Chapter 625: The Dark Knight

Inside the IMAX Cinema in Chicago, James Cameron crossed one arm over his chest and rested his chin in his other hand, countless thoughts flashing through his mind.

Like him, Duke Rosenberg was a quintessential commercial film director. The difference was that Duke was a highly prolific one.

In James Cameron's eyes, The Dark Knight was just as packed with commercial elements. Having watched all of Duke's movies, he could tell that this film, much like The Matrix, achieved a near-perfect blend of commercial appeal and philosophical depth.

Even without paying close attention, he could see the thought-provoking themes the film presented, such as the simplest proposition of all—justice and evil.

Even when evil reached the absolute pinnacle, there remained a legal system and a societal moral force naturally designed to restrict and counter it.

But justice was different.

Justice aligned with the law, and the law often lacked a natural motive to restrain actions rooted in justice. Precisely because justice shared the same demands as law and morality, it wore an extra cloak that clouded human judgment. Law and morality were far less vigilant against it than they were against evil. Therefore, when a person wielding extreme justice lost all self-restraint, the resulting destructive power could be far more terrifying than extreme evil.

As a massive Spider-Man fan and a director who had once wanted to helm a Spider-Man movie, Cameron naturally connected these ideas to superheroes.

This represented the predicament of superheroes. They wielded immense power to dispense extreme justice, but whether that power was abused was constrained solely by the superhero's own moral compass.

In a sound society governed by the rule of law, almost all potential destructive forces were restricted, balanced, and offset by the law. Thus, the superhero—originally born to uphold social justice—paradoxically became the most fragile link in this system. Aside from himself, nothing else could hold him in check.

Pulling his thoughts back, Cameron refocused on the movie.

Batman won his personal war against the Joker, but he lost the battle for Gotham's soul. The consequences of Harvey Dent's fall were severe. To salvage everything, Batman did not hesitate to take the blame for Harvey Dent's murder. He became an object of public scorn and transformed into the true Dark Knight.

The righteous Batman ultimately became a fugitive bearing the sins of another, the corrupted Two-Face was memorialized as a hero, and even the heinous Joker ended up gloating in triumph.

Never before had a superhero movie ended on such a dark note.

Watching Batman limp away into the night, Kyle felt an ache in his heart. Being a superhero really wasn't a job for humans!

The Joker's extreme evil could run rampant, while Batman had to use morality to shackle his extreme justice. He knew his morality was the only safety catch restraining his power. Once he crossed that line, he would likely become no different from the Joker—perhaps even more dangerous.

For the sake of Gotham, Batman could become anyone. And that was exactly what he did.

Having watched movies for so many years, and being a massive Batman fan himself, seeing Batman's retreating figure and recalling the plot he had just witnessed left Kyle deeply moved.

The Joker told Batman, "You complete me."

In Kyle's view, the tragedy was that the exact opposite was true. It was the Joker's existence that completed Batman's.

Because evil reaching the absolute pinnacle could exist independently of extreme justice, but extreme justice could not exist without extreme evil. Justice never gave evil a reason to exist, yet the existence of evil fulfilled justice.

That line really should have been Batman's to the Joker.

A thought suddenly popped into Kyle's head: 'Perhaps that was also what Bush wanted to say to Laden?'

"A righteous man who punishes evil within the framework of the law is hailed as a hero, while a righteous man who possesses power above the law but restrains himself with morality can only be a knight."

A voice muttering to itself drifted over from beside him. "Batman is destined never to be a hero in the world of light. Only when darkness falls can he appear, cautiously and with restraint sweeping away the dark, helplessly becoming a knight born of the shadows."

Kyle nodded and chimed in, "Unrestrained extreme justice is not the blessing of superheroes; it is exactly their original sin."

'To think The Dark Knight could provoke such profound reflection!' he marveled.

The film had reached its very end. Kenneth Turan had detached himself from the plot, choosing instead to analyze it from his own perspective.

Despite all the prior media hype and promotion, it was only after watching The Dark Knight that he truly mourned Heath Ledger's premature death. The man had absolutely nailed the role of the Joker to perfection.

Compared to Heath Ledger's Joker, Jack Nicholson's version was just a "circus clown." That wasn't to say Ledger's acting necessarily surpassed Jack Nicholson's, but rather that Duke Rosenberg's Joker offered far more layers to savor and dissect.

In Christian lore, Satan won the world by capturing human souls, and the Joker operated on that same logic. He had zero interest in money. He had burned a mountainous pile of cash, declaring, "This town deserves a better class of criminal." He had also told Batman, "You ought to know, I don't care about money. I'm not that kind of person, so don't degrade me into one."

What the Joker cared about was forcing his logic upon the world around him.

'A great director establishes a brilliant character, and that character in turn elevates the director's work to even greater heights!'

With that thought in mind, Kenneth Turan joined the people around him in standing up to applaud the film. This absolutely magnificent movie was more than worthy of his ovation.

Inside the IMAX Cinema in Chicago, though a small number of viewers had left early, it did not stop thunderous applause from erupting after the credits finished rolling. However, unlike with Duke's past films, the audience's faces showed a little less excitement and a lot more exhaustion and reflection.

This was a superhero movie that wasn't a superhero movie, but it was absolutely not a popcorn flick!

The vast majority of the audience who finished watching The Dark Knight shared this exact sentiment.

As if too drained by the film's heavy themes, the applause didn't last long before gradually fading out. Countless people walked up to the front row to congratulate Duke and the cast and crew.

"Duke, the IMAX effects are astonishing." Standing opposite him was James Cameron, seemingly still recalling the IMAX shots of The Dark Knight. "The visual impact completely exceeded my expectations."

Duke shook his hand and suggested, "You could consider using this technology in Avatar."

"I was thinking exactly that." James Cameron had clearly made up his mind.

James Cameron had barely left when a tall girl walked over. She extended her hand first. "Congratulations, Duke. Though the movie isn't my preferred genre, it was truly breathtaking."

"Thank you." Duke gently shook Taylor Swift's hand.

With the screening concluded and a brief curtain call finished, Duke led the entire cast and crew into the press conference room, where a massive throng of reporters was already waiting.

The moment the Q&A session began, the reporters aimed their questions squarely at Duke.

A reporter from the New York Times took the lead, asking, "Director Rosenberg, what prompted you to create such a 'humanized' Batman?"

"As everyone knows, in DC comics, Superman is the ideal—he possesses all of humanity's virtues. Batman, on the other hand, is much more human. He doesn't carry the shackles of so many noble sentiments, virtues, and ideals. He is also someone whose moral alignment is difficult to define."

Duke thought for a moment before continuing. "He acts in very human ways, sometimes even with political undertones. This is exactly why I prefer Batman over Superman. Where Batman appears, there is no absolute good or evil, no simple right or wrong, no black and white. I wanted to use this context to explore certain issues—namely that in reality, no one can overstep the law, not even a 'vigilante.'"

As the film's male lead, Christian Bale was also a major focal point for the interviews.

A reporter from the Washington Post asked, "Mr. Bale, as an actor, do you really feel you can find something amidst gorgeous special effects and deafening explosions? For two films in a row, no less?"

Seeming entirely oblivious to the hidden provocation, Bale simply replied, "The main reason is that I enjoy the experience of working with Duke. Furthermore, Duke perfectly understands that you cannot build a movie out of just special effects and explosions. To be exact, the story is still the foundation here, and there just happen to be many spectacular interludes sprinkled throughout the process. Do you see what I mean? Even if a project has all the elements I just mentioned, whether it can actually become a movie ultimately depends on the director."

"What makes you so confident?"

Having previously hit a soft wall with Duke, the reporters shifted their focus to Christian Bale. "Will there really be a third Batman movie?"

"Batman Begins was the start. We created it together, and while I couldn't control the outcome, I was part of the entire process. When I first learned the story that The Dark Knight would tell, I strongly hoped that Batman could conclude as at least a trilogy."

At this point, Christian Bale glanced over at Duke. "The question now is, if there really is a third installment, will Duke Rosenberg still be the director? Because for me, I simply cannot imagine what a Batman movie would look like without Duke!"

The premiere of The Dark Knight was over. While it had elicited a powerful response from the opening night audience, whether it would truly succeed still depended on whether the broader market would accept it.