When it comes to 2010s impact on movies, there are so many tropes that were never used prior to 2008’s magnificent The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan reinvented not only the way blockbuster movies were shot, but the way they were written, too.
Many filmmakers in the years since have used The Dark Knight as a blueprint for action movies, superhero movies, and, surprisingly enough, even horror movies, and these are the biggest culprits.
Skyfall (2012)
Javier Bardem’s performance as Silva is one of the Skyfall related to the villain’s plan. Putting aside the fact that he somehow owns his very own gigantic island for seemingly no reason, the convoluted narrative revolves around the villain intentionally getting arrested only to escape, which sounds extremely familiar. Silva’s plan is a carbon copy of the Joker’s, and we imagine that, without The Dark Knight, Skyfall would be completely different.
Punisher: War Zone (2008)
Punisher: War Zone was influenced by The Dark Knight in one of the more unique ways, as it wasn’t influenced by the narrative or the characters, but Hans Zimmer’s musical score. According to the director Lexi Alexander, the studio replaced the original musical score, which apparently had a more “B-movie feel” with more action movie sounding compositions, and it was a direct reaction to The Dark Knight’s success. Unfortunately, the music didn’t help Punisher from becoming one of the worst superhero box office bombs.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Being another villain who was directly influenced by the Joker, things it got wrong.
Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)
Unsurprisingly, The Dark Knight’s influence on movies extends beyond superhero and action flicks, as director Nightmare On Elm Street remake.
Bayer claimed that he told the entire cast and crew that they need to “do with Freddy what Nolan did with Batman,” but, in doing that, the director completely misunderstood the source material he was adapting and ended up making one of the worst horror remakes ever made.
Man Of Steel (2013)
Nolan might have penned Man of Steel’s screenplay, but the movie didn’t quite land as well as The Dark Knight. The Batman movie inspired millions of gritty reboots, and Superman was no exception. Batman is inherently dark, but Superman is much more positive, and the symbol on his chest even means hope, so the darker and more realistic approach to the character didn’t fit at all.
Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)
Winter Soldier's obvious 70s-action/thriller influence is one of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier is easily the most realistic and grounded movie in the whole of the MCU. With its constant twists throughout the flick, it also harkens back to The Dark Knight.
Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)
Being possibly the most offensive uses of villains purposefully getting themselves locked up in a completely illogical scheme, look no further than Hitman: Agent 47, an adaptation of the video game franchise and sequel to 2008’s Hitman.
Though there were a few things the movie did better than its predecessor, Agent 47 is another movie that has been influenced by The Dark Knight for the wrong reasons. Though The Dark Knight is one of the greatest movies ever made, the whole “I’m not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me” shtick that the movie influenced is insufferable.
Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)
After the muddy and gray result of Man Of Steel, Zack Snyder wasn’t done messing around with DC characters. Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice is a polarising 2.5 hours and one of the worst Zack Snyder movies, with every fine detail being praised or criticized by fans. Still, the thing that most fans can agree on is its approach to Batman.
As Nolan made it that everything to do with Batman has a logical explanation, from the throat cancer-sounding voice to the tank-like Batmobile, and Snyder continued this approach. Being the first live-action movie in which Batman has glow-up eyes, Snyder gave a very grounded explanation for it, as he did for many other of Batman’s abilities.
War Of The Planet Of The Apes (2017)
All of the 2010s Planet Of the Apes movies were clearly influenced by Nolan’s Batman trilogy, as both movies are trying to bring an ultimately silly idea into the modern-day and ground it in some sort of feasible reality. But, best Matt Reeves movie.
Birdman (2014)
Though Michael Keaton, the star of the exquisite commentary on the movie industry, Birdman, once starred as Batman in the 1989 movie directed by Tim Burton, it was actually The Dark Knight that influenced his role in the movie.
Keaton plays an actor trying to escape his connection to Birdman, a superhero he once played in a movie years ago. When in character as Birdman, Keaton’s delivery of his lines is very much in keeping with Christian Bale’s approach to the throaty voice of Christian Bale in The Dark Knight.
