Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Make this Movie: The Dark Knight Returns

Well, it's official: on the eve of The Dark Knight Rises' release, Christopher Nolan has announced (via The Associated Press) that he is done with Batman. But of course, DC and Warner Brothers aren't done with Batman. Superhero movies tend to make money these days. They've rebooted before; they'll do it again.

Nolan was, of course, gracious enough to admit that some future filmmaker might decide to do something different and even worthwhile with the cowled crusader:

“Batman will outlive us all, and our interpretation was ours. Obviously, we consider it definitive and kind of finished. The great thing about Batman is he lives on for future generations to reinterpret, and obviously, Warners will have to decide in the future what they’re going to do with him."

Well, they could maybe think about finally making Frank Miller's landmark Batman story, The Dark Knight Rises. (Bits of Miller's Batman: Year One were of course incorporated into Nolan's Batman Begns.) Yeah, it's dark, but Nolan's already shown that audiences are willing to go dark with the Dark Knight. And it was a huge, huge event in Batman's pop-cultural history: Batman as an old man, dragged out of retirement by his outrage a world that is afraid to distinguish between right and wrong, struggling to save Gotham one last time even as Gotham hesitates to embrace his brand of salvation. Batman subjected to pop-psychological analysis, Batman judged from all sides, Batman tossed into the media newshole. (The Internet wasn't around when Miller wrote the story, but could be used to great effect here.)

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jul/09/27547/

Why should this be the next Batman movie? Well, the moral ambiguity is certainly in season, especially when the story brings Bats up against Superman, here toiling as a government stooge. But the best reason, I think, is because, while Nolan is a gifted director, his first love is not for characters, but for stories - plots. As a result, Christian Bale joins the long list of actors who have played Batman without making Batman their own. (Will anybody argue that Bale's Batman persona is not completely overshadowed by his Batman voice?) Michael Keaton, star of Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns, came close, if only because he was such an iconoclastic, idiosyncratic choice. But so far, only Adam West has created an indelible Batman, and he did it in a jokey TV series. The time is ripe for a riveting big-screen embodiment - a Batman that has more people talking about Batman than about his villainous counterparts - and Liam Neeson has only so many years left in him.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule

Well, it's official: on the eve of The Dark Knight Rises' release, Christopher Nolan has announced (via The Associated Press) that he is done with Batman. But of course, DC and Warner Brothers aren't done with Batman. Superhero movies tend to make money these days. They've rebooted before; they'll do it again.

Nolan was, of course, gracious enough to admit that some future filmmaker might decide to do something different and even worthwhile with the cowled crusader:

“Batman will outlive us all, and our interpretation was ours. Obviously, we consider it definitive and kind of finished. The great thing about Batman is he lives on for future generations to reinterpret, and obviously, Warners will have to decide in the future what they’re going to do with him."

Well, they could maybe think about finally making Frank Miller's landmark Batman story, The Dark Knight Rises. (Bits of Miller's Batman: Year One were of course incorporated into Nolan's Batman Begns.) Yeah, it's dark, but Nolan's already shown that audiences are willing to go dark with the Dark Knight. And it was a huge, huge event in Batman's pop-cultural history: Batman as an old man, dragged out of retirement by his outrage a world that is afraid to distinguish between right and wrong, struggling to save Gotham one last time even as Gotham hesitates to embrace his brand of salvation. Batman subjected to pop-psychological analysis, Batman judged from all sides, Batman tossed into the media newshole. (The Internet wasn't around when Miller wrote the story, but could be used to great effect here.)

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jul/09/27547/

Why should this be the next Batman movie? Well, the moral ambiguity is certainly in season, especially when the story brings Bats up against Superman, here toiling as a government stooge. But the best reason, I think, is because, while Nolan is a gifted director, his first love is not for characters, but for stories - plots. As a result, Christian Bale joins the long list of actors who have played Batman without making Batman their own. (Will anybody argue that Bale's Batman persona is not completely overshadowed by his Batman voice?) Michael Keaton, star of Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns, came close, if only because he was such an iconoclastic, idiosyncratic choice. But so far, only Adam West has created an indelible Batman, and he did it in a jokey TV series. The time is ripe for a riveting big-screen embodiment - a Batman that has more people talking about Batman than about his villainous counterparts - and Liam Neeson has only so many years left in him.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.