"The Dark Knight" = Sci-Fi?

[J_UNTITLED]

Click here to read io9.com's article on why they are of the opinion that last year's "The Dark Knight" (and anything Batman-related in general) is just as much science fiction as it is anything else.


Agree or disagree?

[ShelbyGT500]

I can see Batman being Sci-fi IF you take the comic book context. As for the movies tho they are not sci-fi. Thats why they are in the action section of the movie aisle's in the stores. The movies are part of the comic book genre and that is part of the action category.

You could go as far to say the late 90's movies had a lot of sci-fi in them but to call The Dark Knight sci-fi is just wrong. Crime drama is a bigger stretch for TDK but still a lot closer than calling it sci-fi.

[assydingo]

the elements are there but very under played

[J_UNTITLED]

Actually read the article as it does make some potentially-valid points about both "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight."

[Jmills]

I think icy one made a good point

This article is really a stretch. But I feel compelled to point out some things:

1) Just because Batman is a superhero does not "connect him to all that stuff." Being a superhero does not qualify you for science fiction. Words have meaning, you can't just willy nilly decide what they mean to you.

2) The middle part of this article, everything between "You can strip all that away, but it creeps back in" and "He uses tons of improbable gadgets - including his suit" is exclusively about the comics, and not about TDK. It doesn't do anything for your claim that TDK is science fiction.

3) At no point in TDK does science ever play a starring role. The plot is not fueled by science, and your argument that his suit is science fiction is dubious. Iron Man's suit is science fiction because it explores the "what if" nature of technology and whether or not creating the suit crosses a moral/legal boundary. Batman's suit is simply an accessory. If at any point you feel like his suit is what makes the movie, you missed out. Also on this topic, a lot of movies have science elements in them but are not science fiction. The Batpod is no more science fiction than James Bond's car in Casino Royale with the defib and CSI toxin scanner. Is Casino Royale science fiction? No.

4) The villains are not science fictional. There's no real science exploration behind the fear gas in Begins. It exists, and it makes people afraid, but there's nothing about why it works, or how it works - you are simply expected to believe that it works. It's not science, its a plot device. There's no science fiction origin to Crane. He's just crazy. Ras is not science fiction. Ninjas are not science fiction. The "kill the world to save it" is not science fiction, although it does appear as a cliche in many science fiction films. So do people in masks, but Eyes Wide Shut is not science fiction either.

Check out wikipedia for the concept of science fiction. A large part of the definition relies on the speculative nature of the story. The only speculation in TDK is "What if a traumatized rich orphan decided to wear a rubber suit and drive a big ass tank through a major metropolis?"

Comic book Batman? Science fiction.
TDK Batman? Not science fiction.

[DAROCKNESSMONSTER]

i would mostly disagree.

[STARSCREAM]

WTF, no way.