Nolan at his best

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2018)

Gritty reboots have taken over the world! Batman Begins wasn't the first movie to do it, but it was the first to do it right. After the utter failure of Batman & Robin in 1997, fans were reluctant to return to the franchise. But the awesomeness known as Christopher Nolan managed to not only get people interested again, but also got us to take the character serious for once. Instead of making a typical superhero movie where the first half is the origin story and the second half is the character finally using that power, Batman Begins is an entire origin story. We get it over with in one movie.
By the time the sequel, The Dark Knight, starts, the story is already established. We don't need an introduction of the characters, because we already know them. We get an introduction of Joker, but it's not an origin story for him. We're introduced to him as he's robbing a mob bank. We get right away that he's psychotic. We do get a bit of a back story on him later on, but even later on we find out that was just a lie, because he tells a different version. I guess this is one of those cases where the less you know, the more creepy it is. We don't need to know Joker's story to get why we're supposed to be scared of him.
The Dark Knight is by far the best entry in the Dark Knight trilogy. Its dark, well-written storyline keeps you hooked until the credits roll, the music fits perfectly with the epic feel of the story, and the characters are complex and believable. When this movie came out, it was Batman at his most vulnerable (until The Dark Knight Rises came out and we saw Bruce Wayne walking with a cane). The now-famous image of Batman standing over the wreckage of a building is as haunting in context as it is out of context.
The Dark Knight Rises infamously disappointed fans, myself included. I went to go see it in theaters when it came out. But it would have been very difficult to outdo The Dark Knight, which in my opinion is the best superhero movie.