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THE BATMAN (2022) - Spoiler/Reaction Thread


Dolfan in NYC

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On 3/5/2022 at 4:33 PM, Lawful Metal said:

Oh and the horrific car chase turned into an entire freeway full of traffic explodes and there are zero consequences for Penguin or Bats. WTF

Did you see that Penguin car flip? I doubt anybody died in this exaggerated, and grungy looking cartoon world. No matter the amount of explosions. I’m surprised Reeves didn’t have passengers walk out with their hair blackened, while coughing black smoke, and breaking the 4th wall to acknowledge the camera being there.

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1 hour ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

Did you see that Penguin car flip? I doubt anybody died in this exaggerated, and grungy looking cartoon world. No matter the amount of explosions. I’m surprised Reeves didn’t have passengers walk out with their hair blackened, while coughing black smoke, and breaking the 4th wall to acknowledge the camera being there.

“I’m Mayhem…”

mayhem-465x253.png

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Exactly… They just don’t make it super obvious. You also got the scene of Batman getting chased down by cops at the station, with Batman getting up to a high position with his hook, but somehow the police catch-up to him by sliding out of nowhere from behind doors like if they were keystone cops. That’s actually the closest it got to the original Matrix for me with its portrayal of the police force. All they needed to complete the look we’re cups of coffee and sprinkle donuts. I want more of that in the sequel just with a more jazzier score. Also a script, and editing that reflects a lot of the weird character choices, like Colin Farrell wearing a fat suit, or John Turturro having an extremely dark red tan.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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10 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Putting it this early on HBO Max is dumb.

They probably could've squeezed a few extra dollars out of the On Demand market but why bother?  Dr. Strange will be out in a little over two weeks and will make all of the money.  It was time for The Batman to find a new home.  It will get run out of the theaters in May.

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Turturro is one of the great living character actors because he can have year like this where he’s in a huge tent pole movie and on a hit series like Severance, but he never becomes a household name or has a sustained “moment.” He just works and works, and then he’s occasionally utilized in utterly fascinating ways before going back to being a fourth banana in a bunch of random stuff . 

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6 minutes ago, J.T. said:

They probably could've squeezed a few extra dollars out of the On Demand market but why bother?  Dr. Strange will be out in a little over two weeks and will make all of the money.  It was time for The Batman to find a new home.  It will get run out of the theaters in May.

The HBO Max day and date release plan in 2021 was a giant blunder and cost them a minimum of about $205 million. They cannibalized their theatrical releases. Forcing a six-week theatrical window when you have a big movie like this is silly.

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18 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

The HBO Max day and date release plan in 2021 was a giant blunder and cost them a minimum of about $205 million. They cannibalized their theatrical releases. Forcing a six-week theatrical window when you have a big movie like this is silly.

I don't disagree but COVID has changed a lot of shit around.  Even with mask mandates being rescinded, the genie is out of the bottle and people will continue to want the convenience of doing more stuff at home like watching first run movies.  It's the new normal. 

It's up to the studios to find the happy medium between theatrical runs and transitioning their big ticket productions to streaming and on demand.  There are going to be some growing pains but they will figure it out.  The box office will not return to the way it was.

I personally am thrilled that The Batman is on HBO Max.  I feel like I am getting some value for the money I spend on the service.   It's not just a warehouse for old shit I have seen dozens of times.

Edited by J.T.
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7 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Speaking of character actors! How come he's never in anything besides those commercials? It's like after Oz they put him in bubble wrap until Allstate came calling.

He was in John Wick, Law & Order:  Criminal Intent, and a whole lot of shit.  Dean Winters is a busy man.

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With the caveat that the movie is going exactly the wrong direction in terms of the tone and self-seriousness I personally want out of a Batman movie nowadays... I liked it a lot better than I expected to. They went so hard in their direction and committed so hard to the bit that I definitely got with the mood of this thing. Making Batman a sad goth boy who journals and needlessly makes evidence diagrams on the floor? I dig it when it's Pattinson with this performance. Fuck your accountants, Bruce Wayne has game film to review while he's caked in make-up and Bat-sweat. 

And even saying that, the movie was surprisingly fun/funny at times. Thumb-drive!

Some of the tech ruled. I loved his recording lenses, and they added an additional practical purpose to all of Pattinson's slow, long stares. Really enjoyed him using them to coach Selina in the club ("these guys have a little problem with eye-contact, don't they?"). Some of the practical stuff you saw Pattinson do helped distinguish Reeve's Batman from other modern on-screen presentations of the character. His Batman isn't just showing up in the shadows in Penguins office or disappearing when Jim Gordon looks away. He's knocking on the front door to the Iceberg lounge and running down a police station hallway like a common jabroni. It's stuff you're not seeing Batman do a lot on film, and it really cuts him down to size (until he's just shrugging off bullets a scene later, but whatever).

Didn't care for the Riddler. I'm all for a storyline about people radicalizing one another online and I like the idea of how he was inspired toward action, but Dano can miss me with the twitchy weirdo stuff. Last thing I want in a movie like this anymore. Ditto with this Joker. This was all nothing for me, but thankfully it didn't amount to much in overall screen time so it's easy enough to look past.

Farrell was a hoot in his performance as a walking plate of manicotti. He should have played Paulo in House of Gucci.

Liked Serkis looking like the most hard-ass butler that's ever lived, and then spending the movie being a nice supportive person who likes puzzles. Bruce, get your man a stack of sudoku books to help him through his recovery! 

Overall verdict: Less twitchy weirdos, more moody hotties staring yearningly at one another. Decent movie. 

Edited by John from Cincinnati
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10 hours ago, J.T. said:

Law & Order:  Criminal Intent

That was on the tip of my tongue, that or one of the CSIs. He had to have a recurring role. I guess I just don't watch... well, what my parents watch. 

EDIT: And I still haven't watched any of the John Wicks. STILL. Is there a triple feature DVD of them out at Walmart yet?

Edited by Curt McGirt
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I watched this long, long movie over two nights. I'm not writing anything deep. Thoughts:

  • Supporting cast was really good. I thought Serkis had some nice, poignant little looks, but you could pick out anyone as people have over the last page or two.
  • My favorite character in this whole thing was Martinez (Mustache Cop). My favorite moment was when he spotted Bruce Wayne at the funeral and got really excited.
  • The collateral damage was absolutely ridiculous.
  • Making Martha an Arkham was kind of cute I guess.
  • The best thing about the movie was the scope. It presented a really big world that was full of a lot of things. Like one of the Loeb stories (see next bullet: also not subtle) or an Arkham Asylum game. If they do three if these, you could see the third one being Knightfall with every villain under the sun in it and it would sort of work for the world they're building.
  • Anyway, nothing was subtle. I liked some of those Serkis looks but even they weren't subtle. Nothing.
  • The other best thing was the Shakespeare bust.
  • We spent the movie basically laughing at stuff we maybe weren't supposed to be laughing at? Or maybe we were. Who knows?
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One thing this movie gets right that so few superhero movies do: There is no MacGuffin to be acquired, no doomsday weapon that has to be stopped, no ticking clock that has to be beaten. The stakes are personal for these characters, and they only get MORE personal the deeper they get into this mystery*. It’s a descent into a personal hell, the way the best noir always is.

 

 

*Okay, until the Riddler’s bombs go off. I’ve already talked about some of my issues with the flood earlier in the thread, so I won’t be labor them here**. However, I do think that’s one of the key issues with it: All the personal issues are settled before then! The story is over! They are just tidying up one last mess. Despite this being a cataclysmic event, the stakes don’t feel meaningful.

 

**However, I guess if comic book movies are going to keep doing homages to TAXI DRIVER, kudos to Reeves for being the first to have a character try to literally wash the scum off the streets.

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I can’t wait to see what this Collin Farrell Penguin show is like. They’ll probably take advantage of the actors make-up appearance, with changing the characters age , fluctuating weight-gain, and weight-loss. What a cool canvas to work on. He’s like a live-action Lego person because of this.

I know they heavily teased a Riddler & Joker team, but wouldn’t you people rather have a team consisting of Penguin, and maybe Two-Face? I’m wishing into existence either Ryan Gosling, or Javier Bardem for Harvey Dent in The Batman 2. Two completely different portrayals that can be excellent in their own ways. You got Ryan Gosling doing a 30’s New York mobster heavy performance, or Bardem doing the Universal Monster performance we never got because The Dark Universe died on the vine. You can’t lose with either choice. I just really want to explore the Dick Tracy inspirations more in these movies, and not just the Arkham nut balls.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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9 hours ago, Matt D said:
  • The best thing about the movie was the scope. It presented a really big world that was full of a lot of things. Like one of the Loeb stories (see next bullet: also not subtle) or an Arkham Asylum game. If they do three if these, you could see the third one being Knightfall with every villain under the sun in it and it would sort of work for the world they're building.

I totally agree.  Gotham had this eerie "meanwhile" quality where sinister sidebars were all taking place at the same time in different parts of the city.  It totally felt like a Loeb story in the best way.

9 hours ago, Matt D said:
  • Making Martha an Arkham was kind of cute I guess.

I found it to be acceptable at first but now it annoys me a little after rewatching this.  Bruce is already fucked up enough in the head as it is, and it gets even worse when he discovers that his "perfect" father was not quite so perfect.   

Does his mom also have to be jacked up as well?  It's a bit too much tragic DNA to heap on one person, even if it is Batman.

Edited by J.T.
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11 hours ago, Matt D said:

 

  • We spent the movie basically laughing at stuff we maybe weren't supposed to be laughing at? Or maybe we were. Who knows?

On a chronological tonal scale, I think it hits a sweet spot between Batman & Robin and Batman Begins. They’re leaning more into the pop art aspects and away from the ultra earnestness. For all of Reeves references to 70s crime dramas, it’s more like a Carpenter or Burton kind of “dark” than Scorsese or Friedkin. 

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I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is a deeply funny movie, just probably not as a theatrical experience. He's probably closer to the Will Arnett Lego Batman than any other take on the character.

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Yeah, I would say that. I think people are getting fooled by the emo look. They think that’s supposed to mean deep, and realistic when it’s really A caricature of a emo person, and a sincere take on a comic book hero/emo person. Like Dick Tracy was a sincere take on silly looking comic  book cops & gansters. Not like how Marvel films do an insincere take on comic heroes, and poke fun at the universe any chance they get.

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27 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is a deeply funny movie, just probably not as a theatrical experience. He's probably closer to the Will Arnett Lego Batman than any other take on the character.

tout_batman_bravebold_04082014_5343f251b

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That's the great thing about Batman, he's adaptable. The Bright Knight of the 1960s Batman TV show/film with Adam West, the Gothic Batman from Tim Burton as seen in Batman (1989)/Batman Returns, the realism of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy and this take in The Batman which reminds me of Seven meets the Arkham Games. We all agree that the definitive Batman is Batman: The Animated Series though, right? Fuckin' love that show.

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