Discussion YMMV / TheDarkKnight

Under Franchise Original Sin:

• The runaway success of The Dark Knight was in large part due to its grittiness and lack of camp, and that sort of tone is very well-suited to a character like Batman. Unfortunately, for several years Warner Bros. only learned the first half of that lesson, and many of their later films would be much less well-received by critics and general audiences due to being Darker and Edgier in the hopes of copying this movie's formula, without regard to whether that approach actually worked for the characters in question or not. Once again, Superman is considered to have suffered from this the worst by a fair margin, with the harshest criticisms of the films of the DC Extended Universe being that Supes is barely recognizable as the character, as the films attempt to ape the tone of this one.
• Relatedly, while the film was a huge success in part due to its tone compared to previous superhero films (and especially older Batman films), it also worked largely because it was an intensely focused character study with a lot to say about the two men in the center. The DCEU films are often criticized for aping the film's "tone", but without the intense character focus to help throw the tone into relief and make it clear why these men are the way they are, Batman can just come across as a crazy rich man and the films lack any kind of message or thoughtfulness.

Warner Bros. did try stepping away from The Dark Knight's influence. The end result was The Green Lantern. The Speed Racer movie also convinced Warner Bros. that audiences weren't into brightly-coloured films, leading to a proposed SHAZAM movie getting shelved until the end of the next decade. To overlook that for the sake of calling the DCEU an inferior knockoff seems pretty selective.

I find it funny novel!Joker seemingly traded his CM creds to be a Magnificent Bastard (is that what actually enacting the positive side of chaos by randomly giving a lady a hundred does?).

Drinking Game: take a shot every time The Joker page is linked on the main page. You will die.