I've been an avid Batman fan since I could remember. Saturday mornings were filled with watching old VHS tapes and playing with toys, wearing batman pajamas and seeing whatever I could that featured our beloved caped crusader. Who doesn't love a hero without powers standing up toe to toe with some of the best of them out there, merely using his wit and fancy gadgets? So you can imagine my anticipation for an amazing live action Batman film that could bring to life what I have only seen in cartoons, games and comic books. Well unfortunately I have still yet to be convinced that there could be one.
When Nolan came out with the Dark Knight trilogy films, you could imagine my surprised by how much I disliked the films. I felt they fell short on every account compared to the animated films that I saw as a child.
The Origin
This is the most iconic part of Batman is definitely his origin story. It's what shapes his character into being. With the loss of his parents Bruce swears an oath to avenge his parents by bringing justice to his city. Here we have a tiny child making a pretty big promise to his dead parents and one that he'll continue to upkeep for as long as he lives.
In Mask of the Phantasm we see Bruce go through a wide dimension of struggle and suffering with the loss of his parents. He questions himself, challenges his resolve and even debates the concept of quitting to be happy. Alfred says nothing because he knows the decision is ultimately Bruce's and that he can only act as support. It's Bruce's own desire to continue that drives him down the path of darkness and solitude as he takes on the role of Batman. No outside source, no teacher to guide him, simply his own drive to see justice brought forth. He decides himself that he needs to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and thus dons the costume, which he designs himself!
Nolan attempts to piss all over this origin by showing the audience an angry Bruce who merely seeks to fight inmates in a prison in Asia after deciding to leave Gotham when he knows there's nothing he can do about it currently. He seeks the ways of the assassin and learns everything from Ra's. Even the part about needing to be more than a man, essentially telling Bruce that he needs to embrace fear in order to conquer it. This already makes Bruce a pretty empty character who doesn't really do much of this himself besides play with Lucius Fox's toys. He's not really a man with his own mission so much as someone else's.
The Love Interest
Love plays a big factor in Bruce's life as it serves to pull Bruce away from donning his costume for happiness. With someone allowing him to be happy for once, it causes a dynamic shift in his need to be Batman. We see both Mask of the Phantasm and Nolan's trilogy tackle the concept of love and what it does to Bruce, but one seems to show this better than the other.
In Mask of the Phantasm we see Bruce meet Andrea Beaumont before he dons the cowl. There is a bit of tension as they clash on views and opinions but ultimately they fall in love, finding happiness in their chaotic lives. While Bruce still has every desire to be Batman, we see him hesitating in risking his life because he has someone to go home to. This very concept eats away at him because he's still driven to fulfill his mission to save Gotham, bargain at his parent's grave to have them send him a sign that he's not wrong to break his words to be happy. Here we have a solid example of how love interferes and the audience feels it. We see the emotions that are shared and understand how it effects Bruce. Even once she returns and resumes her relationship with Bruce(after he's already Batman) that we see him still contemplating the idea of being Batman. We see love stand in the way of his mission but never a solid means to and end, because in some way, we know the mission is bigger than Bruce now.
Nolan, on the other hand, has a different take on this. We spend the entire first movie seeing Rachel Dawes as a minor annoyance, bickering with Bruce and serving as merely a damsel in distress. The only context the audience is given is that she is a childhood friend of Bruce, nothing more. Be it the writing, or Katie Holmes awful performance, there isn't any sign of Rachel being anything more romantic for Bruce than Alfred. It's only in the last scene where she flat out admits to Bruce that she used to love him before he left Gotham that we see anything at all. The second movie is worst because Bruce sees Rachel as the light at the end of his tunnel and ultimately pushes for it throughout the entire movie. While love is fine for Bruce, and I'm in no way arguing against it, here it feels cheap and definitely one sided. Rachel shows little interest in Bruce throughout the movie and hardly seems like she's remotely interested in Bruce in even a plutonic way. Every scene she's in with him seems like she's suffering on the seventh level of hell. Where's the romance? There wasn't even a concept of a love triangle between Harvey, Rachel and Bruce. It mostly seemed like Bruce was nothing more than a creepy obsessive ex-boyfriend that likes to push his limits with her. I'm not even going to go into the atrocity that is the third film and how Selina Kyle and Bruce had absolutely no romance whatsoever.
The Butler
Alfred has always been one of my favorite characters growing up with the series. The snarky British butler that always had a comment for something Bruce said or did. He was reliable, caring, and loyal. There was never a moment of doubt that Alfred would stay by Bruce's side no matter the situation.
Dini got this concept and rolled with it completely. We see Bruce go through heartache, death and defeat and regardless of the situation Alfred never faltered. Bruce's mission became his mission, and he was going to stand by him. He knew the adherent risks the life of crime fighting would bring, but always stayed to patch up Bruce if he needed it. Never was there a doubt in my mind that Alfred wasn't worried about Bruce, but he knew that nothing could stop him from this mission and that the lesser of two evils was to stay with Bruce as opposed to leaving him on his own.
Nolan had a different view of the matter. While Alfred still retained his role as one of Bruce's major pillars of support during this mission, we see him generally more concerned about Bruce's psyche. He serves as a strong guide which aids the empty vessel that is Bruce Wayne in these films, crucial to the creation of Batman. It could be argued that Alfred cared too much for Bruce's well-being which is why he left, but ultimately I argue that it was the wrong decision to make. Leaving Bruce's side just showed that this rendition of Alfred was a coward and couldn't help Bruce finish what they both had started together. A strong pillar of support would have stayed with Bruce no matter the situation and still have had the same impact by the end of the trilogy.
Both versions of Alfred know that being Batman will result in getting Bruce killed(in the comics it even happened) but regardless of what Alfred does, Bruce will always continue to go down this road because this mission is endless.
The Joker
One of my all time favorite villains and definitely one of the reasons I love Batman as much as I do. The Joker stands for everything Batman is not. Chaos. Batman serves as a symbol of peace, hope and justice, while the Joker serves to stand on the opposite side destroying whatever he can. And the best part about this is that he's not only insane but has a comedic side to him. I will always see Mark Hamill as the Joker. His laugh still haunts me!
While Mask of the Phantasm and Under the Red Hood are made for a younger viewing audience, the role of the Joker is quite dark. We see him torture and murder his victims all with a sadistic smile. We get how clinically insane the Joker is in both films where he essentially laughs at the face of death. We get a sense of comedy too. While the Joker is the very representation of evil itself, there is still a sense of humor in everything. He lives up to his name! The very essence of a clown is to inspire comedy in anything, so the Joker donning the traits of the Jester is supposed to inspire comedy. We get this in both movies where there is a lighter side to his character. Mask of the Phantasm has the Joker playing around with gadgets and cracking jokes. We even see him fight with a log of bologna! This gives an element of comedy the audience can't help but find amusing. In Under the Red Hood while we don't necessarily see the Joker using funny props, we get a sense of his humor because he's always joking around. 90% of his dialogue is some form of joke or another. Humor intensifies the chaos because it overshadows it. With comedy comes laughing and joy, so when the Joker does something outstanding, it amplifies the impact. While comedy is a light jab, the horror is the knock out punch.
Nolan's Joker, while great, seemed to lack this element of comedy. The Joker, while very spontaneous and chaotic, didn't have as much of an element of comedy to really give the audience that powerful combination. I'm in no way saying Ledger's performance was at fault, but the writers in that they could have utilized more elements of comedy to give the audience a sense of duality with the character. The Joker just seemed to represent Chaos. And while the Joker's main goal is always to get Batman to cross the line, he still uses a strong element of comedy to taunt Batman into playing his game. The Joker is simply an intellect that always seems to thwart Batman in Nolan's film without elements of the clown in sight besides the pain. He's just's terrifying in this film.
The Departed
With war comes casualties. Batman over the course of his mission has lost several allies, friends, and family. It's how his origin came to be. Death plays a big role in the Batman films as both Dini and Nolan go through using death as significant plot points to shake Batman's core.
In Under the Red Hood the movie starts out with Joker killing Jason Todd, the second Robin Batman takes under his wing. Throughout the film the audience gets glimpses of the relationship Jason has with Bruce and how they got along. There's love there. Jason sees Bruce as a father and Bruce in turn sees Jason as a son. This death has a huge impact on Bruce. With Jason gone Bruce gets dark and cold, practically shutting himself away from the world. His mission is the only thing he relies on to vent out his rage and frustration with himself, and he continues that mission. He dons the cowl completely in this movie, with no signs of stopping. This is an important element to see because the audience knows that even with something as impacting as loss, Bruce can never stop his mission. He only continues and fights back even harder. Vengeance and rage are tools Bruce uses to push his body and spirit to the limits.
Nolan's Bruce on the other hand, deals with death very differently. We see a more human Bruce that gives up the cowl with the death of Rachel. Death takes Bruce out of the game. We see him spend the entirety of the film in anticipation of an end with Harvey Dent being the savior of this city and Bruce finally getting to put away his costume because the burden of Batman is too large for him and he just wants to be happy. The audience gets a sense that Bruce is tired of being miserable and simply desires freedom from his shackles of the mission. Alright, I can understand Bruce seeing his mission as a burden, and desiring a means to putting it all to end, but why start wearing the suit to fight for an idealistic concept if you're simply going to lose the desire to keep going? Everyone knows Batman's mission is an impossible one. Evil will always exist no matter where you go. Stopping organized crime is essentially like trying to not cry during the first 10 minutes of Pixar's Up. It's not happening unless your a soulless monster. Bruce is an idealist in a realist's world. Finding an end is simply impossible for him. Having obsess about it makes his character seem too naive and immature. Rachel's death and the loss of Harvey Dent should only fuel Batman to try even harder to find a better solution to fighting crime. His mission should be fueled even more because of these people he's lost, not completely abandoned...
The Mask
Let's face it, a billionaire fighting organized crime out in the open is pretty ridiculous. A mask is necessary to hide his identity to his own protection and the protect of what he has at stake. Bruce Wayne is an icon for Gotham both as his civilian identity and his alter ego. If the world were to discover that Bruce was Batman, villains would do all they could to destroy everything his family built. It's only natural concealing his identity serves protection. The bat symbol was merely to strike fear in the hearts of criminals.
Dini uses the mask to allow Bruce to scare his enemies. Bruce could have very well made the costume a dragon and still had a similar effect. He used a bat because of his fear of them. Bat's a giant rodents with wings and bloodsuckers. If I see a bat flying at me, you'd be damn sure I'd run and hide too. Fear is a key component to fighting crime because Bruce needs to intimidate his enemies. Fear also helps prevent Bruce from having to fight unnecessary battles. Bruce could take down criminals without the costume, and even did in Mark of the Phantasm. His first attempt at fighting crime was without the costume, and merely a mask. The fear was the only element missing and nearly cost him his life in the process. The mask was always a necessity of his crime fighting element.
Nolan decided to go for a more emotional approach with the reasoning for Bruce's mask. Blake asks Bruce why he dons the mask, and Bruce explains that it's merely a means to protect the ones he cares about from harm. "Batman could be anybody" was Bruce's exact words to Blake to explain the reasoning to hide his identity. No. Batman was supposed to be more than simply hiding an identity. It was supposed to inspire fear in criminals because he was something that couldn't be understood. The stories go that when Batman first arrived, rumors were spread about how he was part man and part monster. He was supposed to intimidate people. Bruce even says it in the first movie that he wants his enemies to share his fear. So why the sudden change of tone on the reasoning? It seems that Bruce doesn't even know why he's Batman anymore and that he's as confused as we are as to why he's even Batman in the first place...
The Code
While comics instigate this concept early to avoid bad press, the act of not killing and opponent holds a heavy weight on Batman's heart. It's become a means of principle that can never be crossed, no matter how evil the villain truly is. Nothing breaks the code, no matter the price. This is something I always respected about the Dark Knight. It's a virtue he always held true and never condoned or even allowed while he was fighting against evil itself.
So why is that suddenly Nolan can cross this line and simply have that be how things work? It doesn't. By the end of the Batman Begins, we see Batman face off against Ra's al Ghul and when he along with Jim Gordon are able to thwart Ra's' plans, Bruce is left with the ultimate choice of saving Ra's' life and letting him die. With the quote: "I won't kill you, but that doesn't meant I have to save you." Batman jumps out the train and lets Ra's suffer his ultimate demise. Um... All right...? No. This goes against Batman's code altogether. Even if Bruce hates himself for doing so, Batman always lets his opponent live because his form of justice is beyond that. I'm not even going to bother explaining how Bruce is fine with Catwoman killing Bane with his motorcycle and how that's all kinds of wrong right there.
Dini tackles this very differently because we're shown a very similar situation where in Under the Red Hood Jason Todd has the Joker at his mercy and demands Bruce to explain why he refuses to let the Joker die for what he did, asking if it's because it's too hard. Bruce responds that: "It'd be too damned easy" indicating that he won't ever cross that line. He essentially saves the Joker despite everything and puts him back in his cell at Arkham. This is a perfect representation of the code never breaking and even if it would make the world a better place it's not the right kind of justice.
The Mission
The most important element of what drives Bruce Wayne to continue wearing the suit to fight evil despite how strong the enemies are is his mission. No matter the circumstances or how evil the enemy is the mission never gets compromised. Bruce's mission is to save his city and inevitably the world. Even through the loss of a loved one, Bruce knows that he's damned. He's essentially stuck in an endless cycle, because no matter how hard he tries, evil will continue to exist. Despite knowing this, he continues to fight the good fight and knows essentially that his mission never ends. This is what compromises Bruce's identity to the point of obsession. This isn't even a matter of wanting to be Batman, so much as a need to be. Bruce fights a war he intentionally knows he's going to lose to eventually, but does so nevertheless. Dini never has Bruce second guessing himself once the cowl is on because he knows this is a mission only he can do.
Nolan's films seem to fall short of this, as by the third movie, Bruce Wayne has fundamentally retired from being Batman for nearly a decade and by the end of the movie has simply passed his torch to a successor because he seeks a means of freedom. With the loss of his friends and the love of his life Bruce is simply done with the vigilante life because it's taken it's fair share of big punches and he's fallen and can't get up. This cheapens his overall characters as his mission is no more something he only seeks to do part time, while being happy comes first.Why even be Batman if you're going to call it quits after 3 big time villains come in to cause you problems. Nolan said it himself in the first of his movies where Bruce came to the conclusion(albeit from Ra's' help and not of his own volition) that he needed to be more than a man, he needed to be a symbol of hope for Gotham. Well that symbol of hope doesn't get to call it quits even if you try to pass off the torch to someone more determined than you. You enlist them in your crusade, not leave all the responsibility to them. While I don't mind Joseph Gordon Levitt taking the reigns of the Batman cowl, the ascension to being Batman was effortless and cheap at best. Just because he proved himself to be a fitting person doesn't mean Bruce gets to rest. Not even faking your own death can justify that.
So there you have it. My overall problems with Nolan's trilogy and how cheap he made Batman feel. My biggest issue is why the animated films and series get so little attention while these terrible excuses for films seem to be so successful. With 9 hours wasted watching a whole trilogy and a mere 3 hours on these two exceptional films, we see every important point that all these films share be completely destroyed in a high budget film, while brought to their fullest in their cartoon form. Something tells me DC should swap out their writing staff and maybe make a live action film from one of these masterpieces.
