Favorites

A good portion of my attention this week has been devoted to The Dark Knight Trilogy, the home release of which was inaugurated this week with TDKR. I base how much I love a series by how hard it is for me to select a favorite from it.

For example. The original Terminator film is my favorite out of its series. Taught action and one of the best love stories ever. Give it to me.

Out of the original Star Wars trilogy, I favor "The Empire Strikes Back" over all others and rank "Star Wars" and "Return of the Jedi" in that order beneath it.

With the Alien series, the original would take top spot, with "Aliens" and "Prometheus" following in that order. "Alien 3" and "Alien Resurrection" are off somewhere in the realm of I don't care.

TDKT is an anomaly to that "formula." If I were to rank those films, it would be a hard decision given the wealth of memory and enjoyment attached to each film.

I saw "Batman Begins" at its midnight showing, June 15, 2005, the awkward space between my Junior and Senior years of high school. Totaling at three viewings throughout that summer, it became something to do. Each time, I crooned with the crowd at the reveal of the Joker card at the film's climax, eager to see the sequel already. In addition, I read the comics that influenced the film, primarily "Batman: Year One" as well as various comics revolving around the film's villains. I even purchased a Scarecrow action figure for no reason but to have it. A Halloween mask followed in the fall even.

Fast forward three years to July 18, 2008. My midnight showing tickets were purchased weeks in advance, three in total for myself and two friends forced on the ride. "The Dark Knight" has the Joker, my single favorite villain ever. Thus my anticipation for round two exceeded that of its predecessor. Comics were purchased, namely "The Long Halloween" and other works that influenced or would influence the remainder of the trilogy ("The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller). Yes, a Joker action figure was also purchased, for no real reason.

"The Dark Knight" is one of my favorite films of all time, but when stacked with its predecessor and sequel, its hard to rank them. Surprisingly I saw TDK the least amount of times in theaters: twice. My initial second viewing was circumvented by a tag-along who insisted on "Stepbrothers." So instead of witnessing the Joker destroying Gotham, I had to sit through Will Ferrell not being funny. Oh well, my second viewing came a few days later.

Four years later, my tickets for TDKR were pre-ordered, this time for myself and my partner, who graciously took my non-stop yammering about the films in the weeks before. Considering my status as a broke twenty-something, no comics or figures were purchased, granted most of the material the film was based on I already owned or read. TDKR did however, get four theatrical viewing from me (almost five) and all in a week. It had been the first time in years since I had enjoyed a film that much in theaters.

So if I had to rank this spectacular saga it would go:

"The Dark Knight"
"The Dark Knight Rises"
"Batman Begins"

Bat Wars

Today marks the home release of "The Dark Knight Rises," the conclusion to director Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight Trilogy." I loved the movie, so much that in one week I saw it four times. I even saw it at the midnight showing, a tradition started with first film "Batman Begins" in 2005 and continued with "The Dark Knight" in 2008. In addition I saw "BB" three times in theaters and "TDK" twice, which should've been more but being in the Air Force at the time didn't allow for such free time.

"TDKR" is easily one of the best threequels out there and with its ability to stand against other, usually disappointing atrocities, made it and its preceding films into what I've called the "Star Wars" trilogy of our generation. Consider it this way.

When the first "Star Wars" came out it changed things, forever, redefining the blockbuster, franchise film as we know it. "Batman Begins" rebooted the Batman films from a nipple-marked grave, in the process invigorating the superhero genre with emotional gravitas and down-to-earth grit. The outbreak of Marvel films owes itself to this film, a sentiment marked by its creators and several others citing Nolan's inaugural film as influence.

Then come the big ones, the sequels that are so wildly favored, they are often considered superior to their predecessors. "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Dark Knight" are two such films. Both took the universe introduced in the previous film and turned it on its head, expanding it and sealing an insurmountable amount of fan favoritism.

The "Dark Knight Trilogy" bears considerably more weight in the violence and mental complexity department, structured around Bruce Wayne's struggle with his psyche, crusade and subsequent consequences Conversely "Star Wars" has admittedly more fun, centered around the Jedi training of Luke Skywalker that inevitably leads to his father's redemption.

"TDKR" and "Return of the Jedi" were both received similarly: fun, worthy conclusions that were not quite as good as their immediate predecessors. I agree mostly with that sentiment, but see "Jedi" as a near-perfect film, but lacks the (ahem) flawlessness of "Empire." It came upon one day when I was watching the speeder bike chase that "Jedi" would be perfect if not for one at that moment, impending doom: Ewoks.

"TDKR" compared to "TDK," suffers not from what it has that ruins it but what its lacking. A sentiment that most any reader can see coming, "TDKR" is marred by the question of "What if?" Specifically, what if Heath Ledger had not died, granting us not one, but two, films with his brilliant, disturbing portrayal of the greatest villain ever, the Joker. Granted that is pipe dreaming, but considering Joker's place as Batman's most important foe, it only makes sense that he would be a participant, at the least, in Wayne's final battle. But, we do have Bane, who while not quite the Joker, is an adequate villain who tests Batman almost as agonizingly as the Joker did.