This Friday, Christopher Nolan’s reinvention of the Batman
series comes to an end with The Dark Knight Rises. After breaking the
comic-book movie mold with Batman Begins the series had major critical and
commercial success with The Dark Knight, resulting in an Oscar for the late
Heath Ledger. Nolan has insisted that The Dark Knight Rises is the final
installment of the series, and some are wondering if the finale can top its
predecessor. But as with all trilogies, the third installment is never the best
because we are saying good-bye to a series we love.
Released in 2005, Batman Begins followed to major trends of
the time period—the overwhelming popularity of comic book movies that first
started with the surprise success of X-Men (2000) and the inherent interest in superhero
origins. Starting with the TV series Smallville (2001) and then further
explored with the movie Spider-Man (2002) and to a lesser extent Daredevil
(2003) and Hulk (2003), these origin stories tapped into the odd phenomenon
that while most people generally knew about the characters and their back-story,
none of us had seen their beginning unfold on screen.
Unlike Spider-Man, however, the Batman franchise was well established.
It had gone from the fantastical, stylized version of Tim Burton to the
horribly goofy Batman & Robin (1997) that really became the apex of the
campy superhero movies of the 1990s. The only way to swipe the slate clean was
to go all the way back to the beginning of Batman’s story. But Christopher
Nolan decided to take it one step further by finally giving a dark significance
to a comic book movie. He realized that Batman was the perfect vehicle for
exploring what can best be described as a “real-life” superhero as its
titular character has no actual superpowers and could ostensibly exist.
We were enveloped as Bruce Wayne slowly became Batman just like
we were when Peter Parker became Spider-Man, but this time it was all oddly
believable. Christopher Nolan made us think that a melancholy rich guy fighting
crime in a bat suit is not that far-fetched of an idea. This concept of placing
comic-book heroes in the real world both in theme and story-line has influenced
several other movies including Casino Royale (2006), Iron Man (2008), and the
upcoming Man of Steel (2013). The first installment, therefore, was a success because
it was something entirely new and surprisingly real.
If Batman Begins won our interest because of its novelty,
The Dark Knight (2008) hit our core because of its tragedy. Nolan recognized
that comic books can touch on deep fears and scared the hell out of us with the
Joker, terrifyingly acted by the late Heath Ledger. A self-described “agent of
chaos,” the Joker didn’t want money or power like most comic book villains; he
simply wanted to “watch the world burn.” Our real-life constant fear of
terrorism was therefore played out by a madman in jagged make-up. Furthermore,
by testing the morality of Batman’s secret identity and rigging two boats to
explode each other, the Joker hit hard on tragic choices and made us question
what we would do in each situation. It was not just a comic book movie; it was
high drama with a couple silly costumes.
And now we finally arrive at the third and final chapter.
While the movie is about to take the box office by storm this weekend with pre-sales
already breaking records, there is palpably less buzz this time around. No
doubt this is due in part to the fact that none of the actors has unexpectedly
died creating a media firestorm, but I can’t help but feel like I’m not the
only one who thinks that The Dark Knight simply can’t be beat. I am excited to
see Batman face another demonic foe, but now that he’s lost Rachel what else is
there for him to lose? Tom Hardy is a fantastic actor and will undoubtedly play
the brute force of Bane perfectly, but can he really top the hateful charisma
of the Joker? Can this third movie top the second?
To answer my questions I researched some of the most famous
movie trilogies. Empire Magazine put together a nice list of 33 top ranked
trilogies. The list is certainly not exhaustive of all trilogies, but enough to
explore history. (While I’m not here to debate the ranking, in my opinion Lord
of the Rings should not come before Star Wars even if only because LOTR had the
benefit of being filmed all at once). One thing that I noticed was that not a
single trilogy had the third installment as the generally accepted “best.” In
my opinion, the only one that comes close is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
(1966). But even that is debatable because of the looseness of their coherence
and the fact that Fistful of Dollars (1964) is pretty damn awesome.
Upon seeing this, I start to wonder not if the third can be the best but if it is supposed to be the best, and I’m
starting to think that maybe it’s not. Take for example The Lord of the Rings
Trilogy. The Two Towers (2002) is usually accepted as the better of the three
films due to its introduction to Gollum, focus on character development, and a
great battle for Helm’s Deep. The movie ends with a bang and leaves us thirsty
for the finale. While the Return of the King (2003) has the epic battle of
Minis Tirith and the final conquering of Lord Sauron, the last 30 minutes of
the movie get bogged down with tying up the loose ends inevitably created by 10
hours of film.
Saying good-bye is never easy and always messy, so even if the
third act of a trilogy is a wonderful film, it will be psychologically dragged
down by our disappointment that it’s all over. The series has to come to an
end. As an audience, we’re not supposed to leave the theater giddy from
stimulation, we’re supposed to leave content with a deep understanding of the
series as a whole. That doesn't make for the most exciting, or impactful, or “best”
part of a trilogy, but it’s a necessary piece.
I’ll never forget seeing The Dark Knight in the
theater for the first time. It was a packed house at the AMC Theater on
Illinois. People were there early and the audience was abuzz with anticipation.
After the previews, the screen went black and the sound went quiet. The blue
Warner Brothers logo with the slowly exploding background came on the screen. I
have never heard a movie theater so silent. No munching. No whispering. No
nothing. It was if any movement would halt the projector. Just a hushed silence
as we all prepared to see what we had long been waiting for.
When the movie was over, I swear I saw some people go right
back to the ticket counter to try and buy tickets for the next showing. We were
all hungry for more. More exhilarating action scenes. More ethical dilemmas.
More Joker.
After I walk out of The Dark Knight Rises at about 6:00PM
this Saturday, I don’t want to be hungry. I want to be full. I want to be
content. I want to feel a sense of closure. Therefore, the role of the third
film in a trilogy is not to top the previous two. It is there to end an epic
tale. And if I’m a little sad that it’s all over, I’ll know Christopher Nolan
did what he was supposed to do.
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