I’m a simple man, so I’ll start at the beginning. Great action movies - and great reboots, often lean on the first five minutes of contact with the audience. J.J. Abrams’s 2009 Star Trek reboot contains a superlative example. The very first scene establishes a visual break with the past, a break in tempo and tone, and a narrative departure (vis a vis the internal logic of the universe) form Star Trek as we knew it. As five minutes of film goes it’s near masterwork (and I want to point out that it is very nearly 5 minutes on the nose). The Dark Knight opens with a scene almost as strong. A daring daylight heist scored with a muted soundtrack puts (almost) all of Nolan’s talent on display.

Part 2 of Shadoe Huard and Adam Hyland’s conversation about Nolan’s Batman films. Really great stuff.