Comment on The Dark Knight, Watchmen, and the perils of reviewing by Kaj

“The White Knight might get tainted, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still represent hope.” Only through false representation and lies. So all he really represents is false hope. Meanwhile, the real hero may sacrifice himself for the greater good to some extent, but he’s still somewhat of a fascist that thinks he and he alone knows what’s best, never mind civil rights or liberties, while he inspires the worst in people, rather than the best. Oh, and Harvey doesn’t just “get tainted”, his whole complexion changes from white to black. Everything he stood for and believed in gets destroyed by a madman who is not out to prove that people aren’t fundamentally good, but that this foundation can be rocked to it’s core and become completely eroded. Just like he did in Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke. He destroys a man’s soul, and just because elsewhere, some people do not kill each other, humanity is good and saved? Speaking of Moore, I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to say with the Watchmen comparison. You compare two entirely different mediums, and take the absolute top of one medium as a standard for another. I’m not sure what you’re trying to do there. A comparison between both movies (which nobody will be able to do until Watchmen is released next year) would make sense, or a comparison between the comic and certain Batman comics. But this, although interesting, I’m not so sure proves anything. What really confuses me though, is that after your praise of the depth of one comic, in the next paragraph you state that comic-books cannot be ‘adult’, because according to you, movies based on comics cannot be critiqued as ‘adult’, even though you’re statements about Watchmen contradict that, and it makes me wonder how you feel about movies like Ghost World or American Splendor: are they not ‘adult’? I’m looking forward to your next piece. “TDK wasn’t anything strikingly new or anything but the way it combines its elements is utterly gripping.” Well, that never has stopped Birth of a Nation from gaining a classic status.