It is a fact universally known that the art of Christopher Nolan holds a certain nuance of complexity that is seldom easy for the common mind to grasp. But the artistically inclined people of a caliber such as Robert Downey Jr. don’t often come out and speak of the difficulties endured in order to understand the depth of each of Nolan’s masterpieces, but it does happen every once in a while.
And just as RDJ launched a golden age of comic book movies, Nolan too ushered in a new era of comic book adaptations – one that was as deeply entrenched in realism as it was in the human element of a superhero and the evolution of his identity from a man to a symbol.
Robert Downey Jr. Dissed Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight
Of the three chapters that make up the Dark Knight trilogy, the sophomore one was by far the best and greatest of the lot. Christopher Nolan‘s mastery, artistry, and grand vision were on full display for the world to see and the sheer perfection of the film was rooted so deep in every word and action of the plot that there was absolutely nothing left for the critics to tear apart. At its core, The Dark Knight presented as an ode to the love story of Batman and the Joker and it was all tied beautifully together by the immortalized Heath Ledger.
However, the story it seems was not as easy to follow for those not immersed in the artistic craft and mannerisms of Nolan. In an interview, while promoting the 2008 film Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr. claimed:
“I loved ‘The Prestige’ but didn’t understand ‘The Dark Knight.’ […] ‘The Dark Knight’ is like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and scriptwriting and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I didn’t understand ‘The Dark Knight.’ I still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and, in the end, they need him to be a bad guy.
I’m like, ‘I get it – this is so high brow and so f–king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get many things that are so smart. You know what? F–k DC Comics. That’s all I have to say, and that’s where I’m really coming from.”
The year also marked a milestone for Downey Jr. as it was also the year he laid the foundation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man. The film not only marked a solid comeback for the actor into mainstream Hollywood but made him the keeper and godfather of the MCU moving forward.
Legacy of The Dark Knight v Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man
While the legacy of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight endures because of the standalone trilogy within which the world of Batman is enmeshed, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man is one among many, made less durable because of the far-removed world within which the Marvel Cinematic Universe lies today. The multiversal epic has made it harder to care for the integral characters who once lay at the center of the MCU and helped it grow from the ground up.
Despite the decades’ worth of films and series spawned in the aftermath of Iron Man‘s success, the Robert Downey Jr. film remains by far the best just because of its elemental importance as the first and the original. Now, exactly 15 years after the events of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, Robert Downey Jr. and Christopher Nolan come together to present Oppenheimer – the latest in Nolan’s grand epic masterpieces, which premieres in theatres on 21 July 2023.
Iron Man and the Dark Knight trilogy are available for streaming on Disney+ and MAX respectively.
Source: Movie Hole
