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THE BATMAN (2022) - Spoiler/Reaction Thread


Dolfan in NYC

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Phew. I loved The Batman. I did not love The Joker interacting with Riddler scene. It didn't feel organic.

The deleted scene does feel more organic and adds a layer of desperation to Batman trying to solve the case. But boy am I not a fan of this Joker's aesthetic. Bald patches and scraggly hair from deformity? Big swollen up alcoholic nose? Jacked up teeth? Deformity causing the smile, kind of? No sir I don't like it. I thought the actor did an excellent job in the scene. I just hate the look. I agree it's Gotham TV level character design. I hope it gets tweaked before his next appearance.

I think Heath Ledger knocking it out of the park has kind of warped how Joker is viewed. His take was way outside of the box, visually. Now they're trying to one up that look by going more disfigured. And I think that's a poor decision. At least out of the gate. It's better than scene kid gangster Leto version. But not by much. This is supposed to be the grounded version of Batman. But here you have a dude so mangled up he's probably need to be in a specialized care facility. 89 Joker, Dark Knight Joker, & even Leto Joker were all far more realistic than this one.

Again loved his performance. And the scene. But that look is a swing and a miss for me.

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Had some spare time yesterday so went to see this. I was entertained. There was a conspicuous lack of "billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne" which was a nice change, and there wasn't such a reliance on outrageous gadgets either, felt very much like a DIY Batman. 

There was a link to some YouTuber complaining about lack of jokes a few pages back, but there were certainly a few lines that raised a chuckle and a wry smile from me, particularly Selena asking Batman if he lived in a cave when she mentioned the Riddler going after Bruce Wayne.

I was loving the Irish takeover on the villainy side, with Colin Farrell as Penguin, Barry Keoghan (who I have a real soft spot for) as Joker and Peter McDonald (aka Moone Boy's gormless da) as Kenzie. As you'll see from  the tweet attached, Irish Joker is canon so maybe the correct answer to how the movie title is pronounced should be De Batman?

 

Edited by Fighting a man with a perm
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On 3/25/2022 at 6:07 PM, TheVileOne said:

All Batman had to do was find Riddler's vlog. 

Maybe we should be looking at this as "not even The Batman could find the Riddler's vlog" and chalk it up to Riddler being super fucking smart about covering his tracks.  

It took the greatest detective on earth three hours of movie time to figure out that the reason the Riddler had such great intel on the mob was because he lived right across the street from the fucking club.

Just saying.  Let's give the Riddler kudos instead of dinging the Batman.

Edited by J.T.
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30 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Maybe we should be looking at this as "not even The Batman could find the Riddler's vlog" and chalk it up to Riddler being super fucking smart about covering his tracks.  

It took the greatest detective on earth three hours to figure out that the reason the Riddler had such great intel on the mob was because he lived right across the street from the fucking club.

Just saying.  Let's give the Riddler kudos instead of dinging the Batman.

Spoiler

A bunch of militant Gotham-ites with way less resources than Bruce Wayne/Batman found it. 

It didn't take him three hours. And he only figured it out because he gift-wrapped Falcone for execution.

 

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1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:
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A bunch of militant Gotham-ites with way less resources than Bruce Wayne/Batman found it. 

 

Spoiler

The Riddler recruited them, dude.  They were a trained militia, not just a bunch of random jamokes.  I think we're selling The Riddler short if we're not giving him the benefit of the doubt and wagering that Batman did not discover any clues before the Riddler wanted them found.  

By the time of the discovery of the vlog, it was already too late.  The bombs were in place.

 

Edited by J.T.
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4 minutes ago, J.T. said:
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The Riddler recruited them, dude.  They were a trained militia, not just a bunch of random jamokes.

 

Spoiler

He recruited them because they found his vlog. Also, he clearly had fans and viewers because he was getting comments and feedback. People knew how to find his vlog who likely were random jamokes.

 

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1 minute ago, TheVileOne said:
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He recruited them because they found his vlog. Also, he clearly had fans and viewers because he was getting comments and feedback. People knew how to find his vlog who likely were random jamokes.

 

Spoiler

Eh, if random jamokes were able to find his vlog, then so could the Batman.  

I'm willing to assume that Riddler probably scouted these people either physically or maybe social media (even poor people have cell phones) and gradually funneled them in the direction of his vlog.

Riddler's crew had zero snitches and 100% committed members.  You don't get that kind of retention by hoping the right kind of people find your secret chatroom.

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9 minutes ago, J.T. said:
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Eh, if random jamokes were able to find his vlog, then so could the Batman.  

I'm willing to assume that Riddler probably scouted these people either physically or maybe social media (even poor people have cell phones) and gradually funneled them in the direction of his vlog.

Riddler's crew had zero snitches and 100% committed members.  You don't get that kind of retention by hoping the right kind of people find your secret chatroom.

Batman wasn't checking 4chan and the Dark Web.

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5 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Batman wasn't checking 4chan and the Dark Web.

Alfred cracked the first cypher so maybe there are some crime fighting arenas better suited for his skills at this point in Batman's career?

And let's cut Batman a break.  This is a Year Two-ish joint and the Caped Crusader has now graduated from street thugs and organized crime figures to his first bona fide genius serial sociopath.  The learning curve is fucking steep. 

If this continuity meshes with the Joaquin Phoenix version of the Joker, then the Batman has yet to experience the full force of the Crown Prince of Crime because he's been a guest at Arkham while all of this has been going on.

The worst is yet to come.

Edited by J.T.
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2 hours ago, (BP) said:

In one of the old continuities Bruce trained with the FBI, so it would stand to reason that he’d ignore a bunch of white dudes being radicalized online. 

Especially considering he's one himself. He created a literal Bat Echo Location Chamber.

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I knew with Colin Ferral as the Penguin that I was expecting a less grounded take on Batman, but it was more obvious after watching it how much less grounded it is. Sure it takes some inspiration from Nolan’s series, and Fincher films. But I’m also reminded of Batman 89’(Modern tech mixed with 90’s tech), Matrix, and oddly Dick Tracy(the makeup on the Penguin, and the uneasy romance between Batman & Catwoman). I would even say Pattinson was channeling Beatty’s extremely dry performance in Dick Tracy. Another thing I noticed that put it in a more comic setting was that they didn’t really use much exposition like the Nolan films. As soon as Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, and Gordon are introduced, they just join the cast of characters that Batman interrogates in very unrealistic ways. Batman just walking up to the Iceberg Lounge to get answers from the Penguin was right out a typical weird world Batman comic. The visuals can kind of fool you, but it’s a very gritty looking cartoonish take on the material.

I guess if you wanted to make a comparison to another version of Batman, then the Rocksteady games are closer to this movie.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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I’m with people about the third act. The movie uses a lot of green screen, and special effects, but for the first two acts it isn’t too obvious. Here it was egregious how much there was. I guess this was the films cheesy comic book side really showing.

I guess the Joker origin will be closer to Nicholson’s. From his dialogue he comes off as a disfigured criminal ready to re-enter the underworld under a new gimmick. Deleted scene implies a history with Batman. Hopefully the hints of his look will be toned down, or maybe if they go full comic book, they’ll come up with a silly reason for him to look like a clown. Like Arkham paying for a surgery to cheer him up, something just as stupid.

Paul Dano’s performance as The Riddler was very disappointing. I assumed it was going to be you’re typical Riddler portrayal of psycho pretending to be a sophisticated masked criminal, but instead Dano channels Charles Robinson’s manic Scorpio from Dirty Harry. I just don’t know if I should blame Dano for how lame it turned out. For one we don’t get enough of him without the mask, but also his big scene is drowned out in the films score. Still hope the sequel fixes that now that he’s unmasked from the gimp headwear. On the other hand Collin Ferral gave an amazing performance as the Penguin. Dude really does a heck of a job under that make-up doing a character actor performance. I can’t believe he once was pegged as a leading man.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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51 minutes ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

I can’t believe he once was pegged as a leading man.

What movie was that in? Must have missed it.

Spoiler

You'd think Hollywood would have a big deal of a film with a pegging scene.

 

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Dano looking across the street with scopes, binoculars, and the sniper motif is a Scorpio reference  from Dirty Harry too.

Really the whole Joker thing could’ve went a little differently. Since it’s pretty clear he’s a disfigured, and probably crippled villain, he could’ve been a member of Falcone’s mob throughout the film, and around the 2nd act we get a reveal through an accident on who this mobster is this whole time. But like I said, Reeves seemed to not want to explain too much about these heroes, villains, or gadgets. They all exist, and you have to except that. 

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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