Chapter 628: A Severely Overrated Character

Stepping out of the screening hall, Stephen Carragher checked the time. It was almost ten at night. He quickened his pace, but he just couldn't move fast—there were simply too many people in the theater!

Compared to when he had caught a movie here last weekend evening, the crowd in the theater had nearly tripled.

Stephen Carragher knew exactly why. These people flocked to the theater for the exact same reason he had: to watch The Dark Knight, the film hyped into a massive cultural phenomenon.

Thinking back on the movie he had just seen, Stephen shook his head. Such a superficial superhero flick about good and evil fell drastically short of his favorite film, The Godfather.

Shrugging, Stephen pushed his way out of the theater and headed toward his nearby apartment.

In his eyes, this was the deepest film that superficial popcorn director Duke Rosenberg had ever made, but placed next to The Godfather, it instantly paled in comparison.

After all, The Godfather had always held the number-one spot on the IMDB TOP list!

Over the years, his beloved The Godfather hadn't gone without challengers. Duke Rosenberg's The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King had even seized the top spot for a while. But time was the ultimate test. That film ultimately proved no match for The Godfather, surrendering the throne two years ago.

Dethroning Duke Rosenberg and The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King from the top of the IMDB list remained a point of immense pride for hardcore fans of The Godfather.

Even after returning home, washing up, and getting ready for bed, Stephen was still thinking about The Dark Knight. The movie wasn't a masterpiece, but it wasn't terrible either. At the very least, it was much better than Duke Rosenberg's previous films that relied entirely on visual effects...

Drowsily, he drifted off to sleep. The next day was Saturday, so he didn't have to work, and he didn't drag himself out of bed until nearly nine.

After a simple breakfast, Stephen sat down at his computer. Once it booted up, he habitually logged into IMDB and clicked on the TOP250 list. His sleepy eyes instantly snapped wide open.

The Godfather had fallen to second place. This wasn't entirely surprising; in the past, newly released blockbusters had occasionally snatched the top spot for a brief period.

Seeing The Dark Knight in first place wasn't shocking either. After all, Duke Rosenberg had a massive army of mindless fanboys across the country.

However, the perfect ten-point rating next to The Dark Knight was an absolute eyesore.

The film had been out for two days, and over fifty thousand users had rated it. Yet it was still holding a perfect ten?

Stephen faintly felt threatened. This had never happened on IMDB before. For a film to maintain a perfect ten nearly two days after its release was simply inconceivable. If this trend continued, it would genuinely threaten The Godfather's ranking.

Frowning at the screen for a moment, Stephen temporarily put his mind at ease. It would probably only take a few days. As more and more people saw The Dark Knight, the rating would naturally drop.

Still, he clicked into The Dark Knight's movie page.

Ignoring that glaring perfect score, he scrolled down to the review section. He was instantly greeted by a chorus of praises sung by what he considered mindless fanboys.

"A masterpiece, no explanation needed..."

"Absolutely perfect. Not to be missed..."

"Is it possible to give this a twenty out of ten..."

Seeing this, Stephen furrowed his brow even tighter. Initially, he had merely considered The Dark Knight a mediocre film, but now he was beginning to genuinely loathe it.

The comment that followed deepened his disgust even further.

"The Dark Knight has established its dominance as a king, ranking first on the IMDB list with a perfect ten. It looks like it won't be budging for a very long time. Duke Rosenberg is the undisputed box office king of Hollywood."

"In my opinion, the only person in Hollywood right now who can challenge Duke's commercial box office status is James Cameron. The former 'king of the world' is currently preparing a new film, though rumor has it that Duke has invested in it... As for the other A-list and B-list directors, I think it's basically hopeless."

"Steven Spielberg is getting old. He still wields immense power, but it's hard for him to create another massive sensation. David Fincher has yet to produce a film that truly proves itself both artistically and commercially. Ridley Scott certainly churns out great works, but he has never possessed that peerless aura of a king. Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi still can't be called masters in terms of creativity. Roland Emmerich now seems to take pleasure in churning out trash. Jan de Bont and Martin Campbell are stuck languishing in the B-list. Brian De Palma is at the end of his rope. Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola? Give me a break..."

Seeing that last sentence, a fiery rage erupted within Stephen. What did they mean, 'give me a break'? Francis Coppola was the director of the legendary The Godfather!

Stephen slammed his fist down hard on the computer desk. Grabbing the mouse, he immediately slapped The Dark Knight with a rock-bottom one-point rating. If the site allowed it, he absolutely would have given it a zero!

But he wasn't done yet. He clicked into the review box, his fingers flying rapidly across the keyboard.

"The Dark Knight is an entirely and severely overrated piece of work!"

At that moment, Stephen's heart was brimming with sheer malice toward the film.

"Take the film's most captivating character—the Joker, portrayed by Heath Ledger. The Dark Knight is wildly overrated primarily because this character is wildly overrated."

"Setting aside acting skills, what kind of character is the Joker in the movie? Logically speaking, he's a character designed to have absolutely no weaknesses. The underworld can't dig up his background, and the police have no clue about his methods. Logically, this makes zero sense. If you just ignore that, sure, you can flawlessly hype up the Joker. He is untouchable, he embodies absolute darkness, he is the ultimate villain of Gotham City, putting the antagonists of every other movie to shame."

"No one knows who the Joker is, what his past is like, what he loves, or what he fears. No one can find a single trace of this information, which is completely nonsensical. Since no one knows a thing about him, no one knows his weaknesses. He lacks nothing; henchmen come and go at his beck and call, and he casually burns massive piles of cash. No matter what his ultimate goal is, he possesses every resource he could ever want. Therefore, he's a perfect villain—one who is technically impossible to defeat."

"Because of this, no matter how brilliant the Joker seems, how fascinating his methods are, or how exquisite his psychological warfare is, the fundamental reason is that he was hard-coded that way. His character design inherently makes him perfect—he doesn't organically become this compelling through actual plot development."

"If a character with this exact setup were the protagonist and did good deeds, he would just be Superman—or a flawless, unassailable version of the White Knight, Harvey Dent, right out of The Dark Knight itself. The only reason we're amazed is that this heavily contrived character was tossed into the role of the villain instead."

"Finally, did the Joker actually succeed?"

"The Joker failed completely and utterly. His meticulously planned scenario where the people on the two ferries would slaughter each other never came to pass, forcing him to furiously attempt to detonate the bombs himself. This exposes the root of his failure: it clearly demonstrates that the city itself possesses a DNA that rejects the chaos he craves. People's hearts are simply not as ugly as the Joker imagined."

"Secondly, many believe that the Joker successfully corrupted Gotham City's White Knight, Harvey Dent. They view this as his greatest triumph, assuming that this act would plunge the entire city into despair."

"In reality, the citizens couldn't care less about Harvey Dent. The film never once demonstrates that Dent was universally respected by the city or seen as a savior in the public's eyes. This so-called 'White Knight' was purely Bruce Wayne's one-sided wishful thinking; even Gordon didn't care much for him. Furthermore, much of Harvey Dent's persona was just grandstanding. His darker tendencies were evident early on, and it was only Batman who pulled him back from the edge."

"Therefore, the Joker's victory was merely a blow to Batman's wishful thinking, rather than the ultimate triumph the villain had actually been pursuing from the start."

"In summary, the Joker's character is overrated, his victory is overrated, and the Joker is the very core of this film. Therefore, while the movie is somewhat passable, it is absolutely not a masterpiece that stands head and shoulders above the rest. It certainly doesn't deserve a perfect ten or multiple rewatches."

"I think the Joker's famous line 'why so serious' isn't him warning his opponents—it's him telling the audience not to think too hard. If you watch this movie, you absolutely have to ignore the details, or else you'll find logical plot holes everywhere. Duke Rosenberg fully exposed his glaring lack of narrative skill here!"

Having posted the review, Stephen felt a wave of relief, as if his pent-up rage had finally found an outlet. He was confident that many other fans of The Godfather would also be dissatisfied with The Dark Knight. They would surely step forward in anger just as he had, eager to defend the fairness and integrity of the IMDB rankings.

Of course, he conveniently ignored the old rumors he had heard about paid online shills manipulating IMDB scores.

As the film continued its theatrical run, batch after batch of survey data was delivered from Warner Brothers into Duke's hands. Just as he had anticipated, The Dark Knight was still facing pushback from certain demographics. Even within his own fanbase, there were many who simply did not like the film.

According to the survey data, the people most dissatisfied after watching The Dark Knight weren't the arthouse crowd or the fans who loved deep analysis and lore-hunting. Instead, the pushback came heavily from fans of traditional superhero movies.

A specific quote highlighted by the CinemaScore Company perfectly encapsulated the sentiments of this demographic.

"People go to the movies with certain expectations, especially for commercial blockbusters. The Dark Knight shattered every single expectation I had for a superhero film. The death of the female lead, Rachel, alone was completely unacceptable!"