‘The Batman’ vs. ‘The Dark Knight’: Which Movie Is Greater? (Column)
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFor years I’ve said that “The Dark Knight” is the one great comic-book movie. The films you might consider to be runners-up — “Spider-Man 2,” “Superman II,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” — are splendid entertainments, but none of them earn the G-word.
Not really. “The Dark Knight,” though, had an operatic grandeur fused with a creeping noir dread merged with a conspiratorial intricacy that added up to a true vision of the world.
It also had a snazziness — that big-wheel Batpod! — that just about popped off the screen. At the time, the film wasn’t just “dark” but resonantly dark.
It seemed about as elaborate and exciting as a comic-book movie could be.Christopher Nolan, staging it all with a foreboding big-canvas flair, made Batman the gothic nihilist antihero he always was in spirit — a vigilante steeped in rage, at the end of his bat tether.
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