The Dark Knight Trilogy, Ranked
With the release of The Batman, I'm going to rank the series that gave us the best that Batman has ever been on the big screen.
The Dark Knight Rises
Following in the footsteps of other iconic trilogies like the original Star Wars movies, the Raimi Spider-Man films or the Godfather trilogy, the third film is easily the weakest as it fumbles its way to the finish line by favoring a larger and more ambitious scale rather than focusing on the smart stories that made the previous two movies so special. This movie still contains many of the elements that made this series so great, as there are moments within Bruce’s character arc to grow again as a hero and embrace his strength to protect Gotham and the closing scenes that are some of the most powerful in all these films. Likewise, Nolan shot for the stars at making this an epic Batman story with many massive action sequences or enormous spectacle of Bane’s destruction of Gotham that makes for some fantastic moments of action, but makes me respect this movie a lot more. Not only is the production value still top-notch, but all of the characters and performances (excluding Marion Cotillard, whose death scene seemed to have been pulled from a middle school musical) are still engaging, especially this imposing and lively iteration of Bane.
On the other hand, this is undoubtedly the flawed story within the trilogy, most notably the inherent premise that I just think is broken at its core, where Bruce is physically defeated two different times and must recover from those to become Batman, and leads to a shockingly small amount of actual Batman action in this 3 hour film. Likewise, the script has a number of truly confounding ideas and has more holes than a sponge which were all produced because Nolan wanted to tell such a large story leading to dozens of questions like “How did Bruce get from a prison in India to Gotham so quickly and without any equipment?” “Why were thousands of cops sent into the sewers and how did they survive for months?” “How did Batman survive a nuclear blast with a 6-mile radius with only seconds to spare?” Dozens more of these have been called to attention by other critics, and are more significant because the overblown length, repetitious structure and long stretches without Batman make large portions of this movie feel like a slog. Overall, this is a film that closes out the series with enough of the action, emotions, and character beats that provides enough satisfaction as an ending, but has a convoluted and illogical script that cuts many corners and fumbles Batman’s arc that drains it of much of the excitement and brilliance that Nolan reached previously.
Grade: B-
Batman Begins
Though I heavily debated whether this one or The Dark Knight would come out on top, I think that this provided a better exploration of Batman’s character while The Dark Knight was better crafted and provided some iconic villains. This movie brilliantly focused on the psychology of Bruce Wayne by focusing on his trauma, strength and humanity through his relationship with Rachel, the scars left by the loss of his parents, and finding his courage through his training with Ra's al Ghul. His origin of becoming Batman is fantastic, a poignant look at him overcoming his trauma to become Gotham’s savior and fight the fear within it. The rich themes and emotions of fear and justice are seamlessly communicated by Nolan through the character growth of not only Bruce but others like the new hope of Alfred and Rachel, which are elevated by the captivating lead performances from Christian Bale and everyone in the supporting cast. While aspects of Rachel and Bruce’s relationships can feel underdeveloped and Katie Holmes’ acting rocky, the sequences of Bruce Wayne developing his skills and rising up in Gotham are all so impactful, and demonstrate that taking the material seriously and respecting the character ‘s growth enough allowed them to pull off a darker tone that was influential in the comic-book genre.
As well as this movie looks on a thematic and intellectual level, Nolan continues his struggle with maintaining an effective structure and it loses steam when Scarecrow takes over as the main villain. He was clearly used to support the themes of fear in Gotham, but it feels like it abandons its grittier tone for grittiness and over-the-top spectacle. Nolan can also struggle with how to choreograph action and results in a very mixed bag, as the training sequences along with the horror-like stealth sequences involving Batman are thrilling, but the hand-to-hand fights and moments in the final battles can become overly cartoonish and devolve into cut-fu. Though there are improvements that can be made to make the tone and action more consistent, they’re fairly minor due to how resonant the origin story is and how his journey with Gotham and other characters support the earned themes and tell a quintessential Batman story.
Grade: A-
The Dark Knight
Widely regarded as the peak of this trilogy, this wins the gold medal of the trilogy due to the sheer aspirations of the plot and themes, and feels awe-inspiring with how memorable it is on so many levels without ever feeling constrained by the limitations of the comic-book genre. At its core, it’s a unique psychological crime thriller set in the world of a superhero that uses expert plotting to tie so many different character arcs and story beats effortlessly and constantly maintaining a rapid pace. It’s nearly impossible to throw any acclaim on Ledger’s Joker that hasn’t been said by countless others, except that his transformative performance perfectly captures the essence of a sociopath that feeds off Gotham’s chaos without a clear motivation, and makes it heartbreaking that we never got to see another moment of this achievement in acting. The downfall of Harvey Dent is equally as engrossing as someone who makes the turn from a savior of Gotham and descends into depravity, but his reputation achieves redemption as a symbol of heroism that’s needed more than Gotham. Though I do wish there was a bit more focus on Batman’s individual character arc, his dedication towards ending the corruption in Gotham by any means necessary while also wanting to live a peaceful life as Bruce Wayne and pursuing a relationship with Rachel is fresh and builds off his motivation from Batman Begins.
On nearly every technical front, the film is eloquently designed, most notably the expansive set-pieces and the stunning cinematography with many wallpaper-worthy shots. Like every movie on this list, it has many potent themes that run through the development of each character and especially utilize subtle foreshadowing and symbolism to earn the payoffs. I don’t think this movie is an absolute masterpiece to the level that some people claim, only because the movie can be clunky in how it resolves both the Joker and Two-Face plotlines in the 3rd act and there are logical leaps within Batman’s final choice, Harvey’s motivation, and Joker’s plan. In all, it’s difficult not to marvel at the absolute craft and dedication that went into making this film, resulting in some of the most iconic heroes and villains within film history and performances, characters, themes and writing that can remain entertaining and incredibly masterful all at once. Therefore, The Dark Knight remains my favorite experience in the trilogy, so it comes in at number 1!
Grade: A
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