I know that “Dark Knight” was a MUCH bigger box office hit than “Batman Begins”, but was it that much better as a story? There is absolutely no doubt that Christopher Nolan has taken comic-book characters to a whole new level with the “Dark Knight”, ..

I know that “Dark Knight” was a MUCH bigger box office hit than “Batman Begins”, but was it that much better as a story? There is absolutely no doubt that Christopher Nolan has taken comic-book characters to a whole new level with the “Dark Knight”, but I think that without the brilliant set-up that he created with “Batman Begins”, the second movie in the series would not have been so great.

I’m going to go further and say that as a screenplay, “Batman Begins” outdoes its sequel. Its plot works brilliantly as a stand-alone movie. A little child traumatized by a childhood tragedy runs away from his life to study evil, only to return and use all he has learnt to defeat the evil; hence beginning his own healing process. All along however, he has to control his personal lust for revenge and channel it so that he does not become evil himself.

In the “Dark Knight”, while the director took the next steps in the story, allowing future movies in the series to explore the whole range of the ‘human condition’, he dwelt too much on the inner conflict. The movie left me feeling like the story did not either begin or end. The best movie sequels always move the overall story ahead even while being a complete story within themselves, and that is where “Dark Knight” fails – even though it certainly is magnificent entertainment with its huge canvas and characters.

I know that “Dark Knight” was a MUCH bigger box office hit than “Batman Begins”, but was it that much better as a story? There is absolutely no doubt that Christopher Nolan has taken comic-book characters to a whole new level with the “Dark Knight”, but I think that without the brilliant set-up that he created with “Batman Begins”, the second movie in the series would not have been so great.

I’m going to go further and say that as a screenplay, “Batman Begins” outdoes its sequel. Its plot works brilliantly as a stand-alone movie. A little child traumatized by a childhood tragedy runs away from his life to study evil, only to return and use all he has learnt to defeat the evil; hence beginning his own healing process. All along however, he has to control his personal lust for revenge and channel it so that he does not become evil himself.

In the “Dark Knight”, while the director took the next steps in the story, allowing future movies in the series to explore the whole range of the ‘human condition’, he dwelt too much on the inner conflict. The movie left me feeling like the story did not either begin or end. The best movie sequels always move the overall story ahead even while being a complete story within themselves, and that is where “Dark Knight” fails – even though it certainly is magnificent entertainment with its huge canvas and characters.

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