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THE BATMAN (2022) - Spoiler/Reaction Thread


Dolfan in NYC

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Oh, man, that was rough and completely unnecessary. It seems to be having pretty much the opposite effect of the Joker card at the end of BEGINS. That scene, and frankly a lot of the final act, feels like a studio note. Batman’s gotta save the city! Gotta set up the next thing(s)! People love the Joker, where’s the Joker!?

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Yeah the Joker card reveal scene at end of Begins was very good, Begins of course also coming after a string of mostly lame superhero films before they were quite so entrenched in cinema culture: this scene probably read well on paper (Dano + Keoghan having a psychotic telepathy .. what’s not to love in theory) but the fact both are separated makes this all very awkward and trying to be a little too clever. They really have no chemistry here simply speaking through a wall. I understand why Reeves wanted to hide Keoghan’s face (just as they hid Dano in all trailers & promotional material) but it wasn’t necessary. That said, his role in Killing of a Sacred Deer also should give some insight into how he’s going to tackle this .. we are going to get an understated psychopath whose brawn is in his stare alone. Exciting.

RE: Nolan’s film .. I haven’t seen these in years, but was a little disappointed watching back some clips how hammy these were after-the-fact (Bale’s voice & cowl .. a lot of very wooden dialogue .. I prefer Reeves’ presentation at this point understated as it is).

 

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In both BEGINS and THE, I think what you see are two directors with very strong ideas on how they can distinguish their take on Batman from what has come before, but they also haven’t actually proven that their way sells yet, so they’re clearly still having to take their share of notes. You see this manifested most acutely in the climaxes of both, where the action undergoes this almost absurd escalation in scale compared to the rest of the movies—most likely because beancounters in Hollywood feel like if you spend over $100 million on a movie, you gotta save the city/country/world/universe.

Yes, Riddler’s final twist is less sci-fi than Ra’s al Ghul’s microwave fear gas train of death, but it is no less fantastical in its own way that he suddenly has the capability to have all these massive bombs set up and a platoon of armed henchman to do his dirty work, after being a relatively lo-fi, DIY psycho who needed Batman to do the heavy lifting for him up until that point. I think Reeves tried valiantly to have Riddler’s motivation for all that make sense, but it still seemed totally out of sync with what had come before.

Likewise, I think both kind of had to pay the piper by promising Joker at the end.

If this film is successful, and it certainly seems to be thus far, we’ll see if Reeves gets let off the leash a little more, like Nolan was in TDK.

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Michael Uslan has been the driving force behind these movies since the 80s, and his whims have done material damage to the character.  The only time he lost a little power was after Returns was so dark they upset McDonalds, so the studio demanded lighter movies.

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8 hours ago, EVA said:

Yes, Riddler’s final twist is less sci-fi than Ra’s al Ghul’s microwave fear gas train of death, but it is no less fantastical in its own way that he suddenly has the capability to have all these massive bombs set up and a platoon of armed henchman to do his dirty work, after being a relatively lo-fi, DIY psycho who needed Batman to do the heavy lifting for him up until that point. I think Reeves tried valiantly to have Riddler’s motivation for all that make sense, but it still seemed totally out of sync with what had come before.

Eh, I don't think the Riddler's master plan was all that fantastical.  We have no idea just how long he's been at work.  He didn't craft all of those fake identities, set up his base of operations, or write in all of those journals overnight.  He's had some time to execute some of his plan all the while thinking he is Batman's partner.

Riddler has obviously been window licking crazy for a long time.

This Batman appears to have made the same mistake with the Riddler that Nolan Batman made with the Joker.  He's been busy waging a one man war on organized crime and terrorizing street gangs, so Riddler's social media campaign and petty thefts have gone unnoticed.  No one gives a shit about diesel fuel, fertilizer, or moving vans going missing until someone makes truck bombs out of them.

Pattinson Batman says in his first monologue that even he can't be everywhere at once, which is why he relies on the fear of him showing up (thanks to the Bat Signal) to keep most criminals in line.

Edited by J.T.
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5 hours ago, EVA said:

Oh, man, that was rough and completely unnecessary. It seems to be having pretty much the opposite effect of the Joker card at the end of BEGINS. That scene, and frankly a lot of the final act, feels like a studio note. Batman’s gotta save the city! Gotta set up the next thing(s)! People love the Joker, where’s the Joker!?

Spoiler

FNGS3qkXMAACWyc.jpg

 

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On 2/14/2022 at 4:17 PM, The Natural said:

I won't be seeing The Batman opening night on the 4th of March because I'm meeting my dear friend Alyson for our usual pre birthdays meal out. We've done that since 2018. Mine's 6th March, Alyson's the 11th of March. Instead my best friend, Adam who is more like a Brother to me is hoping to come up for my Birthday and we'll see The Batman then. We live far away and I struggle travelling with the Cerebral Palsy.

Went with my Dad and Aje yesterday. I really enjoyed The Batman particularly getting to see the "World's Greatest Detective" side of the character, the performances and Greig Fraser's cinematography. This film looks great. I also liked the narration usage like you'd get in the comic books of Bruce Wayne/Batman reacting to things. My concern going in about the long running time didn't come to pass, I thought it went by quickly. Shame Andy Serkis wasn't in the film more even though his scenes were important. Two of my favourite scenes:

Spoiler

You're thinking The Riddler knows Bruce Wayne is Batman as does Bruce until the Riddler says something like "he's still out there."

The closing monologue at the end as Batman talks about scars and seeing that he is changing things.

My top ten Batman movies:

10. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013).

9. Batman Returns (1992).

8. Batman (1989).

7. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012-2013).

6. Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010).

5. The Batman (2022).

4. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker Uncut Version (2000).

3. Batman Begins (2005).

2. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993).

1. The Dark Knight (2008).

Tellingly how high The Dark Knight and Batman Begins are but there's no The Dark Knight Rises. I still need to see Batman: The Long Halloween - Part 2 (2021). If it's as great as Part 1 (2021), that would make it.

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I saw it on Saturday afternoon in the city. Those recliner chairs Regal have make up for the sticker shock of $18.35 a ticket. I thought it was really good. Did it need to be almost 3 hours...probably not. But I didn't really notice most of that three hours so that was a plus.

Still can't believe Collin Ferral was under all that make up.

I thought Zoe Kravitz was all right as Catwoman and Pattinson really surprised me at Batman. I still see him as that guy from Twilight at times, but if you took away the comic aspect of the film, he played a great private detective in this.

Overall it was really good. Can't wait to see what they left out in the extra's on the blu ray.

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Just got back from it. As much as I wanted to come out raving about it being a 10/10 masterpiece.... it wasn't. I still enjoyed it quite a bit but it easily could have been at least 20 minutes shorter. Assuming a sequel is planned, I'm sure they'll fix the stuff I didn't care for (Bruce being a reclusive emo kid, Alfred and Catwoman not really being given much to do, no noticable relationship between Bruce and Alfred). Stuff I did like: the "jigsaw killer" take on The Riddler, good fight scenes, awesome Batmobile, Jeffrey Wright making a great Jim Gordon. I assume in the next one Joker and Penguin will be the main villains, and they'll likely introduce the new D.A. Harvey Dent to set up Two Face for a 3rd movie but man would I like to see some different Batman villains. How in this day and age of CGI have we not had Clayface?  Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Solomon Grundy, Deathstroke... such a rich selection. Still, I enjoyed it and I see potential to build a pretty solid universe out of it. I'd give it 8/10.

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For someone that didn't like guns, Batman sure didn't mind firing harpoons into people's thigh muscles and zip lining them in the air.

I suppose dead isn't the same thing as horribly injured.

Edited by J.T.
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Did he not watch any of the ads/trailers? They were definitely not promising fun!

 

There were jokes, though! Just done in that very Nolan way where doesn’t shoot/edit them to emphasis that they’re  jokes. I defy you to not laugh at the last Riddler video where he’s using his normal voice and thanking people for the follows.

“Okay, guys, this is going to be my last video for a while.” [/when you’ve just been demonetized on YouTube and/or are about to drown the whole city]

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Totally unfair. There were two, maybe three times in the movie where I let out a single soft chuckle.

Being totally honest, I would personally love to see a little bit more light in Batman than we get. Not a ton, but a touch more.

That said, if you saw a single ad for this movie, you should've been well aware it was channeling David Fincher at his bleakest, and was going to be a lot more Seven than Iron Man

 

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From the Art of The Batman book:

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FNSErbEVgAQCr75?format=jpg&name=large

The Batsuit from The Batman is the best Batsuit to date. I hope it has little changes for the sequel. The only changes I'd make are the head of the Bat on the Bat symbol, the scallop cape and the gauntlets. Pretty much what you see in the second image. Definitely keep the collar as it differentiates the Matt Reeves' version from the others and how it allows for head movement and turning.

Edited by The Natural
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I loved Barry Keoghan in the stuff he's done although I'd have preferred seeing Phoenix reprise the role, but I kinda agree there was a bit too much Joker at the end of the movie.  One or two lines might've been good for a tease, but an entire conversation with Riddler was a bit much.

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I loved this. It wasn't perfect, but man did I dig the film style. It's like if Batman existed in the movie Seven. The film style and detective movie feel... I'm just a big sucker for that. This is also the best take on The Riddle in my opinion. A deranged Jigsaw horror movie Zodiak dude. Penguin was good. Pattison's Batman was good. Loved this Jim Gordon. I also did not expect the third act social media January 6th storm the capitol like coming together of other Riddler weirdos at MSG.

Things that could have been better. Catwoman was okay but not great. It was just too long. I liked it but there are things that could have been scrapped. That whole Alfred bomb and hospital side quest could have been done differently. I know you need the emotional weight of Bruce & Alfred bonding over the truth. But other ways it could have been done.

Things I did not like. The Joker. Just felt tacked on an out of place. Joker is the ying to his yang. But this is a year two Batman who could get away with a few stories before bumping into The Joker. Tuturo as Falcone was just too out there of casting for me. Kept picturing the weird character from Mr. Deeds. Catwoman being Falcone's daughter seemed unnecessary. Pattison's Bruce Wayne emo interpretation was not my favorite thing.

Over all I would rate it pretty high. I'll give it some time and a few more re-watches before I cement my order but it feels like my second or third favorite of all Batman movies.

One observation / question I have. So like the reporter that was killed for Thomas Wayne... that is clearly The Riddler's father. Right? I mean I feel like it's so obvious. But they didn't touch on it. And if it was the case they should have. The Riddler became an orphan BECAUSE of Thomas Wayne. Which makes sense why this was so personal. But again unless I missed it that wasn't touched on right??

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