The Dark Knight is the best superhero film ever made, though. It raised the bar for all other superhero movies.

Now that is not to say that Nolan’s films aren’t greatly superior to the previous four – they are – but they clearly are all part of the same franchise.

Come on people, Bernard is obviously just winding everybody up. The crew of Batman Begins was repeatedly saying it had nothing to do with the previous movies in the promotional interviews during that time. it’s not even a discussion.

Second main complaint: Bale’s “growly” Bat-Voice. It doesn’t sound menacing; it sounds like Ethel Merman or something. Much better to dub in the voices they use in Batman TAS or Batman Beyond TAS—now, THAT’S a good Bat-Voice!

Oh, and as for best sequel–don’t think so. It’s not even the best superhero sequel; my vote for that goes to Spider-Man 2!!!

STill and all, TDK is a pretty good movie!

I’m not a Star Wars fan but if you think of Empire as a deconstruction of the heroic myth used in the rest of the series it is particularly clever. Not the greatest thing ever since all of those flaws are still there but clever.

A “downside” to this view is that it makes the rest of the series that much worse particularly Return of the Jedi since it makes a point of throwing away all of that deconstruction for the sake of grabbing at the standard heroic arc again.

As for Dark Knight, give me a year and then I’ll let you know my answer. It’s too soon still.

This I can’t even slightly agree with. The Schumacher Gotham might just be Burton’s with a bunch of neon and florescent paint strewn all over it, but Nolan’s bears no resemblance at all to either, unless the monorail pushes it over into the same “cartoony” realm, which I’m not prepared to grant at all. I’d argue that the urban backdrops are totally different in look and feel, with the name “Gotham” being the only thing in common, unless you count being generally urban.
I’d have to say that “Begins” was a hard enough reboot for me to side with those who want to call this a sequel, not the sixth in the previous series.

In any case, I realize we could go back and forth about this forever, which would quickly get tedious. But I do think that, if nothing else, the radically different take on The Joker in TDK is a signal that is an entirely different Bat-world than we saw in the 80s and 90s.

I did consider including Adam West’s film and Phantasm, but felt that they stood outside the series – rather like the first Casino Royale or Never Say Never Again, do to the James Bond series.

The Burton/Schumacher/Nolan films share a common visual style – the costume, vehicles and hardware look much the same. The Gotham City’s other-worldly/cartoony quality is constant throughout these six films, as is Batman’s characterisation.

Now that is not to say that Nolan’s films aren’t greatly superior to the previous four – they are – but they clearly are all part of the same franchise.

By-the-by, if we did count TDK as the eighth in the series, then it would have to stand comparison with ‘Live and Let Die’. Now, Bale and Ledger are great actors, but they really pale beside Roger Moore’s eyebrows.

To me, TDK is very clearly the second in a particular series of Batman movies. It’s not like, when they were developing it, they thought to themselves “Well, we better not do anything Schumacher or Burton or Leslie H. Martinson already did.”

Also, I’m not sure it is fair to compare The Dark Knight with straight sequels. It’s the sixth in the series afterall. It has got to be much harder to come up with something new the sixth time round, than the second.

However if Selective Selleck had said “The Dark Knight’ is the best sixth in the series film ever made”, it would be no less controversial.

Lets see: ‘Halloween 6, The Curse of Michael Myers’, ‘Friday the Thirteenth pt. 6′, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, ‘Rocky Balboa’, ‘Revenge of the Sith and/or Return of the Jedi’. I’m sure there are others, but even this short list throws up a couple of gems.

So how about re-editing Selective Selleck to read, “The Dark Knight’ is the best sixth in the series film ever made, except where James Bond gets married or Rocky goes the distance at 60 years of age”,

(honestly, there’s no theatre in my town…)