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[brothernero]

Going to sound strange, but I thought the beginning of the Batmobile scene when the engine revved up was the best scene of the movie.

 

Robert Pattinson was a terrific Batman but a poor Bruce Wayne, imo.

 

Despised Zoe Kravitz's take on Catwoman  and didn't think there was much chemistry at all.  I thought Anne Hathaway was bad...

 

And this Joker seemed super lame.  The card in Batman Begins was 100% better.  Nobody is going to be fired up to see Barry Whoever as Joker.  If somehow Joaquin Phoenix had been in that cell, then it would have been a real "holy shit" moment.

Edited March 4, 2022 by brothernero

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

The Joker card in Begins is one of the all-time theater experiences of the 2000s tbh

[Knights of Ren]

Y’all are kind overdoing the Joker hate.  I’m like 95% confident he’s not going to be the main villain of the next film, especially if you watch Reaves latest interview. 

[MOVIEGUY]

Overall thought this was pretty cool and good. Matt Reeves pulled off the Gothic/noir/detective thing very well. Movie looked beautiful. Score is fantastic. The batmobile scene was awesome. I can definitely see this movie growing on me as well. Only thing I'm not sure about... and this is kind of a big one... is Pattinson. I thought he was GOOD, but not great. After seeing him in Good Time and The Lighthouse, I just think he's a better actor when he can emote more more and isn't whispering all the time. People can be tormented inside and not whisper constantly. Honestly the scene in the hospital with Alfred kinda stood out to me as bad acting. Still, I'm sure there'll be some sequels and I think he'll get better the more he settles into the role. As it is now though Christian Bale is still my Batman.

 

Also just a minor criticism but it made me laugh that Batman and Gordon just leave Penguin after they were in a shootout and a car chase with him (where innocent people most certainly died). Like no harm no foul huh? Alright cool lol

 

MVP of the cast is Jeffrey Wright. I just like him in everything. And good lord is Zoe Kravitz gorgeous

 

Another edit: I didn't realize that was supposed to be the Joker at the end, I thought they were hinting at Two-Face. I guess he said something about clowns but I missed that. I swear to god there was so much whispering in this movie

Edited March 5, 2022 by MOVIEGUY

[excel1]

The cell guy clearly says a "history of turning people into clowns" or something to that effect.

 

That could easily be interpreted as Phoenix Joker. 

[TigerPaw]

On 3/4/2022 at 1:15 PM, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

Who will start the speculation that the mayor's son is the next Robin

 

Absolutely not here for Barry Keoghan's Joker. At all. Bad scene and pales in comparison to the Joker card in Begins. We've hit Joker saturation

Next Robin might be Tim Drake; and the same actor from Titans played him in this film.

[Merkel]

13 hours ago, excel1 said:

The cell guy clearly says a "history of turning people into clowns" or something to that effect.

 

That could easily be interpreted as Phoenix Joker. 

 

That was so on the nose, so obvious, it became cringey. That scene should've been cut

[CoolioD1]

i don't mind more joker but i find barry keoghan such a dull, inside the box casting choice. wouldn't be especially excited for a whole movie of the shtick he was serving in his one scene.

[SpiderByte]

The timeline doesn't make sense for it to be Phoenix's Joker. Especially because Thomas Wayne is in both, played by two completely different actors.

[SpiderByte]

7 hours ago, TigerPaw said:

Next Robin might be Tim Drake; and the same actor from Titans played him in this film.

The Titans show has its own Bruce Wayne, it's not the same character.

[Jonwo]

I did find it funny that Penguin when he was left behind by Batman and Gordon started waddling, although it's quite a gritty and dark film, there is a few comic book elements in it.

 

I do wonder if they're planting seeds for a Robin to appear in future films. I think having Dick Grayson or Jason Todd could be a way of Bruce coming to terms with his grief. 

 

 

 

 

[Jonwo]

On 3/4/2022 at 9:01 PM, WittyUsername said:

I hope they don’t have the Joker as a major villain for any of these movies. We’ve had enough of him. Reeves said he’d like to go with Mr. Freeze for the sequel, so I say go for it. I’m just not sure how they would handle him. 

I think Poison Ivy would be better and a bit easier to adapt her powers to biological weapons. 

[cookieleeann]

Just came back from my IMAX showing and I thought it was pretty good. I still prefer the Nolan films over this though. But it was great to see Batman doing some detective work throughout the entire film. 

 

The Batmobile scene chase was my favorite sequence in the film. Good action without being over the top and kept it grounded.

 

 

[Gokai Red]

For a second, I thought "See You Again" was gonna play at the end.

[Merkel]

This will a long post, but some further thoughts I need to get off my chest:

 

The movie is a bit frustrating, as the visual presentation of the character and the world was so strong and sucessfull. Those first 20 minutes or so worked really, really well. Even that view of the "Gotham Times Square", as it were, suggested a city of huge skyscrappers separated by really narrow streets, that looked almost like an American metropolis laid over a european medieval groundplan. It feel really immersive and unique.

 

And as for Batman himself, although I don't think Pattinson is particularly tall, he really had a commanding figure whenever he was surrounded by other people. The way he walked, his body language, the voice the costume itself, I've never seen Batman so successfully realized in live-action. Easily, in my view, the best Batman we've seen in movies thus far.

 

But I do wish the masks in this movie actually meant something. There was only Selina Kyle in this, no Catwoman to be seen. And although I know in the comics she's often portrayed as using the costume merely as disguise, I still think she would be a more interesting character if the costume allowed her to express a side of her personality she wouldn't normally express. Embrace the "Catwoman" character, go a bit over the top with it, realism be damned. Here, she's just Selina, with a very ineficient disguise that barely hints at the Catwoman iconography, as if embarassed of its pulpy origins.  Besides, the character is fairly inconsequential to overall story.

 

Speaking of the meaning of masks, Pattinson is Batman throughout the whole movie, whether in costume or not. There was no Bruce Wayne in this. And the relationship with Alfred suffers from this. It's distant, cold, almost resentfull. I suppose they will develop it further in the future, but it just felt off here, although I'm certain Serkis has all the makings of a great Alfred.

 

I love the choice of Jeffrey Wright as Gordon, but yet again, the character felt really underdeveloped and someone who is constantly behind what's happening. He never figures out on his own who the crocked cops are, or who's really pulling the strings. He just leans on Batman to do his work. He was much more a means to an end for Batman to have access to crime scenes than an actual partner, on equal footing, in their joint crusade against crime and corruption. As I've said before, he lacked agency, and as good as the casting is, in here he's more reminiscent of the Pat Hingle Gordon of the Burton films than the Oldman Gordon from the The Dark Knight Trilogy.

 

Paul Dano was doing the same Paul Dano thing he did in movies like Prisoners or There Will Be Blood, with a bit of the Zodiac killer thrown in. He's not really the Riddler. When he was cast, it suggested a really obvious aproach to the character, and for being so obvious, I thought this meant they would go in a radically different direction. Alas, they took the exact same route you would expect when casting someone like Dano in this role. It's not that he gives a bad performance, but simply a very predictable one.

 

The plot promises a lot more than it can deliver and the story is easily the weakest part, as most characters really are very standard tropes with very little development throughout. Which is a shame, because I really think the casting was pretty much spot on for this.

 

It might sound like I did not enjoy this movie and that I'm coming across as too harsh. But the elements this movie did get right were done in such a pitch perfect, spectacular way, it really is frustrating not seeing the other elements living up to this standard. Those first 20 minutes or so are surely among the best of what has been done with Batman in live action, ever. It looks amazing. It's got a great cast. It establishes a fascinating visual language and the world building is, at times, quite stunning. I hope they have a better story, a better plot and better characters in the next outing. The potential is all there.

 

If you took this vision of Gotham City and the visual realization of Batman and put it into The Dark Knight, you'd have the perfect Batman movie.

[ACSlater]

Plus: 

 

Gotham and the environment 

Batman

Penguin

Car Chase 

 

Minus:

 

Catwoman

Longer scenes of Batman fighting. Felt it was sporadic at best. 

Story dragged out a bit

[cax16]

Loved the movie, best cbm since IW. 
 

Just some context for the joker thing for you guys to read if you haven’t. I’ve heard he’s supposed to be in the Arkham spin-off on hbomax, not as a main villain for a sequel. Here’s some stuff reeves said in an interview.

 

 

You’re right,” Reeves says. “It is the Joker.”

“It’s not an Easter egg scene,” he says. “It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”

“I thought he would be really insecure about this and he’d probably want to find some way to get into the [Riddler’s] mindset, like in ‘Manhunter’ or ‘Mindhunter’ — this idea of profiling somebody, so you can predict his next move,” says Reeves.

So Reeves shot a scene in which Batman snuck inside Arkham, arriving at the door of a specific inmate. “And this guy says, ‘It’s almost our anniversary, isn’t it?'” says Reeves. “You realize that they have a relationship, and that this guy obviously did something, and Batman somehow got him into Arkham.” As they talk, Batman tells Joker he wants to know how Riddler thinks. Joker’s reply, as relayed by Reeves: “What do you mean, you want to know how he thinks? You guys think the same.”

“I never was trying to say like, ‘Hey, guess what, here’s the Joker. Next movie!'” he says. “The idea was more to say, ‘Hey, look, if you think that trouble is going to go away in Gotham, you can forget it. It’s already here. And it’s already delicious.”

Reeves and Marino turned to the original inspiration for the Joker: Conrad Veidt’s performance in the 1928 silent film “The Man Who Laughs,” based on a novel by Victor Hugo.“It’s like ‘Phantom of the Opera,'” Reeves says. “He has a congenital disease where he can’t stop smiling and it’s horrific. His face is half-covered through most of the film.” While it’s barely perceptible in the movie, Marino’s makeup evoked Veidt’s, giving Keoghan an unceasing rictus grin.

“What if this guy from birth had this disease and he was cursed? He had this smile that people stared at that was grotesque and terrifying. Even as a child, people looked at him with horror, and his response was to say, ‘Okay, so a joke was played on me,’ and this was his nihilistic take on the world.”

Whether Keoghan will keep playing the Joker remains an open question. “There might be places,” Reeves says. “There’s stuff I’m very interested in doing in an Arkham space, potentially for HBO Max. There are things we’ve talked about there. So it’s very possible. It also isn’t impossible, that there is some story that comes back where Joker comes into our world.”

Edited March 6, 2022 by cax16

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

Pattinson's Bruce seems polarizing and while it is admittedly a bold choice, it works so well in context of this film. Riddler tells him Batman is his true mask. Why his hospital scene with Alfred was so emotional. Bruce hasn't been this vulnerable since Rachel's death in TDK. It's an important scene because he needs to accept Batman is mostly a selfish guise for him to seek personal revenge due to his own fears and insecurities. We also see Serkis beautifully underplay Alfred's undying loyalty to him. He's a man, still young in his venture, who is a recluse, afraid to readjust. Scared. Unable to separate himself from the costume and persona of Batman. PTSD. The mayor candidate urges him to do more for the city, which he blatantly resorts to Batman to accomplish.

 

It's a very cathartic arc for the character. The scene at flood when he saves the boy is cherry on top because he finally earned his heroism. Great journey

Edited March 6, 2022 by BestPicturePlutoNash

[WorkingonaName]

Best CBM since Logan.

[Menor the Destroyer]

The idea does seem to be that Batman is an excuse for him to seek personal vengeance, but I don't think his actions in the film really support that. Even when he fights Falcone, who he has a personal reason to hate, he prevents Selina from killing him. He says "I'm vengeance" but his actual actions in the film are mostly just helping out Gordon. The only time he really seems vengeful is the scene where he injects adrenaline and that passes very quickly. That's why the arc didn't have as much impact for me as I would've liked.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Menor Reborn