The year 2012 was an important year for The Caped Crusader, mostly having to do with the release of The Dark Knight Rises: The greatly anticipated finale of The Dark Knight Trilogy. Why was it named The Dark Knight Trilogy? Why, that was because of The Dark Knight: The greatest comic book film ever put to screen. A film so powerful and significant, it took home an Oscar that year.
The heavily publicized release of The Dark Knight Rises overshadowed another Batman feature coming out that year: The animated direct-to-DVD adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns. Returns directly adapted the graphic novel of the same name, while Rises borrowed storytelling elements from it. It was interesting that we got two Batman features in the same year that were so similar. I found it so interesting that I actually made a video about it way back when, and... I think that my thoughts on Throat Cancer Rises are plainly obvious.
The Dark Knight Rises (a.k.a., Throat Cancer Rises) is a bad movie. Hell, I'll go even farther. It's been almost 20 years: I think it's time to admit that The Dark Knight is a mediocre (at best) movie being carried by one phenomenal performance, and its reputation as the greatest comic book movie ever made has always been held up by hype alone.
Let's rewind the clocks back to 2005 with Batman Begins. Begins laid the foundation for a new Batman film franchise. It adds a new character: Rachel Dawes, obviously this movie's version of Andrea Beaumont. And just like in Mask of the Phantasm, Begins ends with Bruce realizing they can't be together, and they move on with their lives separately.
Cut to The Dark Knight, and Bruce is straight-up stalking Rachel. In fact, he spends the vast majority of this movie with horrendous friend-zoned energy. People constantly rag on Batman vs Superman because of Martha; you know, "WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME!?!" And yet, they do this while conveniently forgetting all about, "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, ALFRED! SHE WAS GOING TO PICK ME!!!!!"
And she totally wasn’t. She tried making that crystal clear multiple times. This stink permeates the rest of the trilogy, and makes any themes taken from The Dark Knight Returns seem laughably silly. The involvement of Dent in this love triangle just makes it worse. In fact, calling it a triangle is inaccurate. There's just Dent and Rachel; it's a love line.
Of course, no one thinks about that, if they even noticed it to begin with. Why? Because of Heath Ledger, and his fantastic performance. We all knew it was going to be something special after that first trailer featuring his Joker, and that came out while he was still alive. If anything, his death solidified the hype, and put The Dark Knight into the instant classic category, because not doing so would be disrespectful.
Remember when I said The Dark Knight "took home an Oscar"? It actually took home two. The significant Oscar was for Heath Ledger, given posthumously. Would he still have won it if he hadn't passed away? Who knows, but it's unlikely.
What was the other Oscar for? Best Sound Editing. I never said the production itself wasn't competent, though costume design could’ve spent a tad more time making sure Batman didn’t look like he had a turkey neck and a bobblehead.
Side Note: I'm not saying any of this as a hater. The Dark Knight holds a special place in my heart. When it was being made, I was living and working in the area. Whether it was on Franklin & Van Buren, or Jackson & LaSalle, I was there and it was an awesome experience. It's fun to point out locales and say, "I know where that is!" That doesn't make it a great movie.
Throat Cancer Rises released with all of that hype behind it, and while some were honest about its piss-poor quality, others were still blinded by the hype shades. Worst of all, it overshadowed a fantastic animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns with Robocop as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman. And really, that's the true tragedy to come out of all this.
In 2012, Batman returned. Twice. But only one of them truly rose.