10 Reasons The Dark Knight Is Still The Best Comic-Book Movie Ever
9. It Can Be Enjoyed As A Standalone Movie
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.