The Batman vs. The Dark Knight

The Batman vs The Dark Knight

By: Zach Vega

The evolution of superhero movies has significantly changed throughout the years. A prime example of this stylistic change is  The Dark Knight (TDK) (2008) and The Batman (2022). both share a similar plot of having to overcome the crime filled streets of Gotham infested with its villainous characters. They both have their distinct differences in tone, story, and theme. Which movie takes the cake for not only their cinematic performance and plot development but for how well their bat vigilante Bruce Wayne is portrayed?

We can hopefully answer this question by starting with each one's introduction. Christian Bale’s The Dark Knight  starts out its story by introducing the main villain the Joker to the audience, accompanied by a group of his goons as they successfully rob a bank. However as they make their escape the Joker betrays his men using his mischievous smarts to get them to eliminate each other, taking all the money for himself. This scene gives an insight into the Joker’s crazy personality and ruthless tactics. Meanwhile, the opening scene for Robert Pattinson’s The Batman begins with a monologue from Bruce in a very dark gritty tone as he walks through a crowd of people. The camera then pans to people committing crime throughout the city but focuses on a group of riled up men looking for trouble. However they didn't realize that they were the ones who were in trouble. As they corner and begin to beat a helpless man trying to get home Batman emerges from the shadows taking out the first man in an aggressive manner. He then says the famous words “I’m Vengeance” for the first time as he continues to fight off the thugs, taking them out in a dramatic fashion until they  eventually retreat. This shows the serious tone of the movie from the start while also giving a glimpse into the mind of Batman as he is this nocturnal being observing all evil from within the shadows.

The second way we can help answer this question is through the plotting of each movie. TDK's main idea is how the Joker can create chaos by pushing the limits of people's morality, seeing how he can break and turn people against each other. He does this by using one of Gotham's up and coming hero’s Harvey Dent. Harvey is at the height of his District Attorney career and begins to be seen as a symbol of hope for Gotham. However The Joker has different plans for him as he destroys his reputation, his appearance, and his morality. The Joker is able to turn Harvey into a vengeful criminal to help fight his battles. He manipulates Harvey into kidnapping commissioner Gordon and his son, holding them at gunpoint. He blames Gordon for the death of his fiancé Rachel. This plot contrasts from The Batman’s mainly because of the difference in antagonists. The Batman revolves around the main villain The Riddler as he tries to expose Gotham's most successful. He does this by murdering corrupt people in sadistic ways and laying out riddles, hints, and clues for Batman to solve in order to save people, testing his intellect. Throughout Bruce’s detective work he uncovers a web of lies connecting his own family to the trail of corruption. Finding that his father was tied to the death of Edward Elliot, a journalist who was killed by Falcone in order to help protect his family’s reputation. This only fuels Bruce’s hunt to find the Riddler now needing to ask him questions to find out about the truth about his father.  

Now that we have the main idea of both movies we can go over my favorite part, the endings. Let's start with The Batman's because I want to save TDK’s for last. After the Riddler assassinates Falcone, one of the most if not the most corrupt elite in Gotham, he reveals his hideout in the process. Batman wastes no time tearing through it looking for clues, finding that he has turned himself in. knowing this the batman instantly goes into question and in doing so he learns that the Riddler has planted bombs on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile the Riddler's online cult like following and has gathered under the Riddler's plan to assassinate the new major at a shelter event where she would be speaking immediately after finding this out, vans begin exploding bursting into flames and destroying the city's walls. Batman races out of the jail to make it to the event, as he arrives the crowd is in panic hearing the bombs detonate. After a few minutes of scanning the event shots began to rain down from the rafters. The first one clipping the shoulder of the new major followed by a barrage of bullets fired into the crowd. During all this chaos the city is being flooded with huge waves of water making its way throughout the whole city. Finally finding the event and leaving people stranded and in imminent danger. Seeing all this destruction around him Batman grappling into the rafters fighting countless people all dressed in the Riddler's attire. Withstanding blows from various different guns and weapons Batman almost seems to be defeated but as his life begins to fade he knows that he cannot allow his city to fall to such evil, he cannot go out in this way, doing all this, for nothing? With his last stand he injects himself with a potent adrenaline syringe and instantly gains his strength back but with this new serum pumping through his veins he is more aggressive than ever, wiping out the rest of the terrorist with the rage of a bull. Our movie nears its end here as Batman helps the stranded people out of debris and deep waters.

Now onto The TDK’s ending scene, after the joker manipulates Harvey turning him against the dark knight and his own city. He plants two bombs onto two different ferry boats. One is full of regular everyday citizens while the other is full of prisoners stating that both ships would blow up if neither decided to detonate the other. The Joker does this on purpose to test peoples morals seeing if they would turn on each other in order to survive. The TDK is hunting down the Joker and has captured him near the top of a skyscraper. The Joker seeing that he's been cornered pulls out a detonator linked to the bombs on the boat gloating that it was already too late to save those people thinking that one of them would eventually blow up each other. However when the time was out both ferries remained and Joker was captured and his test of selfishness and morality had backfired. Meanwhile Harvey is lecturing commissioner Gordon and his son holding them at gunpoint. Harvey ranting saying that they should've saved Rachel and that since he lost something he was unable to get back meaning Rachel. He raises his gun towards Gordon's son asking the Commissioner why he shouldn't take his son's life. The dark knight arrives just in the nick if time defusing the situation talking to Harvey and telling him see how the joker has deceived him into turning him into Gotham's villain instead of the hero he was known to be. This is ultimately Jokers plan all along get one of Gotham's most noble figures to become of infamous crime. However Bruce knowing there's only one thing he can do to help the city maintain its sanity. Ending the movie by taking the fall for Harvey's murders that he committed as two face as the camera pans through Harvey’s funeral as the eulogy is given. Keeping him remembered as a noble hero and restoring his honor and turning the Dark Knight into a fugitive.

Conclusively both The Dark Knight and The Batman explore the story of Bruce Wayne as Batman. However they approach the character role in different ways. In The Batman follows a more personal and darker plot turning Bruce Wayne into a developing detective throughout the uncovering of the corruption in Gotham city. Where in The Dark Knight focuses more on the battle between chaos, peace, and justice. One thing that also stood out to me between the characters was that in The Dark Knight Christian Bale does a better job of showing off the Bruce Wayne personality of Batman showing the more cocky, confident, and rich character traits. Whereas in The Batman his Bruce Wayne side of the character isn't expressed as well. In my opinion I favor The Dark Knight because it's the second movie in the trilogy and it completes the story beautifully. However if you are interested in more noir type detective stories then I would recommend The Batman.