Cephus
Master Member
Most of the YouTube "critics" seem to be jealous wanna-be filmmakers anyhow. They aren't reviewing the movie they actually saw, they're reviewing the things they wished they could have done different.
The Batman
- Thread starter Vivek
- Start date
Ok here is my spoilerish review
This will be a quick summary before you read it all. "Do you like the Nolan trilogy? Great! Here we now have a newer, less fun, darker version of it, more or less"
Overall after the initial viewing I had this at a solid 9/10. After marinating on it I reduced it to an 8.5/10.
The good. It kept me engaged. We went with another couple and the wife is a huge Batman fan. If I was with my own wife I may not have enjoyed it as much. Not saying anything bad about my wife, but she doesn't get excited about things the way I do.
So having another batnerd helped make it better than it probably was. I liked the suit and the car quite a bit. The suit surprisingly grew on me as the film went on. It was pretty true to the source material and presented probably the most accurate version of Batman to date.
With that said...
It is an odd feeling liking a movie but also seeing some real flaws in it.
Robert, well that panned out like I expected. He was a weak Bruce and I never truly understood what his motivation was for anything. I mean he never came across like he cared about anything really. And the scene where he was shirtless I though he just looked like a skinny kid. I also really never understood Riddlers positioning at all. What spurred all of it on? What made him decide to now kill the mayor and to start killing everyone more or less that he could? The Joker in TDK was at least explained (some people just want to watch the world burn)
I have read and heard how Nolan films were too stuck in the real world. Then truthfully, what was this? If Superman happened to have flown in you would have wondered what you were watching. Because it is very obvious that Batman is the only superhero in this world.
I did 1000 percent go into this movie with an open mind. I said I wasn't going to compare it to the previous movies while watching it.
And for the most part I really didn't. This is a movie I absolutely will appreciate long term. But it is not the best live action Batman film.
For what it was and the very unique take on it then it could be considered one of the absolute best movies in the genre we have seen.
My buddy said it earlier today... it was like Matt Reeves broke out the DC catalog, saw what worked and made a movie that pulled pieces from this movie or that movie.
Put it this way... if it was a little less gritty and dark (overall and the actual film being fairly hard to see) and you stuck Bale in his suit along with his supporting cast then it would have been basically the third movie in what would have been the Dark Knight Tetralogy or known as a Quadrilogy.
And that's a movie I would have loved to see.
This will be a quick summary before you read it all. "Do you like the Nolan trilogy? Great! Here we now have a newer, less fun, darker version of it, more or less"
Overall after the initial viewing I had this at a solid 9/10. After marinating on it I reduced it to an 8.5/10.
The good. It kept me engaged. We went with another couple and the wife is a huge Batman fan. If I was with my own wife I may not have enjoyed it as much. Not saying anything bad about my wife, but she doesn't get excited about things the way I do.
So having another batnerd helped make it better than it probably was. I liked the suit and the car quite a bit. The suit surprisingly grew on me as the film went on. It was pretty true to the source material and presented probably the most accurate version of Batman to date.
With that said...
It is an odd feeling liking a movie but also seeing some real flaws in it.
Robert, well that panned out like I expected. He was a weak Bruce and I never truly understood what his motivation was for anything. I mean he never came across like he cared about anything really. And the scene where he was shirtless I though he just looked like a skinny kid. I also really never understood Riddlers positioning at all. What spurred all of it on? What made him decide to now kill the mayor and to start killing everyone more or less that he could? The Joker in TDK was at least explained (some people just want to watch the world burn)
I have read and heard how Nolan films were too stuck in the real world. Then truthfully, what was this? If Superman happened to have flown in you would have wondered what you were watching. Because it is very obvious that Batman is the only superhero in this world.
I did 1000 percent go into this movie with an open mind. I said I wasn't going to compare it to the previous movies while watching it.
And for the most part I really didn't. This is a movie I absolutely will appreciate long term. But it is not the best live action Batman film.
For what it was and the very unique take on it then it could be considered one of the absolute best movies in the genre we have seen.
My buddy said it earlier today... it was like Matt Reeves broke out the DC catalog, saw what worked and made a movie that pulled pieces from this movie or that movie.
Put it this way... if it was a little less gritty and dark (overall and the actual film being fairly hard to see) and you stuck Bale in his suit along with his supporting cast then it would have been basically the third movie in what would have been the Dark Knight Tetralogy or known as a Quadrilogy.
And that's a movie I would have loved to see.
Paul Andrew
Master Member
We just got out a little bit ago. Random thoughts in no particular order.
Good batsuit. Pattinson does well as Batman. Emo Bruce with bad hair we weren't such a fan of.
This movie is long AF. It really likes to linger on its shots and i don't think it works that well. The movie has as many endings as RotK and by the time it was done we didn't care enough to see if there was a credits stinger. It could have had a solid 45 minutes edited out of it and been a much tighter experience.
Paul Dano as Riddler was disturbing. He nailed it, but whether or not I like the direction they went for that character is still up for debate in my head.
Zoe Kravitz was great, full stop.
I enjoyed the new theme music, but spent the whole movie waiting for a heroic moment when the melody would resolve or make an homage to the 89 theme, or anything, but it just left me hanging the whole time. Felt like all build up an no finish.
Action scenes were all great. The car chase was a standout, and the blackout hallway fight was badass.
I'm pretty back and forth on this one. I might get the disc someday, but I'm not in any hurry to rewatch it.
Good batsuit. Pattinson does well as Batman. Emo Bruce with bad hair we weren't such a fan of.
This movie is long AF. It really likes to linger on its shots and i don't think it works that well. The movie has as many endings as RotK and by the time it was done we didn't care enough to see if there was a credits stinger. It could have had a solid 45 minutes edited out of it and been a much tighter experience.
Paul Dano as Riddler was disturbing. He nailed it, but whether or not I like the direction they went for that character is still up for debate in my head.
Zoe Kravitz was great, full stop.
I enjoyed the new theme music, but spent the whole movie waiting for a heroic moment when the melody would resolve or make an homage to the 89 theme, or anything, but it just left me hanging the whole time. Felt like all build up an no finish.
Action scenes were all great. The car chase was a standout, and the blackout hallway fight was badass.
I'm pretty back and forth on this one. I might get the disc someday, but I'm not in any hurry to rewatch it.
vaderbreath
Sr Member
Thoroughly enjoyed this. I’m not a fan of the Nolan trilogy at all, so this scratched my Batman itch really well. Pattinson was a great Batman who I felt had a commanding presence in the suit. I would love to see a Court of Owls with him in the suit.
JLeezy23
Sr Member
If anyone wants to check it out, 3C Films listened to the audiobook of the canon prequel book for this movie and gives a review/recap. It isnt required before viewing the movie but it has some good background exposition and even has a character mention another city and a certain CEO we've all heard of before.
Bigdaddy
Master Member
My kid saw this with her boyfriend yesterday, they both loved it. He immediately went to a website mentioned or shown in the movie and began working to decode a cypher from the Riddler (I REALLY hope it stays "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine" 
). While my daughter sat at the piano and played the theme over and over and over (it drones on after a while), to inspire him.
I'm looking forward to seeing it but still not motivated enough to deal with the expense and discomfort of the theater, I can wait a month and see it on my own screen at home.
). While my daughter sat at the piano and played the theme over and over and over (it drones on after a while), to inspire him.I'm looking forward to seeing it but still not motivated enough to deal with the expense and discomfort of the theater, I can wait a month and see it on my own screen at home.
Egon Spengler
Master Member
Loved it. Perfect running time for the story. Serious and actually had detective work. Beats the Nolan Batman easily.
ScourgiousJinx
Master Member
In case anyone is wondering Bruce Wayne in this film was not Emo. Carry on.
Paul Andrew
Master Member
Hard disagree, but that's fine.
Paul Andrew
Master Member
Also, I was completely taken aback by the idea of a Batman that looked, even for an instant, like he had a fear of heights.
It's Batman FFS.
It's Batman FFS.
ScourgiousJinx
Master Member
Can you explain specifically? I really didn't get that sense at all.
Paul Andrew
Master Member
I can!
Visually, the dark limp hair hanging in front of his face gave me immediate emo vibes.
Also, Bruce is most often described as a billionaire playboy. What we got was billionaire recluse. In some tellings Batman is described as the real person while Bruce Wayne is described as the mask he wears during the day, but this movie didn't make much distinction between the two personas.
In addition, when Alfred wakes up in the hospital Bruce's first words to him are full of accusation rather than relief that Alfred is going to make it, and to me that speaks to an emotional immaturity in the character that even as a youngish Batman I'm a bit annoyed by.
ScourgiousJinx
Master Member
This is a perfect of example of why in film/art everything completely depends on perception.
The hair, the song he was listening to(obviously) and being a recluse immediately screamed Kurt Cobain who basically was the father of grunge and the grunge look. Grunge & Emo are not the same, especially visually.
I agree that the response to Alfred being ok wasn't mature at all that he should've been relieved not angry. Emotional immaturity isn't necessarily emo though. Emo is often overly expressive (especially about death and love) and Bruce was very stoic for the most part which is uncharacteristic of emo.
This was a different version of Batman and Bruce Wayne. For most of the film he was Batman though which at this point in his life comprised most of his identity.
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HMSwolfe
Master Member
I feel like, to piggyback off of your post, that the point (or a big point) of the movie was Bruce realizing he needed to be a better Batman and a better Bruce Wayne. The parallels between himself and the Riddler (the journals, the fear and violence, even the surveillance shots watching other people through binoculars), not to mention his father’s well-intentioned but ultimately corrupted Renewal program were showing him he couldn’t just be angry and vengeful, and he couldn’t be a recluse. Maybe that’s a little wishful thinking on my part, but that’s how I saw it.
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Deric
Sr Member
Saw it yesterday, parts of it I really liked. The fighting I thought was good. The detective part of it and contacts I thought worked. Bruce letting his business die and not caring about it or having Fox there seemed odd. The last part of Riddler locked up with the cameo could just skipped it...completely skipped it. The nirvana song seemed odd in 2 places of the film. Instrumental of it would have been a bit better. I too kept thinking something would happen when the music would start to build and then nothing. Could have cut another 10 minutes or so out beyond the cameo and I would have been fine with it. Liked the batman parts overall, liked the costume and was fine with Bruce outside of the other points I made.
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Pattinson has earned his place in the Batman lineage. Loved the “chemistry” between his Batman and Jeffrey Wright’s Commissioner Gordon. A great movie overall.
HMSwolfe
Master Member
The relationship between Gordon and Batman was fantastic, definitely a highlight of the movie. I loved Jeffrey Wright as Gordon.
Oh man. Lots of thoughts. Spoilers ahead.
I’ll start by saying that I liked the movie. I was not originally enthused by the casting of Robert Pattinson, but I really enjoyed his Batman, and his relationships with Gordon, Alfred (criminally underused), and Selena.
The biggest positive for this film for me is the mystery/detective based plot. Something I don’t think we see often enough in live action portrayals of the character. I thought it was very beautiful, both the cinematography and the production design. My theater was well calibrated, so while the film is dark, I never felt like I couldn’t see what was going on.
I feel like the world of the film was underdeveloped. While the film does a good job of not getting stuck expositing a bunch of details, it is really hard to imaging any other superheroes or any of DC’s other live action content connecting to this world. Don’t know off the top of my head what the Studio’s official position on the continuity is, but it’s going to be difficult.
And lastly, the movie is too d*mn long. I am not at all against ‘epic’ length films, I love me some Lord of the Rings, but this film only kept my attention because of the mystery. All of my rewatches are going to really feel that drag in the middle. The climax is also a bit tonally hard with all the different endings going on. And they never felt quite as earned as say Return of the King, where the time spent with the characters and plot lines is much higher and the audience has more buy-in. All in all I think a healthy 8/10 to 8.5/10 is in order.
The biggest positive for this film for me is the mystery/detective based plot. Something I don’t think we see often enough in live action portrayals of the character. I thought it was very beautiful, both the cinematography and the production design. My theater was well calibrated, so while the film is dark, I never felt like I couldn’t see what was going on.
I feel like the world of the film was underdeveloped. While the film does a good job of not getting stuck expositing a bunch of details, it is really hard to imaging any other superheroes or any of DC’s other live action content connecting to this world. Don’t know off the top of my head what the Studio’s official position on the continuity is, but it’s going to be difficult.
And lastly, the movie is too d*mn long. I am not at all against ‘epic’ length films, I love me some Lord of the Rings, but this film only kept my attention because of the mystery. All of my rewatches are going to really feel that drag in the middle. The climax is also a bit tonally hard with all the different endings going on. And they never felt quite as earned as say Return of the King, where the time spent with the characters and plot lines is much higher and the audience has more buy-in. All in all I think a healthy 8/10 to 8.5/10 is in order.
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