Film The Batman

Well it was better than the Justice League, though that wasn't exactly a high bar. Still unsure about casting the crazy merc from Black Panther as Alfred though, as much as I liked him in that one.
 
People complaining about Parkinson's portrayal of Bruce are missing the point I think. This film is clearly about the character's growth as a whole (Bruce and Batman). He's not really sure where or what he is and he's finding his way.

The conversation with Real (the new mayor) at the funeral was very telling, and laying the groundwork for his growth as Bruce. He'll learn to be charismatic, be more charitable. He'll learn to play the Bruce character better, to make the Batman persona more effective.

Although, as I write that, I do wonder if he'll be the obnoxious playboy-type as Bruce as Bale was, in this depiction as the ending clearly lent itself to Wayne wanting Batman to be a beacon of hope. Wouldn't it be good if one of the rich elite there showed not all of them were corrupt scumbags as well?
 
Bubz27 said:
People complaining about Parkinson's portrayal of Bruce are missing the point I think. This film is clearly about the character's growth as a whole (Bruce and Batman). He's not really sure where or what he is and he's finding his way.

The conversation with Real (the new mayor) at the funeral was very telling, and laying the groundwork for his growth as Bruce. He'll learn to be charismatic, be more charitable. He'll learn to play the Bruce character better, to make the Batman persona more effective.

Although, as I write that, I do wonder if he'll be the obnoxious playboy-type as Bruce as Bale was, in this depiction as the ending clearly lent itself to Wayne wanting Batman to be a beacon of hope. Wouldn't it be good if one of the rich elite there showed not all of them were corrupt scumbags as well?
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This had me really confused.
 
Bubz27 said:
People complaining about Parkinson's portrayal of Bruce are missing the point I think. This film is clearly about the character's growth as a whole (Bruce and Batman). He's not really sure where or what he is and he's finding his way.

The conversation with Real (the new mayor) at the funeral was very telling, and laying the groundwork for his growth as Bruce. He'll learn to be charismatic, be more charitable. He'll learn to play the Bruce character better, to make the Batman persona more effective.

Although, as I write that, I do wonder if he'll be the obnoxious playboy-type as Bruce as Bale was, in this depiction as the ending clearly lent itself to Wayne wanting Batman to be a beacon of hope. Wouldn't it be good if one of the rich elite there showed not all of them were corrupt scumbags as well?
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Yeah, I agree. It seems they are playing off of the theme in the comics that the bruce wayne persona is his real mask and he will need to learn how to become the playboy version of Bruce over the coming films.

For what its worth I reckon Pattinson will be able to play the playboy Bruce with ease.
 
Interesting to see it so polarising. I really enjoyed it, definitely better than TDKR and up there with the first two from Nolan for me.

Solid plot and with a portrayal of Batman that was in step with it being his second year 'on the job' as it were. I've seen some complaints that they don't like how Batman becomes a member of St Johns Ambulance service at the end but that was kind of the point of his character arc no? He realises at the end that he has to be more than just "vengeance" to be different to the incels he's fighting.

Action scenes were all great as well.
 
Watched it yesterday and I liked almost everything about this movie: the actors, the setting, the story, the atmosphere.
On par with the Nolan trilogy IMO.
 
Hamnat said:
One of the weakest parts for me was the Bruce Wayne persona. I just didn't like how he was written. Pattinson was fine as Batman. But, I would have liked to see him play Bruce with more charisma. Didn't have to be a playboy like some of the other portrayals but he was pissing me off how he treated Alfred too.

I'm kind of hoping they don't just jump right into Joker again too for the next one. He has so many other iconic rogues
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I feel like a billionaire who watched his parents be murdered, who spends his nights beating up criminals and struggling to make a difference against rampant corruption wouldn't be this smooth charming man, he'd be a violent sociopath.
 
Murder on Zidane's Floor said:
I feel like a billionaire who watched his parents be murdered, who spends his nights beating up criminals and struggling to make a difference against rampant corruption wouldn't be this smooth charming man, he'd be a violent sociopath.
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I agree with you I didn't think Bruce needed to be sweet and charming. But, even to Alfred when he was telling him 'you aren't my father'. And that cufflink scene they could have cut that. That would have felt in place maybe right after the parents murder when he was adjusting and getting used to being raised by Alfred. But, years later as an adult still being that petulant to the person that raised him.

Minor in the grand scheme but its just a writing take I didn't care for.
 
Bubz27 said:
People complaining about Parkinson's portrayal of Bruce are missing the point I think. This film is clearly about the character's growth as a whole (Bruce and Batman). He's not really sure where or what he is and he's finding his way.

The conversation with Real (the new mayor) at the funeral was very telling, and laying the groundwork for his growth as Bruce. He'll learn to be charismatic, be more charitable. He'll learn to play the Bruce character better, to make the Batman persona more effective.

Although, as I write that, I do wonder if he'll be the obnoxious playboy-type as Bruce as Bale was, in this depiction as the ending clearly lent itself to Wayne wanting Batman to be a beacon of hope. Wouldn't it be good if one of the rich elite there showed not all of them were corrupt scumbags as well?
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You missed the subtext there, buddy. All the villains are white, the next generation of people in charge are black. The whole thing about the sins of the father was a stab at white people in general who have benefited from the system. Ie even though Bruce had done nothing wrong, he still benefited from the corruption and should be held to account. That exchange you mentioned is about black power helping the next generation of white power to be better. Because Bruce benefited from that position, the mayor is telling him he has a responsibility to use that position for what she thinks is right.

The irony of the exchange of course is that she’s doing the exact same thing the rich old corrupt white men did. She’s going to a rich white man and trying to get money off of him for her own gain. At a funeral no less. You could say that society is split in to three groups. Those who don’t want change. Those who want change for their benefit. And those that want to burn it all down. The villains are representative of how things are. They don’t want anything to change because life is good. Real represents the downtrodden who would rise up and replace the villainy, and no doubt become corrupted by the power. And then there’s Riddler. He represents the keyboard warriors of the world. The ones who tap tippy tap into their keyboards about doing horrific things in the name righteousness. Really all they are is a bunch of cnuts who would make the world so much worse if their actions ever came to be. It’s no coincidence that he looks like an incel.

People have accused the Batman of being woke, but I think there’s more to it than that. I think that the subtext is really about ideology in general and that no matter it’s good intentions can easily become corrupted. I have only watched it once right enough, so maybe I missed something to give greater context. But, as it stands, I have no plans to watch it again as it didn’t like it very much. The parts I liked were few and quickly gave way to parts I didn’t like. And sometimes I became so bored it pulled me right out of the world that was actually pretty well put together. That last half hour in particular was really grating and soured me to everything else I had seen before.
 
Norman Brownbutter said:
You missed the subtext there, buddy. All the villains are white, the next generation of people in charge are black. The whole thing about the sins of the father was a stab at white people in general who have benefited from the system. Ie even though Bruce had done nothing wrong, he still benefited from the corruption and should be held to account. That exchange you mentioned is about black power helping the next generation of white power to be better. Because Bruce benefited from that position, the mayor is telling him he has a responsibility to use that position for what she thinks is right.

The irony of the exchange of course is that she’s doing the exact same thing the rich old corrupt white men did. She’s going to a rich white man and trying to get money off of him for her own gain. At a funeral no less. You could say that society is split in to three groups. Those who don’t want change. Those who want change for their benefit. And those that want to burn it all down. The villains are representative of how things are. They don’t want anything to change because life is good. Real represents the downtrodden who would rise up and replace the villainy, and no doubt become corrupted by the power. And then there’s Riddler. He represents the keyboard warriors of the world. The ones who tap tippy tap into their keyboards about doing horrific things in the name righteousness. Really all they are is a bunch of cnuts who would make the world so much worse if their actions ever came to be. It’s no coincidence that he looks like an incel.

People have accused the Batman of being woke, but I think there’s more to it than that. I think that the subtext is really about ideology in general and that no matter it’s good intentions can easily become corrupted. I have only watched it once right enough, so maybe I missed something to give greater context. But, as it stands, I have no plans to watch it again as it didn’t like it very much. The parts I liked were few and quickly gave way to parts I didn’t like. And sometimes I became so bored it pulled me right out of the world that was actually pretty well put together. That last half hour in particular was really grating and soured me to everything else I had seen before.
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That's all well and good, and you make some seemingly valid points. But the general point still stands, doesn't it? He's still going to make a positive change that'll affect how he is seem as Bruce Wayne, whatever the intrinsic or extrinsic motivation?
 
evil_geko said:
Great film this, I don't even understand why so many people didn't like last 20 mins, kept seeing that in this thread, loved the whole package.
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For me it was all the,
Looks like he's gonna die, but doesn't
Again and again
 
Bubz27 said:
That's all well and good, and you make some seemingly valid points. But the general point still stands, doesn't it? He's still going to make a positive change that'll affect how he is seem as Bruce Wayne, whatever the intrinsic or extrinsic motivation?
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yeah. I think the part people miss the most is that there is no Bruce Wayne. One thing everyone has to admit, whether they like the movie or not, is that this is a Batman movie in its purest form. It’s not a Bruce Wayne movie. Bruce Wayne is never seen in this movie. Pattinson is always Batman. And worse, he wants to always be Batman. Armoured up or not, he is always Batman during the movie.

So if people are complaining about Pattinson not being a very good Bruce. They obviously didn’t really pay attention to the movie.
 
flameinthesun said:
Yeah, I agree. It seems they are playing off of the theme in the comics that the bruce wayne persona is his real mask and he will need to learn how to become the playboy version of Bruce over the coming films.

For what its worth I reckon Pattinson will be able to play the playboy Bruce with ease.
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Exactly. Riddler even mentioned that Batman’s cowl was his real face.

We’ll get the charming, suave Bruce Wayne in the sequel that I’m sure of. Bruce will create the public facing play boy persona to divert attention away from him being Batman.
 
Norman Brownbutter said:
yeah. I think the part people miss the most is that there is no Bruce Wayne. One thing everyone has to admit, whether they like the movie or not, is that this is a Batman movie in its purest form. It’s not a Bruce Wayne movie. Bruce Wayne is never seen in this movie. Pattinson is always Batman. And worse, he wants to always be Batman. Armoured up or not, he is always Batman during the movie.

So if people are complaining about Pattinson not being a very good Bruce. They obviously didn’t really pay attention to the movie.
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Great point!
 
I thought it was good, but there were a lot of scenes that were in the dark with poor lighting for me. It was hard to get a sense of the scenery itself.

I thought the plot was setting up to be very interesting, but I felt like when it all wrapped up, it was underwhelming.

I actually feel like there was a great movie in there somewhere with a few changes/shorter run-time.
 
I'm busy watching it now and all I want to do is go on to the next thing. Some of the stuff are just plan dumb for me and I actually used to like the previous Batman films, not sure what's changed for me, but anyway. Got about an hour still to go.
 
I am actually gonna watch it again this weekend, I really loved it.

Probably because I am a huge horror fan, and this had so much horror in it's atmosphere, brilliant stuff.
 
He's a bit like Iron Man in this film isn't he?

I did enjoy it, but his indestructible nature got a bit silly at times. I didn't mind it being more about Batman than Bruce, it's clear that this was a wake up call for Bruce to be better and do more not just as Batman. I think you'll see more Bruce in the next installment.
 
RedSky said:
He's a bit like Iron Man in this film isn't he?

I did enjoy it, but his indestructible nature got a bit silly at times. I didn't mind it being more about Batman than Bruce, it's clear that this was a wake up call for Bruce to be better and do more not just as Batman. I think you'll see more Bruce in the next installment.
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Batman's armor always could take a shotgun round, but that scene where he lands on cars after jumping from building, breaks all bones from the looks of it made me chuckle.

I really love how Batman finally let Gordon help him out on few occasions, made Gordon's character stronger and finally you could see some cooperation just like in comic books.

I still can't decide if I like it or it's just a good one watch movie.
 
Having slept on it, I have mixed feelings about the film.

- The portrayal of Batman as someone to be feared came across very well. Much better than any other film to date.
- I did enjoy the detective arc being the main focus of the storyline, I just think it was executed poorly and inconsistently.
- Reducing the importance of Bruce in this film wasn't a bad thing, they clearly wanted to focus entirely on Batman rather than Bruce Wayne.
- The villains were brilliant although perhaps underused, also didn't really understand why the Riddler just gave up at the end? There was no point to it.
- Batman being indestructible through the film annoyed me, I understand they wanted him in the thick of the action, but making him bullet proof was stupid. His escape by jumping off a building and colliding with a tunnel was just... urgh. Removes my immersion.
- Catwoman... the best scene was her being the inside mole for Batman but that was as Selene and not as Catwoman. She didn't really do much in the film, she gets all this trauma flung at her but there's no payoff. She walks in to try and kill her father, fecks it up and then gets talked down by Batman.
- Action sequences, once you get your head around the fact that it's clear Batman can't be harmed, they become a bit James Bondy to me. There's no intelligence to his fight scenes, it's just raw violence. Does that match up with the attempted Sherlock Holmes detective arc? Surely he'd come up with better plans than just walk in and beat everyone up? The 2nd break in to Falcone was much better to me as it seemed like he had a proper strategy.
- I didn't like the look of the batmobile in the trailers, but that noise... it won me over.
- Gordon was also very good, agree with VP's post above. Really felt like a Policeman doing something, always felt he was underused in Nolans films.
- It was too long.

All in all, I feel like the film had some triumphs over the Nolan films. But given Batman Begins was 40mins shorter, it felt like a far better film with more going on. This film does plod on too much and for me was inconsistent throughout. Still, it's much better than the recent DC films.
 
I really liked it. Not flawless for sure, but definitely the best Gotham, the best 'origin' and the best explanation of why no one simply look at batman and thinks it's bruce wayne.

Would have been absolutely brilliant if he'd killed the Batman and done this as a one and done. Like, end with him sacrificing himself to save all those people from electrocution, tie it all to light versus dark, vegenace versus redemption and then just end.
 
I love the scene where they leave Cobblepot with his legs tied so he has to walk like a penguin.
 
I liked it; have it comfortably in the same tier as the Nolan films, just below Burton’s Batman.

Maybe I’ve watched too many paragliding disaster vids, but when he deployed that chute and got slapped into the bridge… I mean, okay he’s bulletproof and whatnot but I wasn’t on board with him walking away from that.
 
Hot garbage.

Oh where to begin…..

- Firstly, it was much, much too long and nowhere near interesting enough to warrant that length. A detective story, which I appreciated, but the mystery wasn’t particularly great, nor was Batman some great detective. Just pretty decent at answering a riddle in the spur of the moment.

- He took a bomb to the face, and nothing happened to him. His jaw would be gone, but okay.

- The police carried him out and no one removed his mask. That’s be literally the first thing anyone would do after taking an explosion to the chops.

- He dived off a building and flew with what looked like a quilted blanket on his back, until he finally hit a bridge and I think a train, but no harm done. Would be massively dead. But again, okay.

- The back to back scenes between Wayne and Flacone and then Wayne and Alfred were just wank. Falcone: “Marone killed your parents. Sorry kid”. Wayne: [No answer, no questions, just sullen face]. Next scene, Wayne: “Alfred you lied to me your whole life, Marone killed my parents”, Alfred: “No it was Falcone”, Wayne: “Okay then. I love you”. It was excruciatingly bad.

- Catwoman, looked hot as feck, did nothing.

- Batmobile was an undrivable muscle car mess.

- No discernible tech development, most of his gadgets are rudimentary. Then suddenly has some DARPA level recording contacts.

- Bruce Wayne basically walked around the whole movie looking like Brandon Lee in the Crow, just way less cool. Same vibe and everything.

- Takes so many bullets it’s a fecking miracle not a single one hits him in the face. People love just shooting very accurately at his chest.

- When he’s Bruce Wayne he looks like a skinny teenager who found his dad’s Batman costume and is playing dress up.

- His whole sullen attitude, especially towards Alfred, makes him look like a petulant man child. As a character he was extremely unlikable. Zero charisma, or really any redeeming feature.

- Why, in the event of a flood, did they flock everyone into the basketball arena when it was below land level?

- Big dramatic moment at the end…I’ll sacrifice myself by cutting this cord and getting electrocuted and falling into the water…..cue dramatic music and awestruck onlookers…..wait, no, I’m instantly okay.

I honestly don’t get anyone saying this is even remotely close to the Nolan films. There are some decent performances, but it’s wayyyyyy too long. It took me three sittings to get through this borefest. There are a lot of stupid things that happen. Large sections of it are just not needed. The detective story is really bang average at best. Pattison is an okay Batman when in costume, and a terrible Brandon Lee lookalike Bruce Wayne, when he isn’t. He also has the physical presence of a skinny goth teenager.

It’s still better than any of the Batfleck movies, but shit, that’s not saying much.
 
@simonhch I agree with most of your points tbh but I still weirdly enjoyed it. Probably because my expectations weren't very high to begin with.
I kept waiting for some big reveal that never happened :lol:
 
simonhch said:
Hot garbage.

Oh where to begin…..

- Firstly, it was much, much too long and nowhere near interesting enough to warrant that length. A detective story, which I appreciated, but the mystery wasn’t particularly great, nor was Batman some great detective. Just pretty decent at answering a riddle in the spur of the moment.

- He took a bomb to the face, and nothing happened to him. His jaw would be gone, but okay.

- The police carried him out and no one removed his mask. That’s be literally the first thing anyone would do after taking an explosion to the chops.

- He dived off a building and flew with what looked like a quilted blanket on his back, until he finally hit a bridge and I think a train, but no harm done. Would be massively dead. But again, okay.

- The back to back scenes between Wayne and Flacone and then Wayne and Alfred were just wank. Falcone: “Marone killed your parents. Sorry kid”. Wayne: [No answer, no questions, just sullen face]. Next scene, Wayne: “Alfred you lied to me your whole life, Marone killed my parents”, Alfred: “No it was Falcone”, Wayne: “Okay then. I love you”. It was excruciatingly bad.

- Catwoman, looked hot as feck, did nothing.

- Batmobile was an undrivable muscle car mess.

- No discernible tech development, most of his gadgets are rudimentary. Then suddenly has some DARPA level recording contacts.

- Bruce Wayne basically walked around the whole movie looking like Brandon Lee in the Crow, just way less cool. Same vibe and everything.

- Takes so many bullets it’s a fecking miracle not a single one hits him in the face. People love just shooting very accurately at his chest.

- When he’s Bruce Wayne he looks like a skinny teenager who found his dad’s Batman costume and is playing dress up.

- His whole sullen attitude, especially towards Alfred, makes him look like a petulant man child. As a character he was extremely unlikable. Zero charisma, or really any redeeming feature.

- Why, in the event of a flood, did they flock everyone into the basketball arena when it was below land level?

- Big dramatic moment at the end…I’ll sacrifice myself by cutting this cord and getting electrocuted and falling into the water…..cue dramatic music and awestruck onlookers…..wait, no, I’m instantly okay.

I honestly don’t get anyone saying this is even remotely close to the Nolan films. There are some decent performances, but it’s wayyyyyy too long. It took me three sittings to get through this borefest. There are a lot of stupid things that happen. Large sections of it are just not needed. The detective story is really bang average at best. Pattison is an okay Batman when in costume, and a terrible Brandon Lee lookalike Bruce Wayne, when he isn’t. He also has the physical presence of a skinny goth teenager.

It’s still better than any of the Batfleck movies, but shit, that’s not saying much.
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I think the gadgets, including the bat suit were purposefully primitive as they did not introduce Lucius Fox yet. I expect the gadgets to take a big leap in the second installment when they do that.

Regarding the mind games not being as enthralling, I definitely agree. I think someone like a David Fincher would have done a better job with that than Matt Reeves could.
 
Watched it over the weekend - thought it was ok but far too long. It's nowhere and I mean nowhere as good as the Nolan movies and I don't know how anybody could think otherwise.
 
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