The Dark Knight The Dark Knight General Discussion Thread

[Herofan]

Did Ledger Joker cause or correlate with an increase in villains being evil for the sake of being evil?

 

[Awest66]

Is anyone else sick of "the look of Gotham city" complaint aimed towards The Dark Knight?

 

[Rick190293]

Me. It never bothered me at all. Sure, 89's Gotham is a masterpiece, and I love Reeve's one, but Nolan gave a great sense of reality and scale that I haven't seen in those, and it does look great in the IMAX format.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Is anyone else sick of "the look of Gotham city" complaint aimed towards The Dark Knight?

The "look" of Gotham in the Nolan movies is very much in line with Batman Year One's aesthetic, and other comics. I think that complaint comes from people who's only frame of reference for Gotham is Batman 89, or the animated series. They are used to a more stylized look for the city.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Is anyone else sick of "the look of Gotham city" complaint aimed towards The Dark Knight?

Absolutely. Gotham has never looked better than it does in The Dark Knight when it is a real, beautiful city being shot spectacularly. It's a little too stagebound and fake in Begins and then a little too bland in TDKR, although I like how it looks in both movies very much overall, but TDK is the Gotham.

 

[The Joker]

Is anyone else sick of "the look of Gotham city" complaint aimed towards The Dark Knight?

It doesn't really bother me. Its a personal preference on their part not a legit criticism. There's plenty of Batman comics, like what @AndrewGilkison said above that resemble the Nolan 'cleaner' looking modern Gotham.

 

[Lantern Venom]

The "look" of Gotham in the Nolan movies is very much in line with Batman Year One's aesthetic, and other comics. I think that complaint comes from people who's only frame of reference for Gotham is Batman 89, or the animated series. They are used to a more stylized look for the city.

I've always appreciated the look of Gotham in Batman '89, but I knew that was Burton's aesthetic. Had I been asked what Gotham City in the comics looked like prior to '89, I'm sure that I would have said something like, "It's crowded, dark, some affluent parts, but many run-down, dangerous neighborhoods." I never saw Gotham as having an untouchable look outside of big city elements.

 

[The Batman]

Is anyone else sick of "the look of Gotham city" complaint aimed towards The Dark Knight?

Yes, because it's usually seems like a way for people to accuse Nolan of not understanding Batman, even though Nolan isn't the first person to make Gotham resemble a real city.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

One thing that's bugged me is how much hate the Dark Knight/Rises suit gets. It's pretty much the suit anyone thinks of when this series is mentioned, too.

I love both the Begins and Knight/Rises suits. I remember a time where most preferred the latter - and now I feel like I'm nuts and misremembering.

 

[The Joker]

Back in 2015 Rocksteady put out a vote for fans to choose which Nolan suit they put into the Arkham Knight game. The Begins or TDK one. The TDK suit won by a landslide.

Don't let loud minorities fool you into thinking something is mass hated.

 

[Sawyer]

The TDK suit never particularly bothers me on screen, it just looks god awful in promo/BTS pics, which really have no bearing on the actual film.

Still like Begins better, though.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

Back in 2015 Rocksteady put out a vote for fans to choose which Nolan suit they put into the Arkham Knight game. The Begins or TDK one. The TDK suit won by a landslide.

Don't let loud minorities fool you into thinking something is mass hated.

It's an iconic suit, IMO.

As for its Arkham Knight version....I feel that it's the best looking alternate suit in the game, honestly.

I've got the Hot Toys 1/4 scale Dark Knight Trilogy figure and it's a stunning suit.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

I still find the timeline fascinating and I always notice new things when I revisit the films. Sometimes I think even Nolan didn't think too hard on it, but.

• Gordon's daughter in Batman Begins: toddler. Gordon's daughter in in The Dark Knight: 4 or 5 years old.
• Rachel & Harvey: Dating long enough to be considering marriage.
• Newspapers in Begins: dated 2005. Security footage in The Dark Knight: 2008.
• Bruce already wearing out by the second film.
• Alfred throwing out thick AF logs from Bruce's time as Batman so far.
• Literal room full of mob bosses that Batman has ticked off, yet still not captured.
• Dent was picked to run for D.A., ran for the office, was elected and sworn in and was already a year into his role in Knight.
• Maroni's case, being one of a mob boss who filled the post-Falcone vacuum, would take a long time to put together. These kinds of cases are extremely difficult to assemble, and are done so meticulously and carefully because you often get one shot at a guy like this. Would've taken a lot longer than a few months and if it was only a year, what would Maroni have been able to accomplish so egregious so quickly?

Fans: The Dark Knight takes place 6 months to a year after the first film.

 

[BatLobster]

I still find the timeline fascinating and I always notice new things when I revisit the films. Sometimes I think even Nolan didn't think too hard on it, but.

• Gordon's daughter in Batman Begins: toddler. Gordon's daughter in in The Dark Knight: 4 or 5 years old.
• Rachel & Harvey: Dating long enough to be considering marriage.
• Newspapers in Begins: dated 2005. Security footage in The Dark Knight: 2008.
• Bruce already wearing out by the second film.
• Alfred throwing out thick AF logs from Bruce's time as Batman so far.
• Literal room full of mob bosses that Batman has ticked off, yet still not captured.
• Dent was picked to run for D.A., ran for the office, was elected and sworn in and was already a year into his role in Knight.
• Maroni's case, being one of a mob boss who filled the post-Falcone vacuum, would take a long time to put together. These kinds of cases are extremely difficult to assemble, and are done so meticulously and carefully because you often get one shot at a guy like this. Would've taken a lot longer than a few months and if it was only a year, what would Maroni have been able to accomplish so egregious so quickly?

Fans: The Dark Knight takes place 6 months to a year after the first film.

My feeling is that the passage of time is meant to be fairly ambiguous in the movies. The only thing we know for certain is that 8 years pass between the events of TDK and TDKR. The rest leaves some room for interpretation. I think it's to avoid some of the weirdness that comes with drawing attention to the time gaps being either longer or shorter than the real life gaps between the films. Like it's weird to imagine that TDK takes place in 2005/2006, and also weird (at the time) to imagine that TDKR took place in 2016. Though less weird now when you think about Bane in his relation to the nightmarish political era that kicked off then.