Dark Knight trilogy rises above previous releases

By: Austin Flynn

Ever since the release of Tim Burton’s “Batman” in 1989, movie goers have swooned over Gotham’s hero, but no other adaptation has been as gripping and emotion-rich as that of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

Since his days played by Adam West in the 60’s, fans of Batman have seen many different renditions of the caped crusader through mediums such as cartoons, video games and movies, and after the release of “The Dark Knight Rises” it’s apparent Christian Bale and Nolan have the strongest showing of the superhero yet.

In 2005, “Batman Begins” showed fans a more gritty, realistic version of Batman’s origin they couldn’t get from Burton’s cartoonish telling or Joel Shumacher’s half-hearted attempt at the franchise.

From the realistic way villains were portrayed, to the explanations for each and every gadget Batman had at his disposal, Nolan did an incredible job of making an otherwise far-fetched character into one fans could accept more readily.

Take Batman himself, for example.

While Bale has taken some criticism for the rough, beaten voice he uses as Batman, it is completely necessary for the realism portrayed in these movies.

If somebody as high profile as Bruce Wayne is going to jump into a skin-tight suit and beat up bad guys, he has to use the voice because 99 percent of Gotham has heard what Bruce Wayne sounds like.

He’s the only Batman to extremely disguise his voice, and admittedly, it sounds a little goofy at times, but better to sound goofy once or twice than have everyone know your true identity.

It’s just one choice out of many Bale made as Batman that added to the realism of the character and quite frankly put him above the previous actors (Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Michael Keaton) who tried their hand at the Bat.

Two other characters who also deserve mention would be Lieutenant Jim Gordon and Alfred.

Michael Caine hit a home run with his acting in the trilogy, a big feat considering how important this butler really is to the movie.

While he isn’t in every scene he is a source of deep emotion for the movie, being the closest thing to family Bruce Wayne has in the film, and Caine uses this fact to the best of his acting abilities.

Jim Gordon is portrayed differently in the Dark Knight trilogy in a way that commands respect from the audience as well.

In the original 1989 “Batman”, he was a cop dead set on catching Batman, but eventually came to use him as a way to deal with the villains the police couldn’t handle.

Gary Oldman (Nolan’s Lieutenant Gordon) not only called upon the vigilante when the city needed him most, but connected with him on a personal level to the point of friendship.

There is a scene in “The Dark Knight Rises” that displays this when an injured Gordon persuades Bruce Wayne to take up the mantle once more and defend the streets of Gotham from a developing threat.

Next is the portrayal of villains.

While Jack Nicholson did a commendable job as The Joker in “Batman” and Bane was an interesting addition, albeit a small appearance at best, in “Batman and Robin” the two respective roles were polished and primed to near perfection by Heath Ledger and Tom Hardy in the trilogy.

Nicholson’s version of The Joker was more of a zany, cartoon character, whereas Ledger played the part as a mentally unstable man with no name, a serial killer with a sense of humor. He made the audience feel his madness where Nicholson could only show it. He wanted to simply “watch the world burn” and such simplicity lent itself perfectly to Ledger’s acting style in the film.

Hardy, on the other hand, gave the impression of sheer power to Bane.

There is a chilling scene in “The Dark Knight Rises” whereas despite Batman hitting the antagonist with everything he had, he wasn’t able to take down the titan of a man.

Bane literally took punches to the face only to shrug them off and continue an all-out assault on Gotham’s best, pummeling him further into submission, giving the audience the impression of all hope being lost.

Hardy’s Bane puts the “Batman and Robin” Bane to shame with dark dialogue and a fist even Batman couldn’t compete with.

Overall, the trilogy serves as a more realistic take of Batman and delivers on countless levels.

There are a few weird plot choices, and some people may absolutely hate Bale’s “where’s Harvey” voice, but those small imperfections pale in comparison to the grandeur that is “The Dark Knight” trilogy.

All three movies in the trilogy scored better on the website metacritic.com, a website created to compile the scores of all movie critics, than the four other renditions before it with the 1989 Batman being the closest with a score of 66 compared to the 70, 82 and 78 scored by “Batman Begins”, “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” respectively.

It’s a take on the “world’s greatest detective” even Adam West can’t deny, and a masterpiece fans will hold in their hearts forever.

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