The Bat Man

I thought it was very good. Not quite Dark Knight but how could it be?

Unique enough take on the characters without being silly about it. Very dark. I totally get the comparisons to Seven.

It's very long, could have benefited maybe from a bit more on the cutting room floor but there's really no specific point where I felt like it was dragging. Frankly, it felt longer because I spent so many scenes locked up and tense. LOL

Performances were all very good. Though at one point I found myself thinking "Is that the Tripod!?!?!?" - for those that get the reference you know who I mean.

I saw The Batman a few weeks ago and have some thoughts.

First, we have a new Batman. This is the eighth film Batman that I have seen or at least heard (in an animated film) after Adam West, Michael Keaton, Kevin Conroy, Val Kilmer, Christian Bale, Will Arnett, and Ben Affleck. I like what the film did with this version of Batman.

It is often necessary to include an origin story when starting a new superhero franchise. Many people in the audience may not be familiar with the comic books and would need an introduction to who the superhero is and what he (or, rarely, she) can do. However, there are at least three superheroes that are so familiar to fans that no origin story is necessary: Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman. I am glad that this film did away with the origin story. People go to a Batman film to see Batman. It can be frustrating to have to spend two-thirds of the film before we get to see Batman.

I also liked how this film downplayed the "super" in "superhero." All the Batmen that I have seen, including this one, were not superpowered but were highly skilled individuals who happened to have a lot of gadgets and, in many cases, had high-quality body armor that can withstand gunfire and great falls. However, this Batman felt a little different. At times, he seemed to be at least nervous when not actually scared. He was still skilled at hand-to-hand fighting, but I suspect that four or five highly skilled people working together could probably defeat this version of Batman. This vulnerability helps make the scenes more compelling.

My understanding is that in the comics, Batman is supposed to be a great detective. This version played up that role more than most of the other versions did.

While I liked this version of Batman, I was not fond of this version of Bruce Wayne. This is not the "playboy millionaire" of other versions. This Wayne felt a lot like an overaged teenager. He was also simultaneously the most famous person in Gotham who is widely recognized on sight and an extreme recluse who is almost never seen in public. I do not think that it was explained how everyone knows what he looks like when nobody ever sees him.

The casting of Robert Pattinson as Batman/Bruce Wayne makes sense as he is exactly who the Adam West Batman would suggest. In fact, I assume that the thinking would go something like this:

Robin: Who should Robert Pattinson play next, Batman?
Batman: What is his most famous role, Robin?
Robin: He was a vampire.
Batman: Right, Robin, and what to we associate with vampires?
Robin: Bats!
Batman: And what role do we associate with bats?
Robin: Holy sparkles, Batman! He should play you!

Actually, most of the deductions in the Adam West series and film tended to use less logic than what can be seen above.

This is a very dark film, as in very little light. About 10-15 years ago, there was a fad in theaters for projectionists to dim the projectors in order to prolong the life of the lightbulbs, which I understand are rather expensive. If any projectionist tried to do so with this film, it would be difficult to impossible for the audience to understand what is going on. I am not the only one to notice this trend of Batman films getting darker.



Two of the three videos at the end of this post noticed the same thing.

This is not labeled a spoiler thread, so I will put a couple of thoughts in spoiler tags.


While I am here, I might as well post these: