First and foremost let me say that these are not bad films or even bad comic book films but the are indeed bad Batman films. I completely enjoyed them, watched them repeatedly and love them for the entertaining movies they are but they do lack a very big ingredient to make them truly successful and great Batman films…Batman.

It started all the way back in 1989 when Tim Burton had a dark gritty version of Batman most people had forgotten about. See most people were most familiar with the 1966 campy and light hearted take of Adam West’s Batman which most kids, including myself, loved. Tim knew a darker version of this character would bring him back to the foreground after 2 pretty bad Superman sequels had almost ruined the comic book movie genre altogether. The problem was Mr. Burton was actually really more fascinated with Batman’s villains because let’s face it, Batman may have the best rogues gallery in the business. So the 1989 Batman was really a story about the rise and fall of the Joker with Batman playing the Joker’s villain and I’ll give Burton credit he made Bruce Wayne a very interesting character but really only made him that… a character. Not the worlds greatest detective, not a man waging war on crime but a millionaire playboy who stops crime here and there as long as he is not distracted by a nice piece of ass. 

What’s all this have to do with Nolan’s Batman universe you’re probably asking yourself? Well if you examine Chris’ take on Batman he apparently feels the same way as Burton did about the caped crusaders rogue gallery. He throws us Ras Al Ghul and Scarecrow in Batman Begins and focuses on Bruce becoming Batman but in the end we end up with very little Batman with much better detective abilities than Burtons Batman but not smart enough to put together that Ras was the one supplying Crane with the ingredient that he was using for the fear toxin. Oh yeah, what is Bruce’s main motivation? Not his parents death as it initially is but Katie Holmes as it turns out. To be completely fair as much as Superman killing Zod at the end of Man of Steel, I had as big of a problem with Batman letting Ras Al Ghul die in the end.  Still a great movie but we only get Batman for about a quarter of the movie and it’s understandable because it’s an origin movie. Personally my second favorite of the series but only narrowly. 

The Dark Knight, by far my favorite of the trilogy, my favorite villain and the one with the fewest plot holes. Unfortunately Batman finds himself trying his damnedest to give up the cape and the cowl for a down grade in not only looks but acting with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Motivation seems to be less about stopping crime and more about finding the right chick to settle down with. That isn’t even my biggest complaint though, he seems to only be a good detective because he has some expensive CSI like equipment that a really wealthy police department could get their hands on. This is not what makes him a bad detective but the fact Alfred is the one who supplies him with every answer he is really looking for which Bruce is too impatient to actually listen to in the first place. Plus they only give us a quarter of the movie with another great villain of Two-Face, which is fine because you shouldn’t cram him in there just to have him, it felt natural and other than him dying in the end so he couldn’t come back in other films I was okay with. Again another fully fleshed out villain with depth and gravitas. The main villain though, Mister J himself, performed brilliantly by Heath Ledger, stole  the whole movie. It became a wait and see what the Clown Prince of Crime is going to do next, and to steal a line, he didn’t disappoint.  The problem is it’s Batman’s movie and Bats himself is only in it for maybe equal amount of time as Two Face because Bruce ends up doing a lot of the leg work in the movie. In the end the uglier and less talented but more pompous Rachel dies and Batman has saved the day for now or was it Bruce? 

The Dark Knight Rises only comes in at three for me because it is the most unBatman of all three movies. 8 fucking years this guy takes off because some boyhood crush of his, who turns out to be kind of a dog in the first place DIES?! Are you fucking kidding me?!  Some douchebag kills your parents in front of you and you vow to clean the streets of crime but some girl you like dies and you fucking retire?! Plus it takes almost 40 minutes before you even see the caped crusader. Bane though…unbelievable, done so well, on par with Ledger’s Joker. Reimagined to the point that I wish Bane was done like this in the comics, such depth with just the inflections in his voice. Talia I wasn’t so keen on but not bad no real complaints. My last two complaints are that Alfred doesn’t leave and Bruce would never fire him but Nolan needed a way to further the story without trying to explain Alfred’s whereabouts and second you can’t use an existing character for Robin? Don’t throw me a bone because you don’t want a Batman and Robin movie. Tim Blake? Close enough make it Drake and reimagine that Robin’s character like you did with Bane. 

I do love these movies but look at them as Batman Rogues movies but by no means are the really Batman movies. This is where a lot of concern comes from when DC tries to go dark or realistic with their movies and they tend to lose the true essence of the character. At work I live by the motto K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. I wish DC would do the same and start treating their heroes as well as they do their villains in the movies. 

Just my humble opinion folks and hope you enjoy.

David Isaac