Could Chris Nolan's exit be good for BATMAN?

Batman-on-Film has a pretty good track record with Bat-rumors, and now they've dropped a doozy. Despite the blockbuster success of the first two Dark Knight films (click the image at left to buy The Dark Knight (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy), director and co-writer Chris Nolan is apparently done with the franchise. His planned third film reportedly featured Heath Ledger's Joker quite heavily, and Nolan can't imagine recasting the role now that Ledger's dead. It's also worth noting that Christian Bale has repeatedly said that he'll bow out of the series when Nolan does.

"The death of Heath Ledger in January of 2008 rocked Mr. Nolan hard," a source tells the site. "So hard that Chris was convinced that TDK was going to be it for him and Batman on film."

I found a lot to admire in Nolan's take on Batman. But Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, impressive though they are, are hardly perfect. Both films run long, and cram in too many villains. Batman Begins was by far the more scattered of the two, but The Dark Knight would've been a lot stronger if the Two Face stuff had been its own movie. Harvey Dent's descent into madness was very dramatic, but it felt like an anticlimax after the twists and turns of the Joker plot.

The Batman franchise has evolved quite a bit since Burton's film 20 years ago. We've seen Burton's goth cartoon version of Gotham City, Joel Schumacher's campy, Vegas version, Nolan's more realistic, earthbound version. Now it could be interesting to see a new version of Batman at the movies, perhaps bringing back some of the dark whimsy from the Burton days. The Dark Knight is almost inarguably the best of the Batman films. But is it the best that a Batman movie can be? Let's find out.



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