Film Critique: The Dark Knight

Released at the beginning of George H.W. Bush's presidency, Batman's meaning is essentially comic. It suggests that do-gooders are pessimistic because their job is never done and that evildoers are optimistic because there's so much bad left to be done....

The Dark Knight, which hits screens in the final months of George W. Bush's presidency, is fundamentally somber. It sugests that evildoers are inexhaustible, do-gooders exhausted, and that heroes, if they live long enough, are destined to be seen as villians. 

--Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer (dead-tree) 17 July 2008