10 Reasons The Dark Knight Is Still The Best Comic-Book Movie Ever

9. It Can Be Enjoyed As A Standalone Movie

MCU Future
Marvel

Nowadays, comic-book movies are steeped in easter eggs and references to other films. At times, watching the latest Marvel feature can make you feel like you skipped comic-book class, and it can quickly become overwhelmingly confusing.

There's something to be said for the pleasure of watching a self-contained story, and The Dark Knight is very much that. It doesn't rely on a suite of other movies to prop up its shortcomings; it is raw, complete, and absolute. It isn't building toward the next entry in a cinematic universe (and at the time, it wasn't even building toward a sequel), and as such, the writing was able to be the best it could be - the filmmakers didn't have to create this story with the next story in mind.

On the other hand, 99% of the comic-book movies released after The Dark Knight rely on you watching a couple of other films first, and this detracts from the enjoyment of each individual film. It's painful to be enjoying a story, only to be suddenly interrupted by a random plot point that exists purely to set up a sequel (see Thor's side-mission in Avengers: Age Of Ultron).

Fortunately for The Dark Knight, it missed the dawn of the cinematic universe, and the movie is all the better for it.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!