The Dark Knight Review: A Look To The Future

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So here is part two of my highly anticipated TDK review. Consider yourself privileged to read it. Just kidding. What I try to do in this half, though, is come at TDK in a way that few others have. What I'll be focusing on is the future of the franchise. Can Nolan's Batman successfully inhabit a third installment or would it turn out something like Spider-Man 3, widely regarded as the worst possible Spiderman movie they could have made. Well, find out what's in store for our gadgeted-billionaire after the jump.

Beyond Gotham's pulchritudinous skyline and its mob underworld lies Batman's biggest opposition to another movie: the real world. First, the Joker is alive at the film's end, and Nolan left us believing that, although the Joker is in jail, his chaotic dance with Batman will go on forever. But Heath has passed on. And don't even try to claim that someone could replace him. I mean, sure, they could, but it would be awful. No one can stand up to the performance Heath did without completely reimagining not only the character, but the franchise. It would be like doing the Clone Wars movie with everyone in cartoon mode except for Anakin, leaving the galaxy far far away with one in-the-flesh person wearing the outdated life-sustaining gear of the late 1970's. Really picture how awful that could be. Now imagine a different actor playing the Joker in a future Batman movie........

Yeah, you're right, the "replacement Joker" Batman movie would be worse. Way, way worse.

Besides the Heath issues, Christian Bale has problems of his own. First of all, Bale has inhabited a number of roles in his career and has done so because he loves the challenge of taking on new characters. Although he has stated he'd be happy to do a Batman 3 (so long as Nolan stays on), it certainly wouldn't be the challenge he's looking for. Besides his potential lack of interest, Bale has recently filed a statement with Scotland Yard in regards to a matter that occurred during the opening weekend of TDK. Now this isn’t just a statement where he says what he knows about an accident he may have witnessed or something like that. No. The incident at hand involves both his mother and sister claiming that he got upset and assaulted the two of them in their hotel room. What kind of sick weirdo grown man beats on their sister AND mother (especially outside the privacy of his own home)? Needless to say, this could develop into a substantial criminal situation in the near future. Think Chris Henry and the Bengals (who will never play for them again because of his blatant disregard for the law). Talent plus psychotic opposition to real world lawlessness do not mix. Lastly, Christian Bale is an insane actor and man. Earlier in his career, he lost 60 pounds for his role in the Machinist (30% of his body weight)! He has played characters ranging from Jesus to Patrick Bateman (in American Psycho) and has told reporters on record that the role of Jesus gave him nightmares, whereas "Patrick Bateman? Nothing." He hates the spotlight, saying to the media that he has "no desire for people to get their facts right about [him]." When asked questions about his personal life, he simply makes up stories so that no one knows what his deal is. Bale has had all the media attention he can handle between The Dark Knight’s success and his gathering legal troubles, and with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins coming out in 2009, I think Bale will be skeptical of any project that will keep him in the limelight.

The final real world issue is Nolan. He, like Bale, is a guy that likes to create and imagine. I think he'll be itching for something new after this most recent film which simply adds to the oft cinematically represented Batman franchise. He's a trailblazer, kind of like Strider in the Lord of the Rings, but not nearly as gay (or attractive…), and with not anything close to the same fetish for little people. He just can't settle down and nothing can make him stay in one place for too long. Sort of like how your dad feels about you, like how he can't stand the sight of you and left your mom because of it. Trust me, he told me. Anyway, look for Nolan to go on to bigger and better things. Also, after killing the box office and creating such a great film, what else is there to do for Nolan? Wouldn’t you feel like you’ve done all you could as far as Batman is concerned if you were this director, did this great a job, and were inherently artsy and creative as all directors are? I just think he will want to move on, whether he should or should not. He simply crushed a movie with the Batman and the Joker, which is like the holy grail of Batman movies. He’ll want out.

Beyond these pressing real world issues, the world of Gotham may not NEED another movie. First of all, Nolan's Gotham has thrived on realism and plausibility. If you look at possible villains for the next installment (althought with a great cast, even some of the slightly more minor and slightly less realistic characters can be brought to life by Nolan in a way that reflects the successes of TDK), who would be real enough to inhabit Nolan's world? Who could exist in Gotham the way the Joker or Two Face did? Sure, people like to point to Batman Begins and its list of relatively minor villains (i.e. Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul), but now that the Joker and Two Face have been created, how could Nolan go back to a potpourri of minor villains? I honestly don't think he can. It would tarnish the masterpiece that was TDK. Also, with Commissioner Gordon's final speech, yes we have now set the stage for the future of Batman, but is it a stage on which the show must be performed? Couldn't that ending, with Batman running from the people he has given everything to serve and save, be enough? Isn't it sort of an "and the rest is history" moment?

Good people have died in battle, Batman has beaten back evil (for now), he lost his love (even before her death), the village has come after him in a Frankenstein-esque ending, and still Batman fights evil in their name. We know now that he can never truly win because evil and chaos will never be defeated, but he will always fight on as Batman or any true hero must. If the story isn't ended here, when can it possibly end? If it's just going to be a cyclic story about a new villain (which is either too dull or too outlandish when compared with the Joker and Two Face), same Batman (deep voice, kung fu, new gadgets), same outcome (evil is turned away by The Dark Knight, though it shall return again), same Alfred, same cool toys (OK, "new" but with the same idea), same boy-toy Bruce Wayne antics, and same Gotham (dark but lightening, rescued but still in need of saving), then why bother? Within Nolan's two-volume Gotham universe, Bruce has come from the little boy in the alley to the lost man searching for his way to the hero he wanted to be to the selfless vigilante he is now. That is a long way for a character to develop. Why let him become static in another movie after all that growth and self-revelation? The only way it could continue is if Batman could one day go out on top, but that would undercut everything Nolan fought so hard to brand into our fleshy frontal lobes: he can't win in the storybook sense. He's doomed to forever fight for a justice he can't attain for the people he can't win over. He's reached the bottom, but the ceiling has come down with him, trapping him forever in this constant state of opposing unrelenting evil, leaving him destined to impose justice and order with chaos and violence forevermore.