The Best and Worst Batman Movie Villains

PREMIERE'S REVIEW (posted 7/18/08)

"People want to see it!"

That was Stan Lee's ebullient response when I had the chance to ask him, at a comic book convention in 2007, about the modern rush of superhero victories at the box office. It's a sentiment uniformly applicable to Spider-Man and Ghost Rider alike, but Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger would surely disagree. The late Kane described the original vision for Gotham City's hooded guarded as "dark," "brooding," and "Dracula-like," not the terms generally applicable to jubilant spectacles like Superman. With Batman Begins and now The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's tightly assembled Batman dramas apply that initial outlook to correct the wrongs of Joel Schumacher's dopey bat-nipple revelries from the late '90s.

To that end, Nolan's productions work in much the same way that Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns created a metropolitan horror show, although The Dark Knight puts more concerted effort into grounding the character in reality. Nolan's strong suits are maniacal schemers and moody character-driven intrigue, both of which make The Dark Knight a sleek (if, at close to three hours, somewhat distended) detective story. The action, however, mostly fails to attain the same caliber of engagement. One more flipped car or exploding building, and Nolan could cut together another sequel. Fortunately, there's IMAX, the ideal format for The Dark Knight — some scenes were filmed with the medium in mind.

The gargantuan IMAX screen might appear to contradict Batman's intentionally murky presence, but at times it heightens the subtleties of the menacing atmosphere. Basic aerial shots swooping through the skyscrapers create the invigorating sensation of falling through urban landscapes. That visceral appeal fits the setting: The city itself is an uncontainable monster, where gangsters dictate the law and only Batman dares to rebuff their pervasive corruption.