No. 5: Character Mythos
Like I already mentioned Chris Nolan did an excellent job bringing the concept of Batman down to earth and giving it a strong base in reality, but this was accomplished at a cost. The rich, over the top, Gotham's most wanted mythology of our favorite psycho baddies was sacrificed. This is mostly true with Bane. The aforementioned pointless mask/speech issue, the Irish boxer inspired accent, ties to The Brotherhood of Shadows and Ra's al Ghul...none of these are part of Bane's primary comic book history. Bane's 3 most substantial characteristics are his South American origin, luchador inspired mask, and his use of venom. The dangerous chemical super-steroid which gives its user temporary super strength. All of this was missing from TDKR.
The Joker...now just a moment. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was truly brilliant. But again, so many aspects of the Joker's history and what defines him were absent. Most notably the bleached skin, and controversial relationship with other characters like Harley Quinn, Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and Jason Todd (2nd Robin). The DCEU however makes direct references to Jason Todd and his accurately tragic history with the Joker. Despite his debatably awkward tattoos, Jared Leto's Joker is closer to the Joker most of us grew up with. Even if you prefer Ledger's performance.
Allusions are indeed made of a Robin in TDK with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character Gotham Police Sgt. Robin John Blake. Though Robin has never been a police officer and that has never been his name. First time viewing the film I thought the last name Blake could be a reference to Tim Drake (3rd Robin) but that's quite a stretch. Of course we can't overlook that we also have here a Robin who's chosen superhero name is the same as his legally given first name, which would be a bigger secret identity misstep than Clark Kent's glasses.
The most difficult for me to accept however, is resulting from personal opinion and love I have of the character...Two-Face. Two-Face is in my top 3 favorite Batman villains along with Joker and Deathstroke. The most intriguing detail about Harvey Dent are his struggles with his inner duality. The deep-seated anger and guilt festering inside him that was unleashed when he was disfigured and this creates two extremely deep, rich personalities each with their own wants and needs. This gives Dent a dynamic that is truly unique in the world of comics. Even the "Batman: The Animated Series" 90's cartoon did an excellent job displaying this. Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face is Two-Face for what seems like about 2 days and is driven by the fact that his girlfriend died and wants revenge on the ones who didn't save her. Perhaps Heath Ledger's show stealing performance didn't leave much room for Eckhart's portrayal to develop properly. Whatever the reason, it was a watered down version with generic motivations.
Let me be perfectly clear. The inaccurate comic origins of TDK trilogy do not make them poorly made films. Yet, considering now that we have also gotten excellently portrayed Suicide Squad characters like Amanda Waller, Deadshot, and Harley Quinn, in the category of staying true to the comics, we have never had a better series of films than the DCEU. With the arguable exception of perhaps one character...Batman.
