Will the Nolaverse eventually no longer be considered 'dark'?

[Steel Inquisitor]

All things considered, the Nolan films probably have the overall SUNNIEST view of Bruce/Batman/Gotham out of anything. He has a clear purpose. He has a specific endgame. He retires happily, as successful as a ninja-dracula private detective working probono could possibly be. Every other version has Bruce sticking with it until old age or death. Nolan allows Bruce and Selina to run off into the sunset.

Nolan's Batman was the first live action modern Batman I could accept giving hope to people in a modern context. Burton's was frightening, and Schumacher's was a walking cartoon.

[bat39]

It's contextual, and it's a cultural threshold. Batman '89 was considered extremely dark. You look at it now, it looks like it's just the goth'd up reboot of the Adam West show, same as Tim Burton's approach to Alice in Wonderland or Dumbo.

The Nolan films were never especially violent. They were intense, particularly The Dark Knight, and they were frightening in the sense of plausibility of anarchic terrorism at home. Unfortunately this has just become sort of normal now, we're more accustomed to school shootings or random shootings or tons of everyday intense violence.... if only our real villains were as upfront about things as Joker... as slippery and supernatural as he is, at least he's just one guy.

All things considered, the Nolan films probably have the overall SUNNIEST view of Bruce/Batman/Gotham out of anything. He has a clear purpose. He has a specific endgame. He retires happily, as successful as a ninja-dracula private detective working probono could possibly be. Every other version has Bruce sticking with it until old age or death. Nolan allows Bruce and Selina to run off into the sunset.


In conclusion -- it's not especially dark in the way that the word implies. It's about characters who are in darkness, but the films itself are uplifting and optimistic, if in a sort of cockeyed way.

He's definitely one of the most psychologically healthy portrayals of the character.

No one can accuse this Bruce Wayne of being as insane as the villains. Or of having an identity crisis and being consumed by the Batman persona.

One of my most defining images of Keaton's Bruce was him sitting in darkness in his study at Wayne Manor and suddenly springing to life when the Batsignal goes up...as though he literally spends his nights brooding in a room waiting to be Batman again! You can't really imagine Bale's Bruce doing that.

And you're right - Nolan's is one of the few versions where Bruce not only hangs up the cowl for good, but does so on a positive note. Even on classic Earth Two, he went into semi-retirement and only gave up the cowl after Selina was murdered (and he later puts it on one last time and ends up getting killed himself). Batman Beyond has him give up the cowl because he used a gun, and arguably he continues to remain Batman in his old age using Terry as a proxy.