Aug
18
Iron Man vs. “The Dark Knight”
Filed Under Blockbusters, Comics, Movies
Today is a slooow day for entertainment news. Last weekend, “Tropic Thunder” bumped “The Dark Knight” from the top spot at the box office. It’s hardly the most newsworthy thing in the world. TDK has been out for a month now. It’s rare for a flick to be #1 for two weeks. Four is almost unheard of nowadays. Fittingly, one of the stars of “Tropic Thunder” — the indispensable Robert Downey Jr. — has panned “The Dark Knight” in an interview with MovieHole.net. Here’s an excerpt from IMDb:
“Downey said that he ‘didn’t get it. … [I] still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character.’ He said that while watching the movie, it dawned on him, ‘I get it. This is so high-brow and so f—ing smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ He then added, ‘You know what? F— DC Comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.’”
I believe this fall, University of Phoenix will begin offering “The Dark Knight” as a major.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that the movie has a bit of a downer ending and steers the character in a direction that isn’t what you’d expect. As I pointed out in my spoiler-filled review, I’m not sure the resolution works all that well. Clearly, it left Downey scratching his head. I do, however, find his negative reaction more than a little humorous, considering how he played the title character in “Iron Man” earlier this summer.
The character of Iron Man owes a lot to Batman. A rich playboy suffers a personal tragedy, designs a super-suit and an arsenal of non-lethal gadgets, and takes on a gallery of colorful rogues. But Iron Man’s alter-ego, Tony Stark, ultimately became an alcoholic in the comics. Marvel has always been more interesting as publisher than the Distinguished Competition in that they have characters with human weaknesses. Their super-powers or what-have-you are more of an affliction than gift. Marvel characters are more psychologically complex than DC characters. In the comics, Batman possess a genius-level intellect, the physique of an Olympic contender, and knowledge of all martial arts. He’s flawless and a bit of a bore. He doesn’t even chase girls. The more recent films have stripped him down a bit, giving him vulnerabilities that he sorely lacks on the comics page.
I don’t think that’s what Downey’s complaining about. Where “Iron Man” addresses global terrorism, war profiteering and personal redemption in a more audience-friendly and populist way (i.e. the good guy wins and the bad guy loses), “The Dark Knight” upends those very same themes, turns the heroes into villains and presents a world where the bad guy and the good guy finish in what amounts to a tie. What’s remarkable about the success of “The Dark Knight” is that it’s a very subversive summer film. Maybe audiences have grown up, or they simply got caught up in hype and walked out of the theater going, “Huh?”
If anything, this summer the DC character became more complex than the Marvel character when translated from the page to the screen. Tony Stark pounds a few drinks in the “Iron Man” movie, but he hasn’t entered “Demon in a Bottle” territory yet. Still, “Iron Man” was a franchise-starter. “The Dark Knight” is a sequel; its prequel, “Batman Begins,” plays things pretty safe, too. It’s quite possible “Iron Man 2″ will take the character to a much darker place as sequels often do. Let’s just hope Downey picks up on what’s happening and doesn’t have to go back to school to understand the script.
-Brad Lohan
Comments
One Response to “Iron Man vs. “The Dark Knight””
Leave a Reply
it’s funny that Robert Downey Jr. said the Dark Knight is too sophisticated when he himself tends to sound so sophisticated