.I figured I’d start the thread with a review.
This bit stuck out for me:
At a running time of three hours, I never once looked at my watch. If feels like two at most, and credit goes to Reeves for making it compelling and atmospheric all the way with the help of ace cinematographer Grieg Fraser (Dune), the vivid production design of James Chinlund, and Michael Giacchino’s pitch-perfect score among the work of a sterling group of artisans.
I hope everyone who sees it enjoys it!
The Batman Review. Bruce Wayne’s beautiful nightmare – a spoiler-free review – IGN.com
MASTERPIECE (10 out of 10)
Matt Reeves’ violent, thrilling, darkly beautiful take on The Batman more than justifies its place in the franchise’s canon.
So I have seen The Batman. It was really good, but I’m struggling to come up with something interesting to say about it, so instead I will give you a list of the top ten (non-animated) movies starring Batman.
1. The Dark Knight
2. The Batman
3. Batman Begins
4. Batman (1989)
5. The Dark Knight Rises
6. Batman Returns
7. Batman vs. Superman
8. Batman Forever
9. Batman (1966)
10. Batman & Robin
What I can say is that the story was better than in most (all) the previous Batman movies. Batman felt more like a detective trying to figure out clues, and the villain actually had a plan (even though it was a bit unclear what he hoped to accomplish with the final part of it except to fuck up the city). (Yes, I know: Some men just want to watch the world burn.)
I saw The Batman last night. It was good but perhaps not great. Thoughts (with some mild spoilers):
I really liked how Batman was portrayed. Not only that he looked great, Pattinson was good in the role as both Bat and Bruce. A bit different interpretation, but not bad by any stretch.
I appreciate how Batman had a character arc of his own, and how the story was tied personally to both Bruce Wayne and Batman. It was personal for most of the involved parties, actually. Selina, Falcone, The Riddler all had personal matters in the story.
Given how Batman had that character arc, future movies in this series can show Batman evolving even more. Changes to how (and why) he operates are hinted at, if not explicitly stated. I’m here for more.
It felt to me very much like this story could’ve been a great 6-8 part comic book arc. I think I may have even appreciated it more if it was a comic book, but that’s not criticism. The movie was, however, longer than the story needed it to be, IMO, felt a bit padded here and there with shots that felt indulgent and over-long. Pretty sure you could trim 15 minutes off of the runtime and not lose anything essential. For those of you that worry about the runtime, I guess you were right. At least partially. Some pacing issues, especially near the end.
Batman really excelled in the action scenes. Moving around quickly, flying around in a wingsuit, jumping from scaffoldings and swinging around. It was awesome to see that. Those parts looked better than any Batman I’ve seen on screen before. This Batman is no ninja though. He’s some kind of super brawler, and I’m here for it. I also really liked the contrast of how Batman moved slowly and deliberately whenever he wasn’t in an actual fight. Walking around the crime scene that slowly was really imposing of him, and it felt almost Milleresque, somehow. Felt brutal, somehow.
The Bat-suit was the best one I’ve seen since Adam West. It was bulletproof, it had some very functional gadgets, really liked the cape and cowl, particularly the collar it had. The ears looked great. A great bat-suit. Not super sold on the logo still, or the gadgety nature of it.
The Batmobile was no more or less than what was seen in the trailers. It’s the muscle car version of the Bat-tank in the nolanverse. Sure, it was cool, but the car chase scene was cooler than the car itself.
The movie looked really great. The cinematography was excellent, especially when Batman was in the shot, regardless of whether he was fighting, slowly walking around or just standing there looking bat-sad. It was a joy to look at. Some of those shots felt a bit over-indulgent, as I said above. Not a deal-breaker, but some of that contributes to pacing issues and will probably make for better viewing at home.
Acting was overall good. I was surprised Falcone (John Turturro, good casting!) had such a big part in the movie, and that The Penguin took the back seat to him there. That’s not a criticism, I like that the trailers were very sparse on such details. Regarding Farrell’s Penguin, it was alright. Felt to me like he was just walking around giving us his Robert DeNiro impression. Kinda fitting. Ish. Not bad, but not great.
Paul Dano was good and unsurprising. I didn’t care much for his parts, the video streams and such felt like a re-tread of the Jokers videos from The Dark Knight, but I mean… It wasn’t grating, just felt a bit… off.
I’ll end this with giving you my top ten list of Batman movies, since Tobias’s list upthread was an abomination.
1. Batman: The Movie
2. Batman Returns
3. The Dark Knight
4. Batman
5. The Batman
6. Batman Begins
7. Batman Forever
8. Batman V Superman
9. The Dark Knight Rises
10. Batman & Robin
The question with superhero movies is… if the hero of the story had never been born, would all of the other people in the story have been better off?
I thought the main question was how cool they look when they land.
I’m going to assume that you both left the Lego Batman Movie off because everyone agrees it’s top of any list, right?
Tobias said “non-animated” so it was disqualified from the get-go. I’d still say Batman: The Movie and Batman Returns are definitely better than Lego Batman though.
Yeah I’m only joking really. Batman ’89, The Dark Knight and Batman Returns are probably the top three for me.
Oh what the hell, I’ll do a list.
Box Office: Robert Pattinson’s ‘The Batman’ Flies to Huge Opening – The Hollywood Reporter
Starring Robert Pattinson, the superhero pic will easily score the second-best domestic debut of the pandemic era behind ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’
I really enjoyed it. I liked that they played down the Bruce Wayne side of him so much, so he ended up actually being Batman for a huge chunk of the film, which isn’t something we often see with these films.
Pattinson was really good in the suit and looked sufficiently awkward and out of place as Bruce Wayne. And i thought the journey of him bringing hope to Gotham, instead of vengeance, was well done.
Zoe Kravitz killed it as Catwoman. The paring between Gordon and Batman was perfect. I loved seeing them working as real partners. The Riddler did feel a bit to much like the Joker at times. The video of him torturing the commissioner was right out of The Dark Knight. But I thought it worked. And the flooding of Gotham was surprisingly larger in scope than I was expecting from the film, which was a nice surprise.
From all the hype about it being a really realistic take on Batman, I was a bit worried it would be a bit of a slog. But it totally wasn’t. And it still has that heightened sense of reality where you have normal human characters surviving, and doing, things they couldn’t possibly in real life. It all felt very comicbooky which was nice.
Still, what else would there be to throw off suspicion that Bruce Wayne might be Batman?
At the same time, who’s asking in the story? Even in the Nolan movies, none of the newspapers were asking. none of the cops were shown seriously investigating the Batman and his version of the Riddler just accidentally discovered it. The Joker asked, but it didn’t spark a massive media or police search for the identity of the Batman. Like a lot of superheroes, I think few people would suspect they actually have a secret identity where they are a completely different person.
If there was a real vigilante like the Batman, I’d expect he’d be like the Unabomber. Some loon who hides out until he goes into action. Just like people are always surprised to find out a serial killer is just some regular guy like anyone else.
The weird thing is that the people you’d expect to make the connection, like Gordon or Dent, should do it simply from the fact that they have seen the Batman up close and then see Bruce Wayne up close. No matter how he acted a professional investigator is trained to spot that sort of thing.
I mean, if people can accept that hardly anyone connects Clark Kent with Superman, it’s really not going to be an issue for a Batman movie. Superman doesn’t wear a mask, so no one would think he has a secret identity. Batman wears a mask, but people think that’s to scare criminals.
Essentially, if it helps the story then ask the question in the story, but if the movie doesn’t ask, it’s not likely the audience will care.
Nolans version of the Riddler? Huh? Jim Carreys Riddler figured it out by mistake, but that was not in the Nolan films.
It’s a popular theory that Nolan didn’t want an actual Riddler but through in Mr. Reese (Mysteries) as a nod to the character.
It’s a popular theory that Nolan didn’t want an actual Riddler but through in Mr. Reese (Mysteries) as a nod to the character.
I did not actually know that! Very interesting!
It’s a popular theory that Nolan didn’t want an actual Riddler but through in Mr. Reese (Mysteries) as a nod to the character.
Forgive me for sounding like a Grammar nazi, but I love when SpellCheck fails. throw not through. the word is spelled correctly but used incorrectly. that is what I mean by a spell check fail.
And (a bit like the last Bond film) when the plot is so comic-booky and un-serious in places, such a po-faced approach feels at odds with the material. Seriously, some of these Riddler clues could have come straight from the Adam West era. And (again like the Bond film) it never even really tries to explain how the villain has the capability to do everything that he does throughout the film.
Yeah, that pretty much summarises what I thought as the weaker points of the movie. To some extent, this also goes for the dialogues – they’re actually flatter and more conventional than they appear, because the acting/direction/cinematography is all spectacularly good.
Overall though, I have to say that I liked this one better than any of Nolan’s Batman movies. Mainly because with any and all of those, I pretty much had the same problem, but this one still had a better plot overall and more importantly, it didn’t fall flat whenever the Bat takes center stage like Nolan’s movies did. This was the first movie in forever in which I actually liked Batman, not just the villains or Gotham or Bruce Wayne or whatever.
Too many car chases though. I don’t know, man, it’s always the same for me – love fight action scenes, hate car chases. Not enough of the former here (though they were great), too much of the latter.
EDIT: Yo, did anybody else feel like Bruce’s masquara face was a nod to The Crow? Speaking of the crow, loved the use of the Nirvana song as a motif for Bats. Just done so well it’ll stick in your mind a good while longer.
EDIT EDIT: Oh, and the narration was a nod to Rorschach’s diary, yeah? The first sentences immediately made me think of that.
Oh, and the narration was a nod to Rorschach’s diary, yeah? The first sentences immediately made me think of that.
I definitely got that feel from it, yeah.
I believe it was Tom Hardy who said this and it has become a meme:
There should be something similar when it comes to movie tropes, especially when it comes
to these dark Batman movies.
I mean it is all too familiar: Someone is being bullied by a gang. The gang hears something in the shadows then…
The Batmobile, the fighting, very corrupt Gotham politics, a dismal and sh*tty looking city, etc.
EDIT: Yo, did anybody else feel like Bruce’s masquara face was a nod to The Crow? Speaking of the crow, loved the use of the Nirvana song as a motif for Bats. Just done so well it’ll stick in your mind a good while longer.
Actually, there was a still from the movie that I mistook for a shot from the Crow. Yeah, Pattinson could do a good job in a Crow movie.
Like seeing origin stories all over again (ie. Uncle Ben dying)
The current (Tom Holland) Spider-Man film series didn’t bother with an origin, which I appreciate.
Like seeing origin stories all over again (ie. Uncle Ben dying)
The current (Tom Holland) Spider-Man film series didn’t bother with an origin, which I appreciate.
In fairness, neither did this Batman.
In a cove named after freebooters – A couple of days ago.
Yeah so anyways, I saw it aaaaaaaaaand… I dunno… It’s okay, but definetly not the second coming of Christ everyone’s saying it is… 
I guess I should say first what I liked: The overall plot was good, not incredible or anything, but solid, a solid Batman story like you’d read in a good graphic novel, so that’s nice… Erm, except the ending, they always fuck up the ending don’t they? I’m not sure that length was necessary, but I like long movies so I’m cool with it, I did like the movie taking its time…
Huh… Catwoman was nice? Oh and I liked the Penguin… I liked the Riddler until he started acting like a discount Joker.
This felt very much like a hodgepodge of other Batman movies… it has the distinct “realistic”ness of the Nolan flicks, but has a more mobile violent Snyder type of action (not as good though) and there’s even some Burton in there with Catwoman’s outfit and some of the sets… Also, the movie very much reminded me of the Arkham games, City and Knight, particularly, with the way the city looked (and the goons), I’m not sure why, but it kinda felt like I was watching the cutscenes from an Arkham game at times.
Gonna be honest though, a lot of it just felt wrong, starting with the Batsuit, sorry but it looks like ass and Patinson never really filled it well despite all those plastic armour pieces all over the place. Also, I don’t like Batman just walking into bullets… wtf, what kind of idiot does that? Patinson left me very cold overall, and Serkis even worse. Wright was whatever… he was just the same Jeffrey Wright like on any other thing I’ve seen him.
I absolutely hated the Batmobile gag… WHY??? Jesus that was so stupid. Speaking of which, yeah, the batmobile was kinda lame, it looked kinda nice from the rear, but that’s about it… I didn’t believe when it went through a concrete pipe at all, didn’t look like a car that could do that. The bike also looked stupid… in terms of design, I really didn’t like much of it, except for Riddler’s look which was alright.
The whole “detective” aspect of the movie… I dunno, I feel it was overhyped. Sure, he’s doing more detective work, buuuut it mostly consists of noticing some stuff the incompetent cops didn’t and knowing the answer to the riddles, and even then he doesn’t even put everything together… plus Alfred does some of the work… so yeah, the Detective aspect was there I guess, but I’m not sure it was well explored. He sure stood around a lot of cops in a lot of rooms though…
I don’t know what else to say… there was some good, there was some bad… I rolled my eyes a couple of times, some scenes were cool… but overall I’m not really on board with this Batman, tbh. I would’ve really prefered the Batfleck movie (although his batmobile was also pretty lame). This didn’t feel fresh, but more like a retread of other movies, both Batman and not. Eh, maybe I got overhyped about it
So you didn’t actually read what everybody here was saying about the movie, yeah?
Nope I hadn’t actually… I skipped the posts reviewing it =P
But I was refering to “the people”, not these here people.
Also, I agree with what you said about this Batman not being the weakest part of the movie whenever he’s on screen, as opposed to the Nolan movies, so I’ll give this movie that much, I do think it’s better than the Nolan movies, except for the good bits in those movies of course. Or I guess I should say it’s a better Batman movie than the Nolan movies, but not necessarily a better movie than the Nolan movies.
Maybe they should rest Batman for a while…
Ha ha ha — good one, Al-x!
Wait…you were joking, right?!
“They” say that each person’s “golden age” — that time when (in your opinion) music, movies, videogames, sports, and other forms of entertainment were the BEST EVER! — occurs around age 12-14. If so, then the Batman films that you saw at that age are going to be the best version of Batman ever. As we age, we fall into the habit of comparing new versions of things to what came before, and in particular what we experienced in that “golden age”, rather than just judging the new version on its own merits or faults.
Now excuse me while I listen to a Spotify mix of THE BEST OF 1972…
People who were born when Batman Begins came out are seventeen now.
I get it but at the same time there are so many memes where people say that 30 years ago (1992) doesn’t quite feel the same as McFly for example going 30 years back from ‘85 to ‘55.
It is all perspective I would say.
Also all these DVDs, streaming etc. Are you saying people have no access to watch movies from 10 years ago?
My point was if another Batman movie is made, it will most likely have the same set design, etc… and that would be the same old same old and therefore the fatigue…
Robert DeNiro is very much alive, according to his personal necromancer.
I mean, it’s cool, but it’s still weird that they didn’t just get someone who looks more like that in the first place. I mean, I know Bob Hoskins is dead, but still.
They really missed a beat in not just using him again. That’d have been an awesome move.
He’s being doing loads of great little films over the past few years. The Lobster bring one of the best. It’s like he realised he wasn’t going to be the next big thing but had enough cash and sense to just make projects that interest him.
Fair balls to him.
Yeah, Farrel definitely never disappeard, he’s been in lots of great movies. Last movie I saw him in before this was Gentlemen, which he was fucking awesome in.
I don’t know, maybe he is wondering why he didn’t become the next Tom Cruise or something, but like Uncle says, I hope this is just what he decided to do. It meant he did some really fantastic movies, better ones than the mainstream action that a different career path would’ve led to.
I managed to get through this one, watching it in three parts of roughly one hour each. Reminded me a bit of watching a Taggart mini-series back in the day (although Gotham wishes it was as much of a shithole as 1980s Glasgow).
I’m still not convinced why this needed to be as long as it was. If they wanted to spend time slowly exploring the world and introducing a bunch of side characters then turn the thing into an HBO Max series and really go for it. If they wanted to tell an epic story then at least have one to tell – such as Gotham being flooded and placed under martial law while rival gangs and rogues vie for power, which they teased here right at the end. If they wanted to tell a story about Batman going to a nightclub to find the Riddler, well, that’s the sort of thing you can wrap up in 90 minutes.
I was intrigued by the scene early on in which Bruce blows off meeting with the accountants from Wayne Enterprises, since it hinted at the movie foregoing all the Bruce Wayne stuff that we’ve seen many times before and instead solely focusing on Batman and his case. They almost did that, which would have befitted a movie entitled The Batman, yet we still wound up with a lot of excessive Bruce Wayne material. Linking everything back to some conspiracy involving his parents was also a bit much. And, really, the world’s greatest detective never found out about his mother’s history of mental health issues?
The Catwoman stuff felt like filler. Kravitz was fine but her and Pattinson lacked chemistry.
The Penguin was maybe the most memorable part of the movie given the bizarre casting and make-up choices but could just as easily been left on the cutting room floor.
I liked the direction they went in with the Riddler but at times it skewed way too close to Ledger’s Joker. Also just odd that they build up to Batman capturing him but then realise they need one more big action set piece and tack on the Square Garden stuff at the end.
Speaking of Jokers, while I like the casting choice here, it still comes across as a bit boring. When Ledger’s Joker came out it had been 15 years since the previous live-action Joker and was a vastly different take on the character. Now we’re coming up on 15 years since Ledger and in that time we’ve had Leto and Phoenix and the Gotham show and now this one. Maybe try something else?
One thing all of the Batman movies to date have succeeded at is in casting Alfred well. Serkis did a grand job and I will presume that he survived the letter bomb explosion with no major injuries. I don’t think the movie ever specified. He may well have lost a leg for all I know.
Not sure why there’s also a maid now but she sure did take up a few more precious minutes of running time.
I thought Pattinson was great as the Batman. The deliberate pacing into brutal fighting actually reminded me of The Undertaker from WWE, which is meant as a compliment. His Bruce Wayne, however, was giving me all sorts of Emo Peter Parker flashbacks. Not Pattinson’s fault but I could have done without it.
Absolutely loved the Michael Giacchino score, which kept the palpable sense of tension going even after the story itself had gone on too long.
Overall, this was just fine and probably something I would have really loved had I seen it in my teens or twenties. Now it mainly comes across as the Nolan movies but with everything dialed up to 11. Evidently a lot of people like it and that’s fine but hard to shake the thought that there is a tight, propulsive, exciting movie hidden within all this footage.
Haven’t even seen yet, waiting for Blu-ray.
But HAD to post this (The Batman starring Adam West)
The Batman Starring Adam West.. Coming Soon! pic.twitter.com/pE11DcBQbS
— Corridor (@CorridorDigital) April 24, 2022
I thought it was alright, but ultimately too long and really lacked memorable moments. Seemed to borrow a decent amount from one of the TellTale Batman games too. I don’t know, there was nothing bad about the movie but also nothing really great. I appreciated the focus being more on the detective side, but there were so many characters and because of it nothing felt fleshed out or all that focused. So yeah, it was fine but I’m glad I waited to watch it on HBO.
The movie actually could fit in with The Joker if they had made the Joker older at the end.
Like Alfred said, there is no evidence that the Wayne’s were killed by assassins. The main difference is that Thomas Wayne isn’t running for mayor in the Joker, but otherwise the timeframe could fit.
I do wonder if a Superman could fit into this world. Maybe one more like the Golden Age original. No flying, no X-ray vision. Just an impossibly tough mfer going after corrupt politicians, corporate, financial and international criminals and occasionally a few mad scientists. 
Finally got around to watching this.
For a long film, it really moves along well – never found that it felt like it was spinning its wheels. Instead it felt like it used its time to effectively establish its characters and world.
A major part of that was having a very distinct and consistent visual style. Its using familar elements of Batman stories, but with that particular look and colour combinations.
The fight sequences were do e well. Definitely saw an influence of the Arkham games in them. Also like how the film balanced out that this is not a perfect Batman, he takes some hits, but not enough to lose.
Casting was effective, with the right people in the right roles.
What I thought was particularly smart was that, for a dark film, it had clever lighting. The result is I could always tell what was going on even in the dark scenes. This is far from guaranteed, with other films / TV doing similar scenes that were so dark I couldn’t tell what was happening.
Overall, this was an unexpected pleasure. Be interesting to see where it goes in the sequel.
