6 Common Misconceptions About The Dark Knight Rises

3. It's Humorless

In any other year, this criticism may not have arisen. However, this was the year that The Avengers came out, a few months before TDKR hit theaters, and that set the bar pretty high when it came to what superhero films could do that summer. We'll get to the box office in a minute; instead I'd like to take a look at another problem lauded at the movie: "It's humorless." TDKR is, simiply, not humorless. Is it chock full of jokes like, say, The Avengers? Absolutely not. But that's like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, both movies are comic book films, but they have completely different goals and are made by people with completely different visions. The Avengers revels in its comic book roots, while Nolan places TDKR solely in reality. The debate about which film is "better" will go on forever, so I won't even try to sway public opinion one way or another. I will simply say that just because this movie isn't as overly funny as the other, doesn't mean it's not funny at all. In fact, there are several moments of levity throughout the film, mostly coming from Bruce's interactions with characters like Selina Kyle and Lucious Fox. Selina is a very funny character, and Lucious is, as usual, always giving funny one liners to Bruce. Alfred gives a few good laughs, and Bane himself is funny at times as well. Though the film definitely has its darker moments and its overall tone comes nowhere close to comedic, calling it humorless suggests that there are no moments of levity at all; which simply isn't true.