COLUMN: Nolan’s Batman is taking his curtain call at just the right time

This week was always going to be about one thing and one thing only: Batman.

I’ve measured time as “days away from July 20” ever since the release date for “The Dark Knight Rises” was announced. I fully expect I’ll have seen the film no fewer than five times before it leaves theaters.

Like any good ’90s kid, I watched the animated series (and “Batman Beyond”). Like any kid with good ’60s parents, I watched the classic Adam West series. Like any good nerd, I have a stack of Batman comics at home under a few of Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight Universe” releases.

And like any sane person, I’ve been looking forward to “The Dark Knight Rises” ever since the credits rolled at the end of “The Dark Knight” premiere four years ago today.

We all know director Christopher Nolan is a genius. We all know he resurrected Batman on the silver screen from the depths of George Clooney’s nipple suit. Nolan’s creation is the antithesis of Joel Schumacher’s atrocity, the opposite of Tim Burton’s cartoony imagining, the inevitable adaptation of Miller’s masterpieces.

Future Batman films will probably never be as great as Nolan’s trilogy, which makes his final installment all the more tantalizing. As I write this just more than two days until the premiere, I don’t want Nolan’s series to be over. But I know it needs to be.

I could watch more of Batman films until the end of time. So could most of us. Nolan knows that, but he’s doing the right thing: ending it before it goes bad. (And not filming it in cheesy 3-D.)

Even the best things in life can grow sour if they’re drawn out long enough, and the American entertainment industry is notorious for squeezing every last dollar out of a possible cash cow — remember how “Lion King 1 ½” is a real movie that was made?

Nolan wants no part of it. Sure, he could make billions if he extended the series by three or four movies, but he wants to preserve what he’s created. Why add to what’s already perfect and risk tarnishing it?

Yeah, there might be a Catwoman spin-off, but for Batman, Nolan has scripted a picturesque beginning, middle and end. And that end is “The Dark Knight Rises.”

So go see it. If you have already, see it again. Because this week is about Batman.

James Corley is a journalism senior and managing editor for The Daily.

James Corley

James is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Sports Reporter, Sports Editor, Night Editor, Sports Reporter, Inside the Huddle Editor, Managing Editor and Sports Reporter.