Controversial Opinion But I Think “The Batman” is The Best Batman Movie ever put on screen…I think Paul Dano’s Riddler is the 2nd Best DC Villain Ever Behind Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker…My Only Complaint Is The Runtime…but That can be a pro and a con…and Selena Kyle’s “Friend” arc…not a fan of it…It’s a solid 8.5/10
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Ever see “The King of Comedy”?
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The run time was definitely knocking points off the final score for me…a glaring issue.
But since the bulk of the running time for any mystery is building up to a big reveal, I thought the building up sustained well over the course of the film. The big reveal is ultimately that the Riddler is just a vigilante of a different stripe than Batman, which I don’t buy. But the journey arriving there was more than satisfying enough
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Okay, so the watch-along last night helped to focus my complaints:
- I don’t care for the film’s depictions of Batman and the Riddler.
- This Alfred is my least-favorite cinematic version of the character.
- I don’t care for all the muddled backstory involving the Waynes.
- The film takes way too long to settle the mystery of who the “rat” is.
But on the positive side, we have some of the best versions of Catwoman, the Penguin, and Gordon that we’ve seen on film thus far. And the film has a satisfying character arc for Batman, even if I don’t like the character for most of the movie.
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I’ll give you that was annoying.
That was odd
why’s that?
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Rewatched The batman last night! Did anyone else catch riddler in the window when panning to the iceberg lounge? Paused it at just the right time lol it was really cool how much thought Matt Reeves put into this movie 
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I think in terms of running time, the only scene I can think of that didn’t really help set up the further plot or universe was the scene with Bruce and Falcone after Riddler leaks what Thomas Wayne did before he and Martha were killed, which just basically reiterates the same thing that Riddler said with a little added addition of Salvatore Maroni being involved, but the scene later with Alfred contradicts that.
Really, they could have went from the scene of Bruce watching Riddler’s broadcast, maybe keeping the stuff of Bruce going through his parents’ old room, and then moved on to him talking to Alfred. Though I don’t know how much time that would cut – maybe five minutes?
Outside of that little segment feeling redundant, I would say that I didn’t really feel the three hour runtime at all any time I was watching the movie.
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I 100% agree with you, it makes me really appreciate both Frank Gorshin & Jim Carrey Riddler, along with Batman the animated series Riddler as well.
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Well, he’s clearly taking some heavy cues from the Batman: Earth One Alfred, so that’s already a knock against him. But it’s more than that. He’s missing much of Alfred’s trademark snark. And he’s an apologist for some rather awful behavior on Thomas Wayne’s part.
I don’t feel the runtime in the sense of getting bored at any point, but I do feel that the movie is meandering quite a bit in the middle. For all of the sound and fury of the Penguin car chase, it ends up being a big dead end, and the movie loses its momentum from that point until the confrontation between Catwoman and Falcone.
(And I’d just as soon cut the Alfred scene in the hospital, but then again, I’d just as soon leave Alfred dead from the explosion.)
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I watched it a second time last night. I thought I’d be fair and give it a chance. But the second time around I was even less enamored with it. I’ve got to ask, why Colin Farrell as Penguin? They had to shave his head, give him ten pounds of make up and change the shape of his body. Why not get an actor who looked more like what they wanted? If it was that important to say Colin Farrell is in the movie then give him another role. Maybe make him Gordon. And the obvious reason they made the Riddler a “Seven” style serial killer not a thief which he is, is because Joker has been done to death. But there were plenty of other Batman villains’ to choose from. This movie was much like the DC shows seen on the CW. Written by people who never read the comic books.
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@nathenleeturner.16315 I can’t help but agree. I do think Colin Farrell was a great penguin, Though I understand your reasoning I personally liked Riddler, but I saw him more as a different Riddler than the comics Nigma. I like what they did, but I agree it was pretty far off. What did you think of Gordon and Selina?
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I am not arguing that Colin Farrell is a great actor. But the role wasn’t for a monster or alien yet the makeup and padding used he might as well have been. Why pay a Colin Farrell type salary if you were just going to make him look completely different? Somewhere out there is an actor just as good who looked closer to the character type.
Now as for your question, I thought Jeffery Wright played a pretty good James Gordon as a lieutenant detective fighting a corrupt system and making the only ally he could trust. Andy Serkis as Alfred was a tad much. Michael Caine was the best so far and Jeremy Irons wasn’t half bad. As for Catwoman, Zoe Kravitz was not bad, she certainly filled out the costume well. I think she captured Selina Kyle far better then Michelle Pfeiffer or Halle Berry. Though I think Anne Hathaway captured Selina’s guile and ruthlessness. But Zoe wasn’t bad.
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I think the argument could be made that Reeves displayed more knowledge of the comics than any other director (which is not that high a bar to meet, to be honest). Court of Owls and Hush are far more obscure references than anything we saw in the Nolan or Snyder movies.
However, I agree with you that, in trying to disavow vengeance as a justified motive, they over-reached. I mean, does anyone think this Batman will act dispassionately and only on altruistic movies, going forward? They why wear a costume that strikes fear? He could just sign up with the police force if he intends to be the perfect role model
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Is that going by both version of the story?
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Yes. There’s no way around it: Thomas Wayne asked a mobster to intimidate a reporter. Even if he was so naïve as to think that such a request would end well, the fact still stands that he’s not the sort of person who needs to be in a position of influence anywhere.
I don’t know about that. They’re both bestsellers. Yes, maybe they don’t have as many years of popularity behind them as The Dark Knight Returns or Year One, but they’re surely more popular than No Man’s Land (which is referenced in The Dark Knight Rises), and they’re comparable in popularity to A Death in the Family (which is referenced in Batman v Superman).
And both Batman Begins and BvS took cues from Denny O’Neil’s story The Man Who Falls (as did Batman Forever, for that matter), which is not even in the same league of notoriety as any of the comics mentioned above.
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So apparently way, way back in the day, Wizard Magazine did a dream cast for a Batman: The Long Halloween movie and…
…Well, they weren’t that far off.
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[quote=“AlexanderKnox, post:265, topic:3190555”]…they’re surely more popular than No Man’s Land (which is referenced in The Dark Knight Rises), and they’re comparable in popularity to A Death in the Family (which is referenced in Batman v Superman).
And both Batman Begins and BvS took cues from Denny O’Neil’s story The Man Who Falls (as did Batman Forever, for that matter), which is not even in the same league of notoriety as any of the comics mentioned above.
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That’s a good point about the “young Bruce falling down the hole” scene that start in Man Who Falls.
Other material in Man Who Falls was summarizing events from other stories, so teenage Bruce being away from Gotham getting trained (in Batman Begins) is not a direct reference to Man Who Falls
“Death in the Family” is very well known in comparison to Hush or Court of Owls, due to the media attention on a phone call poll determining Jason Todd’s fate.
Also, the voice-over narration by Bruce in the Batman is out of Year One (maybe unintentionally channeling some of Rorscach, as well). That strikes me as the first instance of the story-telling technique in a Batman film drawn from the comics. The Catwoman in the Batman shows great awareness of her portrayal in Year One, which is not true of the Nolan films. Catwoman’s family connections are out of Long Halloween.
So I still feel like Reeves has no need to establish his geek credentials - he’s clearly read more Batman than previous directors. Reeves was a great choice for someone with a background to distill a bajillion Batman comics into a new story that gets to the core of who the character is… they could have titled the movie “Who He Is And How He Came To Be”
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I still don’t feel like Reeves has established his geek credentials at all, especially if we’re trying to establish him as uniquely aware of Batman in contrast to every director who has preceded him. If you’re referencing a book that regularly appears in DC’s annual Graphic Novels Catalog, then you’re referencing something that’s hardly obscure. If, by contrast, Reeves starts talking about his undying love of Nocturna, then sure, maybe I can regard him as a standout among the filmmakers who have worked on Batman.
And I want to note that this isn’t about gatekeeping. It’s about the weird fandom-measuring contest that always happens with these directors. What typically happens is this: the director is given a big stack of “important” Batman comics by DC, and those comics end up being the ones that inspire the movies. Hence why we get such a shallow pool of influences on these films. (But on the other hand, I’m not convinced that some uber-geek would make something better. That’s not the measuring stick for a good director or a good motion picture.)
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