10 Reasons The Dark Knight Is Still The Best Comic-Book Movie Ever
5. The Practical Effects
Most comic-book movies are fun, sure, but you never get the sense that our heroes are in any real danger - we can tell they're fighting a tennis-ball on a stick in some Hollywood soundstage. The Dark Knight, on the other hand, relentlessly used practical effects in almost every scene - and you'd be surprised at how little CGI is actually in the film.
The average comic-book feature has between 1,000 and 2,000 VFX shots; The Dark Knight has 650. That truck flip? It was real. That hospital explosion? Real. The Tumbler and the Batpod? Both real, working and driveable. This lends the movie stakes - you can tell that everything is happening in-camera, and that makes the danger seem real. As a result, the tension is heightened, and the film is more engaging.
Not many blockbuster productions use practical effects in the way The Dark Knight did, and in this sense, it was a landmark. The sets and the equipment were tangible, and that gave the actors something to work with - consequently, the performances were a cut above the cheesy, forced delivery you tend to see in more CGI-heavy pictures. The decision to head down the practical route had positive ripples across the entire production, and that's not something most other comic-book movies can claim.