The Dark Knight Rises vs. The Avengers
For whatever reason, I’ve been seeing many debates on teh interwebs about which 2012 summer superhero film will be better, The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers. Honestly, I don’t really understand how this is even up for debate, but allow me to give my opinion on the matter.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, The Dark Knight Rises is Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his trilogy of modern Batman films, and the Avengers is a Joss Whedon directed collection of some of the most well-known Marvel characters such as Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America.
From a filmmaking perspective, I think there’s no contest; The Dark Knight Rises will be leaps and bounds better than The Avengers, and here’s why.
Aside from the obvious level of skill the cast and crew of the film possess, The Dark Knight Rises will deliver a great character-driven story with psychological undertones, philosophical exchanges, and some of the best writing in the business. In addition, The Dark Knight Rises’ story will be incredibly surprising. Who would’ve thought the film would take place 8 YEARS after The Dark Knight? The truth is, Christopher Nolan knows how to tell a story. Not a cookie-cutter tale we’ve all seen before, but something truly provocative and unique.
The Avengers will be a fine movie, but I believe it’ll be just that. I’ll most likely end up seeing it at one point or another, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy my time with it. However, more than any other factor, the largest obstacle facing the Avengers is the ridiculous amount of superheroes/celebrities within the film. With Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Nick Fury and god knows who else, all played by A-list actors, the story will almost definitely suffer from too much star power.
I understand the film is an ensemble story. However, very few movies if any can find success when there are a excess of characters on screen, and most end up failing miserably, (Batman & Robin and Spiderman 3 anyone?).
The Avengers will be a movie all about fan service and explosions. Sure it’ll look great, but it’ll lack substance. The main villain, Loki, will most likely be after some artifact with enormous power, and will probably obtain it. The Avengers must then stop him from destroying/ruling the world. You won’t leave the theater feeling that the movie moved or affected you in any way, just that it was an entertaining action flick.
Believe me, I never want any project to fail, whether it be music, books, movies, or video games. I’m simply calling it how I see it, and right now, the Avengers is slated to be a high grossing movie summer blockbuster with little to no lasting impression, whereas the Dark Knight Rises is set to be Christopher Nolan’s swan song to both Batman and cinema.
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below!
– KZ
Kenneth Zink | Composer 
I’ve always been a DC Comic book fan myself and I can’t wait to see TDKR. I think that Dark Knight will do better based on it being Chris Nolan, Christian Bale and the rest of the cast being done with the franchise after this one. I did read that TDKR is based on A Tale of Two Cities and I find that very interesting. I haven’t read Tale of Two Cities since high school and now I want to go back and re-read it based on that.
The Avengers main problem is with the enormous cast. The story is going to be told from Captain America’s point of view. So it will be more like Captain America 2, with more supers. I don’t like the idea of Loki being the bad guy, they could have chosen so many better villains from the mythos. I think the best think Avengers has going for it is Joss Whedon as director. He is someone who knows comics and will do it justice.
Good post as always Kenneth!
Yeah, I’m finding the entire story with Bane leading an uprising against Gotham and the fact that the story is based on A Tale of Two Cities very interesting.
I certainly don’t want any film to fail, but like you said, The Avengers biggest problem is that because they have so many stars, the story and character development will be spread way too thin. They’d have to make a 4-5 hour movie to give proper attention to story and characters, and that’s obviously not an option. I never liked Loki as the villain in Thor, so I doubt I’ll like him in the Avengers.
Thanks for the comment Brian!