10 Famous Movies Whose Genres Everybody Always Seems To Get Wrong
5. The Dark Knight
Mistaken Genre: Superhero Movie What It Actually Is: Crime Drama/Thriller As a sequel to Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight follows Batman (Christian Bale), one of the most famous and popular comic book superheroes of all-time, as he defends the fictitious Gotham City against a mysterious terrorist, the Joker (Heath Ledger). The movie was a critical and box office success, even netting Ledger a posthumous Academy Award for his performance. As a result, many (including The Guardian newspaper) have dubbed The Dark Knight the greatest superhero movie of all-time. And yet, in terms of its sensibilities and maturity, the Dark Knight stands so far apart from other movies based on comic book characters - i.e. the Avengers, any Superman film, Iron Man, Spider-Man - that I think dubbing it a superhero movie cheapens the experience somewhat. Yes, the films star is without a doubt a superhero, but where are the sequences of over-the-top fantasy typically found in other movies based on comic books (or as the Joker would say, Why so serious?)? The Dark Knight is so gritty and realistic it even stands out on its own from the other two entries in Nolans Batman trilogy. For example, theres something very comic-book-esque about Scarecrow's ability to make people hallucinate their worst fears in Batman Begins, and the entire premise of The Dark Knight Rises centers on Banes grandiose, credulity-bending takeover of Gotham.
Mark is a professional writer living in Brooklyn and is the founder of the Chasing Amazing Blog, which documents his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Talk podcast. He also pens the "Gimmick or Good?" column at Comics Should Be Good blog.
