The Batman (2022)

[Eric is Quiet]

I AM VENGEANCE

[Menor the Destroyer]

This is a hard one because a lot of the technical aspects are like A+++, but I did find it structurally a bit wonky and didn't love all the performances. Will go with an A- for now.

[BestPicturePlutoNash]

Solid 8/10. So I guess B+?
 

I’ll paraphrase what I said in other thread. The film is formally sophisticated (the opening De Palma riff) in an exciting way that reminds you how visual these films should be. The frames are clear, wise usage of soft-focus, thoughtful compositions as opposed to generic coverage and singles. The score is triumphant and thrilling. Script unfolds organically for most part given runtime. No egregious exposition or plot contrivances. No real boredom. The themes are emotionally realized—Batman gets a cathartic art of heroism which makes the flood scene sustain the third act-with each character and plot movement juxtaposing wisely. Riddler might be too similar to Ledger’s anarchist Joker but the point of movie is Batman making sense of his importance.. which is Riddler’s main goal as well. He needs to be more than an icon of vengeance, otherwise he will just inspire more evil like Riddler. The morality of politics seamlessly are woven into this dynamic. The Thomas stuff could have been bad and is slightly creaky as it goes from the Falcone scene to Alfred scene but contextualizes entire movie. (Good guys can make mistakes because they believe in a moral code that is sometimes contradictory.). Overall, just felt like a complete vision, minus the ridiculous Joker scene.

 

The performances are all good. No major standout but they work in unison. Yeah, this Wayne is one-note by design because he is a recluse only dedicated to Batman. No interest in playing two sides (which Riddler points out) but Pattinson plays the numb, submerged role with appropriate sociopathic defeat. Dano is very hammy in his Ledger impression but it wasn’t detrimental. Kravitz is very charismatic and nails the vigilantism of Catwoman. I don’t think she came close to the sexual volcanism of Pfeiffer but carried this portrayal. Wright’s Gordon is a bit underwritten but the good-natured appeal makes his relationship with Batman endearing. Serkis is fine but his last scene with Bruce brought home Alfred’s loyalty. Farrell was ok. Turturro is always good.

Edited March 4, 2022 by BestPicturePlutoNash

[Knights of Ren]

9/10, A-

[Skim Beeble]

One of those movies where you can feel it's length but not care because of how engaging it is. A-

[ddddeeee]

I admired it but wasn't even remotely invested in it.

[Rorschach]

Never knew I was craving three-hour neo-noir mystery goodness on a behemoth epic scale this badly until tonight. Quite messy, yet so riveting, thrilling, and immersive, nonetheless. Matt Reeves' grim and gritty Fincher-esque vision doesn't necessarily radically re-vamp the titular character or his respective mythos in a way that takes it to new, undiscovered heights, but this still feels refreshingly ambitious among the modern slate of superhero blockbusters that, at this point, have morphed into an indiscernible, beige blob for this viewer. Not my favorite Batman film by any means, but most certainly an unforgettable one that I cannot wait to re-visit.

 

4/5

[Lorieth]

I liked it a lot. 4.5/5

[CoolioD1]

pretty decent. mostly carried by vibes. the plot is ok and i don't think this is the most interesting cinematic take on any of the characters. i thought Jeffrey Wright and John Turturro gave the best performances. kinda funny in a Batman movie with all the colorful characters the basic cop and mob boss were the ones i found most engaging but it is what it is.

[Krissykins]

1 hour ago, CoolioD1 said:

pretty decent. mostly carried by vibes. the plot is ok and i don't think this is the most interesting cinematic take on any of the characters. i thought Jeffrey Wright and John Turturro gave the best performances. kinda funny in a Batman movie with all the colorful characters the basic cop and mob boss were the ones i found most engaging but it is what it is.

That is interesting, I thought those two were actually the weak links, with John Turturro appearing miscast. 

[anti-Pedantic]

First Half - A+

2nd Half - What. The. Hell.

 

I am avid fan of Fincher, but did he really had to insert his movies into Batman? Also, I regret taking my wife to it.  There are questionable scenes in quick successions, which are easy to miss, if no one points it out.

 

Overall, C+/B- 

Edited March 5, 2022 by anti-Pedantic

[glassfairy]

My first time back in a movie theater in 2 years 😭, yes it is me the elusive missing adult female.

 

I really liked it. Detective Batman will always be my favorite Batman. The best compliment I feel like I can give the movie is that it reminded me of how much I loved watching the Batman cartoons on a Saturday morning. This would be the most straightforward A+ except I feel like at least half an hour could (and should) have been easily trimmed. That Alfred hospital bed scene for one felt like it dragged on for ever.

 

A-

[Halba]

7 hours ago, Krissykins said:

That is interesting, I thought those two were actually the weak links, with John Turturro appearing miscast. 

i actually thought the best performance in the film was pattinson's, he had a lot of quiet depth and screen time.  he was written well. the rest werent quite as good. I gave it a solid 8.5. some subtraction on the plot holes, but the overall mood as brilliant.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Halba

[filmlover]

A thrilling reboot that mostly lives up to the hype. Matt Reeves' excellent work on the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy was an indication that he was the perfect person who could provide a reasonable answer to the question of "do we really need yet another Batman reboot?" And the answer, as it turns out, is a definite "absolutely." This is certainly not a sunny movie (it might be even more gloomy in tone than any of the Bale/Nolan movies were, and that's saying something), but the world it creates feels as true to the character as any big screen version of him has to date.

 

Despite being a very dark, nearly 3 hour long movie, it's actually as entertaining as any good comic book movie could be and has no dull stretches. While the stakes may not be as high as those usually found in the average MCU flick, Reeves has given the entire enterprise a purely "epic" feel that seems rare in movies these days. He also manages to effectively set up these versions of the characters without needing to dive into their now well-established-within-cinema backstories once again. And the more pulse-pounding moments couldn't be more well-executed. The Batmobile chase is an early contender for the best action scene of the year in my books.

 

Reeves has recruited a top-notch ensemble to bring these particular versions of the characters to life, and all deliver fine work. Robert Pattinson, in the role that will probably officially complete his long in development transformation from teen idol to certified respected actor, makes for a strong addition to the legacy of cinematic Caped Crusaders: you're never going to get the most lively figure out of Bruce Wayne, but one can easily argue that's the way it should be given how haunted by tragedy any version of the character seems destined to be. He's well-matched with Zoe Kravitz, who provides a unique spin on Selina/Catwoman. Paul Dano is suitably creepy, and making The Riddler a serial killer in the Fincher mold feels like an effective way of updating the character to 2022. Seasoned veterans Andy Serkis, Jeffrey Wright, and John Turturro provide strong support, while a buried-under-prosthetics Colin Farrell gives it his all doing what seems to be his best De Niro impersonation.

 

The world may not have needed another Batman reboot, but it's hard to complain when the results are this rewarding. It's easy to see the potential of this turning into another truly special trilogy from Reeves, and I'm excited for what comes next.

 

A-

[Godzilla]

Honestly kind of shocked at the reception this movie seems to be getting. I thought it was middling at best. It started out well but then it got boring and anticlimactic. It was just waaaaay too long. Once the riddler gets revealed the movie just goes into a wrong turn. They should've just ended when the riddler gets arrested. The reception in my theater didn't seem positive. Most people left annoyed, bored or just completely deflated. I and a lot of people in the theater just wanted the movie to be over by the end. So disappointed. It was a beautiful looking movie but it definitely overstayed its welcome. A detective movie that runs 3 hours long? You'd need to have an earth shattering mystery to make that work. This movie didn't. 

[Liiviig 1998]

1 hour ago, Godzilla said:

Honestly kind of shocked at the reception this movie seems to be getting. I thought it was middling at best. It started out well but then it got boring and anticlimactic. It was just waaaaay too long. Once the riddler gets revealed the movie just goes into a wrong turn. They should've just ended when the riddler gets arrested. The reception in my theater didn't seem positive. Most people left annoyed, bored or just completely deflated. I and a lot of people in the theater just wanted the movie to be over by the end. So disappointed. It was a beautiful looking movie but it definitely overstayed its welcome. A detective movie that runs 3 hours long? You'd need to have an earth shattering mystery to make that work. This movie didn't. 

Ah yes the"shocked at the reception of this" and then preceding to provide an anecdote of theatre being deflated . Both the metrics on critical and Audience  have been positive.

 

This film didn't  work for you and it generally seems the mystery didn't grab you and wasn't worth the runtime.

 

Let's face it this ain't a bonafide crowd pleaser and won't work for some.

 

Though I agree 20 mins should have been cut to tighten it.

[excel1]

This is actually a very mixed bag for me. I do like and respect that they went a dramatically different route here than past few versions. It was totally needed to stand out from preexisting expectations, but I think the execution is still mixed.
 
Critically, this is a very good film and one can see why critics are into it. Commercially, the enjoyment level would have benefited from just a bit more action and humor. I am highly surprised that Warners allowed Reeves to make this film and release it. This is a truly adult Batman movie. Burton/Schumacher made kids Batman movies, Nolan made teen Batman movies, and now we have a true adult Batman. The cast and production values are universally good, but without question the pace is slower and more dour than it should be. 
 
Despite its epic length, a lot of the films core feels seriously half baked. The film needed less detective work and exposition and more action and development. Some big points in particular:
 
 

Spoiler

1. Riddler murders/scheme don't feel important because we are basically told to hate the people he is killing. Of course murder is terrible, but why is it so important to catch/stop the Riddler? This felt so underdeveloped. The "Riddler is the Zodiac" stuff does not really gel because we never see or feel society impact from him other a few glimpses of people outside of the funeral. 
 
2. The "twist" that will "shake Gotham to its core" and "disrupt the entire city to its core" comes in seriously half baked. I get it overall - the city leaders lied to everyone about the Maroni crime bust success when they really just took it over for their own personal enrichment - but we feel virtually none of the side effects. We feel zero societal breakdown. The detective stuff and maze of personal dynamics is interesting, but frankly, the film would have benefitted from slightly less detective work and "Your dad was bad/no he was good/he was actually mixed/falcone is the real bad guy" and more of "society is breaking down with each reveal" type of stuff.
 
3.. The "flood" was almost entirely shown in the trailers and isn't shown with nearly the impact that it would have had in real life. The entire ordeal feels rushed. Riddler only mentioned his "day of judgement" once before revealing the big thing to Bruce. They absolutely should have made that a larger part of his plan throughout the film to add a greater sense of urgency to stopping him.

 

You know Nolan would have found the right time balance for those, but here they do not. This feels like it was one more screenplay draft away from being an instant classic.

[Avatree]

This was a proper Batman film, POSSIBLY the best batman film.

 

I felt so invested in everything that was happening. Was really intense. Gotham felt completely alive in a way that I've not seen on screen before. A feeling of dread throughout the film and Batman being weaker, made it more compelling than the other movies imo.
This reminded me quite a lot of the Arkham games and in a good way.

 

All the performances are great, particularly Paul Dano screaming into his phone, was v good. Zoe Kravitz (who I dont think I've seen in anything else) was superb at balancing the sensuality & ferocity of Catwoman. RPatz was amusing doing twilight 2.0.

There are a few small issues that took me out of the film, like:

- After waking up from a coma, how on earth is Alfred able to give a motivational speech?

- Selina got over her ex pretty fucking quickly???

 

The technical aspects of the film like everyone has already said are near flawless, but that isn't enough to carry a film; I really really really enjoyed seeing this depiction of Batman in terms of his character and how he acts. I found the mafia stuff slightly confusing at times but overall this was the most enjoyable superhero film since Endgame.

 

Also I thought the runtime would put me off; I wouldn't now say it needed to be 3 hours but it didn't bother me at all.

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by Avatree

[jb007]

Loved it. Tonally different than all other Batman movies before it.

 

A.

[Kalo]

Loved it. I'm not even a huge Batman fan, but I am a pretty big Reeves and Pattinson fan and they both are at the top of their game here. the score was fantastic, the visuals were amazing, the cinematography was breath-taking, and the set design holy crap was this movie pretty to watch. it was a little long but I enjoyed every minute of it, would have like to see a little more Bruce Wayne perhaps, but we'll probably get more of that in the sequel. RISES was my favorite Batman before this, but it is close and I might need to do a re-watch before declairing it my favorite Batman movie. but it just might be. A+