier they were and it made me appreciate the duality of the character (and indeed, almost all of the characters) that much more.

I was six years old when Tim Burton’s Batman came out and it blew my freaking mind, if only because I had been anticipating it ever since I saw that simply designed poster standing in movie theater lobbies. This was aBatman that was not only complicated, but dark and his enemy the Joker wasn’t goofy Cesar Romero anymore, but a goofy and malevolent Jack Nicholson. It might seem a bit dated now, and Nicholson’s performance might seem a bit hammy, but it’s still the one Batman film that appropriately blends comic book outlandishness with a gritty real-world sensibility with the scales tipping more in the former direction than the latter.

The only thing that disappoints me when I look back on it is that Batman/Bruce Wayne is just … there and it has nothing to do with Michael Keaton’s capable performance. Burton and his writers just couldn’t get a handle on what is fascinating about this man who has two sides of himself in constant battle. Future films would veer further into cartoonish ridiculousness, successfully killing the franchise little by little until we were met with the candy-coated and ultra glossy Batman and Robin and Batman/Bruce Wayne would continue to be given shorter and shorter shrift as the films progressed and new characters and sidekicks were added.

So when I saw Batman Begins, I thought some of the tweaks worked and there were some I found confounding. I didn’t go gaga over it like a lot of folks did, thinking that it was the most perfect Batman film yet. What I appreciated was a deeper and better understanding of who Bruce Wayne is and how he struggles with his alter ego, trying to find some kind of stasis between these two warring parts of his psyche. It was one of the things I found most lacking in the previous iteration of the series (although Batman Forever delves into the issue much more than the others) and I hope it’s a jumping off point that The Dark Knight can sink its teeth into.

What I didn’t like is something that a lot of folks found to be a groundbreaking and visionary stroke: the idea that this story and this character live in a world that is very much like our own. With it’s on-location shooting in real cities like London and Chicago, it felt like we were watching a Batman movie that was fighting in a Gotham City that looked like it was in our own backyard. Instead of it being truly Gotham City, it felt like it could be any city. Therein lies the problem for me: when I watch a Batman movie – or any comic book movie – I want it to feel like a comic book movie, that’s why I watch them. I’m not looking to the Batman movies to give me gritty crime dramas because the mere act of having a man dressing in a bat costume takes away the sinew and grit. Sure, having an element of noir and darkness is preferable to cotton candy, but we have to remember what the roots of this story are and why it is a story worth telling.

When we look at comic book movies, from X-Men to Superman, they all take place on Earth but they also take place in a world that is not quite our own. It may have flashes and bits that we can recognize in our own culture, but these are worlds where superheroes roam the streets. So we can watch these films take place in a different kind of world and watch these superheroes fight crime and then find symbols buried beneath the surface. X-Men is a film about mutants fighting each other and it’s also a statement about civil rights. Because it is not set in our ‘world’ and it has mutants instead of African-Americans or gays, everyone can agree that these mutants should have equal rights in that world; if it were more obvious about what it was doing, then maybe the message wouldn’t hit its target so well.

So when we look at Batman Begins and its message about vigilante justice and man’s dual nature, it doesn’t strike such a chord with me because I know that Batman doesn’t exist in my world. Christopher Nolan is one of the most talented filmmakers alive right now and I admire what he did very much, but I think it’s a tactical mistake to bring too much reality into aBatman movie because there is very little Batman in my reality.

Still, I am excited for The Dark Knight because I think that Nolan set a good foundation for future Batman films by giving us a true origin story. Now that we know how Bruce Wayne became Batman, we can now sit back and focus on how he struggles with that mask and how interacts with other folks that wear a mask. I’m excited to see The Dark Knight with Joker and Two-Face because they are two guys that wear their masks permanently while Bruce Wayne is free to put his on or take it off as he wishes and I hope we can see that issue given the attention it deserves.

As an aside: what I’d really like to see is an end to is the hyperbole about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. It seems that since his death, the man has become an acting martyr and, while I’m a fan of his work, I don’t understand why people who have yet to see the movie are falling all over themselves to secure him an Oscar nomination for this film. He was a good actor, yes, but while he gave one terrific performance in Brokeback Mountain, I don’t think tackling the character of the Joker, he was even expecting to be in the awards hunt. I haven’t seen the performance, maybe it’s really unbelievable, but I wonder if everyone would be clamoring for an Oscar if he was still alive. It’s a moot point because he’s not, but we need to stop trying to reward people just because they were unfortunate enough to pass away; if he deserves an award based on merit then I will beat the drum loudly, but it’s only July and maybe it’s a contender now but let’s wait before we start anointing him the prohibitive favorite to win.

I’m excited for the film to come and go, hoping that I enjoy it of course, because I want to see what Christopher Nolan is going to do next. Sure, he’s doing good work on these Batmanfilms, but he’s such a talent that I love to see what he does when he’s given free reign to do whatever he likes. In the Batman films, there is a lot of corporate back and forth going on because it’s such a huge film and he has to stay true to the characters in that universe. I like to see it when he does Memento and The Prestige because I think that gives a greater sense of who he is as a filmmaker, that these are the projects he would like to do when he can do anything and this is the way he’d like to make them.

I hope that I’m wrong and that The Dark Knight truly blows me away, not just as a comic book film but a real one. The one thing that I can say about the introduction of reality to theBatman films is that it raises the bar a lot higher; I’m not just looking for entertainment anymore, I’m looking to be wowed. Let’s hope it lives up the expectations.

– Noah Forrest
July 8, 2008

Noah Forrest is a 25 year old aspiring writer/filmmaker in New York City.

The opinions expressed in these columns are the writer’s and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Movie City News or any of its editors or other contributors.

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