Dark, gritty, and more grounded, those are the characteristics most people are likely to name when describing Christopher Nolan’sDark Knight Trilogy, and yet the meaning behind the second of those words is often lost when judging those three films, regardless of whether that’s done to compareBatmanto other superheroes or not.
The word gritty started to adopt its current meaning by the late 19th century when it started being used to describe “a literary style that was rough and coarse”, however, that has transformed into the “realistic and raw” description that might as well make the word a synonym for “grounded”. Without diving too deep into the linguistics that pertain to Batman, it’s really hard to call Nolan’s aspired realism a “rough and course” film in any way whatsoever, which is probably a key component that led to its massive success.
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The Age Of The Gritty Reboot
Batman Begins’immediate “gritty successor” was none other than James Bond, another glorious hero from the 60s who much like Bruce Wayne descended towards borderline ridicule afterBatman & RobinandDie Another Dayresulted in one of the biggest busts each franchise had ever seen. It’s no secret Paul Haggis hadBatman Beginson his mind when writingCasino Royalegoing as far as to say they wanted to do for 007 what that movie did for Batman, nevertheless, both movies’ ending show that those attempts were initially planned as part of a largely streamlined and carefully planned story.
After all,Batman Beginswraps up with the card-shaped warning sign that the Joker is coming andCasino Royale’sending was designed to tie directlyinto its sequel as Bond struggled to cope with Vesper’s betrayal and death. Those two endings perhaps help distance the original “gritty reboots” from the rest that followed, as Hollywood splashed the “gritty” buzzword in everything fromThe Amazing Spider-Man,Planet of the Apes,Man of Steel,Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and evenSnow White and the Huntsman,all which suffered from lacking a coherent enough structure, especially the ones that got sequels.
While it’s naive to completely rule out the presence of grit in Nolan’s work, the movies themselves cannot be credited with giving Batman those vibes since all the director did was draw inspiration from the very comic books that gave life to the Caped Crusader. The difference lies in the nature ofBatman’ssource material starting to go darker in the 80s thank in part tothe work of Frank Miller, which had already prompted Tim Burton to come up with his own dark and moody, version of Batman in his two films, meaning Batman can’t become gritty of all of the sudden when that’s a huge part of his essence in the first place that had already been spotted by another filmmaker.
In Bond’s case, the iconic 007 themes in movies were often his over-the-top villains and characters but for Batman that was not the case. What really made both movies great was not the gritty aspects to them, instead, it was the wish to craft stories that played off the motivations of the characters involved in them, rather than just use them as vehicles to depict dated tropes from their source material which were often what even deprived the gadget-heavy versions of Batman and Bond of a more serious or realistic tone.
An Enemy In Every Corner
The idea of superhero movies having more than one villain is not revolutionary in any way, nevertheless,what Nolan achieves in hisDark Knight Trilogytaking that concept and finding a way to stretch it into a convincing story in his three films.Batman Beginssees 4 opposite schools of thought fight each other: Bruce, Ra’s al Ghul, the Scarecrow, and Carmine Falcone;The Dark Knighthas Batman, Joker, and Harvey Dent;The Dark Knight Riseshas Bruce, Selina, Talia, and to a lesser degree, Bane.
Nolan’ films are divided into acts in a rather precise way, which is something Zach Snyder struggled to deal with as evidenced byDawn of Justiceand the director’s need to make hisJustice Leaguea four-hour affair. Whether it’s bringing down Falcone, Ra’s al Ghul death, the tragedy that causes Dent to lose his mind, or Bane breaking his back, Batman’s big fights almost always result in a dramatic twist or lesson that shapes Bruce’s convictions for the future.
This Batman era’s scoresalso see the Hans Zimmer and Nolan partnership team up for a musical backing that’s anything but grounded as it features themassive sound (which arguably suits Batman)that’s typically associated with the composer’s work.Batmanand James Bond’s reboots might be gritty in way, but it’s not the choice of a darker color palette, more plausible narratives, or the nihilistic beliefs of their characters that makes them worth talking about, hence why most of their copycats feel short of the two’s success.
Even Nolan’sGotham is not nearly as dark as Burton’s, let alone whatMatt Reeves is trying withThe Batman, as the City still retains a pristine look in most shots and is hardly a big draw for many viewers.The Batman’steam has said they want to out-NolanThe Dark Knight Trilogy, but even the film’s early previews suggest that it takes a whole lot more than just adding some magical “grit” substance to a movie, which is just one tiny part of what Nolan did 17 years ago.
The Batmanwill be released exclusively in theaters on July 10, 2025.
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