The Dark Knight (2008)

Batman Begins builds an identity. The Dark Knight tests what that identity permits when every apparent victory has a moral price. Harvey Dent gives Gotham an alternative future, while Heath Ledger's Joker keeps changing the terms of the contest. The crime-thriller momentum makes Batman part of a struggling city rather than its only interesting inhabitant. It is a harsher, longer watch, but the pressure reaches beyond the hero's psychology.