8. The Supporting Cast and Villains
A staple of the Dark Knight Trilogy would be the ability to attract great talent for the supporting and villainous roles. Batman Begins was bolstered by the presence of Liam Neeson as the major villain Ra's Al Ghul. This role could largely be credited for re-establishing Neeson as a bankable action star. Rutger Hauer and Tom Wilkinson also gave gravitas to smaller roles. This trend would continue throughout the series with ancillary roles filled by the likes of Eric Roberts, William Fitchner, Nestor Carbonell, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew Modine, Anne Hathaway, and Maggie Gyllenhaal (sorry, Katie). One of the many errors in some of the previous Batman films was the cartoonish nature in which the villains were illustrated. Villains in The Dark Knight Trilogy were written as intelligent characters with real motivations that were void of the camp found in previous characters. In addition to Neeson, the other Dark Knight Trilogy villains were portrayed by equally capable actors in Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Aaron Eckhart, Tom Hardy, and Marion Cotillard. While the majority of these villains were written with real motivations and without being over the top, there was one exception...