The Bat…man…

I haven’t written many reviews, in the typical sense, for movies soon after they’ve come out. As noted in my last post, Batman is one of my favorite franchises. Even though Marvel has absolutely killed DC head-to-head, I like Batman, and his universe, better than everyone in Marvel. And so, I’ve decided that, if not a formal review, I’d like to note my opinion on the newest entry.

Positives

1). The detective angle: First and foremost, I love detective movies. Whether it’s old school film noir, or police procedurals, or just a regular citizen trying to find someone who’s missing in their life. It’s fun to watch someone put the pieces together. It’s fun to have a mystery to solve.

Dating back to his earliest comic books, Batman has long been written as a detective. While he’s always trying to figure out what’s happening and who’s behind it, most of the movies have shied away from leaning this aspect of the character. Some have scenes that show this, but a superhero movie has certain guidelines, including big, explosive set pieces; it’s not always sexy to watch someone think over clues and unravel a mystery.

But The Batman spent long periods of the movie with Batman pouring over a crime scene, or chasing down leads, not necessarily going straight to the action. Granted, this resulted in a 3-hour run time, but if you’re into the story, as I was, it doesn’t feel too long or too slow. If nothing else, I appreciated the new angle of their story-telling.

1a). The whole noir vibe.

2). The Conspiracy: Related to noir/detectives, there was a conspiracy he had to get to the bottom of. Again, since franchise movies spend most of their focus on action and villains, and less on his detective work, the crimes almost just serve as elaborate opportunities for action without really a big picture purpose. That’s the nice thing about a conspiracy plot, every little bit that’s uncovered is only one aspect of a greater crime. Again, it felt like a new direction for the movies.

3). The Riddler: I enjoyed Dano’s performance. I like how it was alternately psychotic and sort of meek. But the psychopathy was always there, it isn’t like these two “moods” felt like two different people. He did a good job.

4). The other villains: Oswald Cobblepott was good, I like how he wasn’t yet, The Penguin, we will see him rise up as a gangster.

They tease The Joker at the end, which was a cool way to do it. There’s a deleted scene too. It’s crazy that this would be the 4th Joker since 2008, 5th if you count the show Gotham, which is a little oversaturated. However, this one at least looks a little different and maybe it’ll be an interesting portrayal.

Negatives

1). It’s very Emo: Noir is different than Emo – it’s like Emo’s great-grandfather; similar overall sentiment, but tougher, with old school, salt of the earth values.

Batman is a dark character. He has a tragic backstory. In many comic books he drinks a lot. He’s solitary. Between all of that, the dark lighting and the undertone of city-wide corruption, the movie had a great noir vibe. However, at times, Robert Pattison felt like a moody teenager. They had grunge music too. They drove past noir and “went full Emo”, they could’ve dialed it back a touch.

2). The Batmobile: I wouldn’t say I hated it, but we never really got a good look at it, and from what I could tell, it looked like a regular car that was souped up. The one from the Dark Knight Trilogy is so awesome, it’s probably downhill for every subsequent version.

3). Batman is sometimes too good of a detective: Obviously, in order to get answers, our protagonist has to be a good detective. But this sometimes goes the way of Sherlock, where he just puts everything together too easily. Batman solved all of the riddles almost immediately. I’m decent at riddles, and I could barely process what they were before Batman blurted out the answer. I’m not saying they should wait for me to figure them out, but it almost seems like if he solved all of the riddles that quickly he could’ve figured the whole conspiracy out much sooner.

4). The ending was a little hard to see: At the climax of the movie, when everyone was in the arena, it was very dark. I couldn’t really see the whole of what was happening, which left it a little underwhelming.

Overall, I liked The Batman. It was an interesting and different take on a Batman reboot. Given all of the movies that supposedly inspired it, namely Chinatown, The Conversation and Se7en, it’s not a surprise that I like it. I’m excited to see where the franchise goes.