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I keep seeing people call The Dark Knight a 'slow burn' and that is just wrong | No Filter Movie Takes - Free To Speak

I keep seeing people call The Dark Knight a 'slow burn' and that is just wrong

Honestly, I saw it opening night in 2008 at a packed theater in Chicago and it was a roller coaster from minute one. People throw around 'slow burn' for any movie that has like 10 minutes of talking between explosions. The Dark Knight is literally non-stop action and tension, the Joker is in every other scene causing chaos. I think because it's deep and has themes people confuse that with being slow. It's not slow, it's just smart and dense. Have you noticed this with other movies too, where the description just doesn't fit what actually happens on screen?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron_mitchell2mo ago

I gotta disagree hard on "non-stop action." I watched it again last week and there are long stretches where it's just Batman and Gordon talking in a warehouse or Bruce sitting in his penthouse. The movie literally stops for like 15 minutes in Hong Kong to show Lau getting caught. That's not a roller coaster, that's a slow burn building to a payoff. The Joker doesn't even show up for the first 10 minutes of the movie, it's all setup. I think people confuse "good movie" with "fast movie." The Dark Knight is great because it takes its time and lets the tension simmer, not because it's non-stop. You're right that it's smart and dense, but that's exactly what makes it slow in parts.

susansingh2mo ago

Same thing happens with people saying their life is nonstop chaos when really they just had a busy week at work and a few extra chores. We confuse constant activity with constant intensity. @aaron_mitchell nailed it. A good slow burn beats a fake roller coaster every time, in movies and in life.

evan_cooper732mo ago

Totally disagree with @aaron_mitchell about those stretches being slow - the warehouse convo with Gordon is tense as hell because you know the Joker could pop up any second. A slow burn means nothing happens for a while, but every scene in TDK pushes the plot forward or raises the stakes.