sol_bad
Member
You are very funny.
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The Batman - Review Thread
- Thread starter Represent.
- Start date
You are very funny.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Good recap.
I thought the same, but as a whole a worse movie compared to you.
Personally, I don't think they even needed the entire Catwoman plot at all. That would had saved an hour of the movie. Adjust the plot and add in a bit more gangster and Riddler time and you could had got it back to 2:30 instead of 3 hours. The movie would be more exciting and it would had shaved a good half hour off it.
However, like most superhero movies, they try to jam in so many characters some reason the movie gets bloated. Avenger movies are the worst because when you add up all the heroes and villains there's got to be at 10 characters zipping around and each character has to get their 15 minutes of showtime.
The overall plot stories seemed confusing too. There's a lot of names and linkages. At the end of the day, it always comes back to bad guys striving for power if someone doesn't really want to understand all of the plotline, but to me it wasnt an easy to understand plot.
There is no way anyone can say the movie had good pacing. The first hour hardly anything even happens and the main criminal promoted in videos (Riddler) is actually a backseat plot to Catwoman. The movie is a closer to a crime/thriller movie until the final half hour where it suddenly becomes a big event with shit flying everywhere.
The acting was nothing special. The fat guy playing Penguin is the best as he sticks out. And a terrorist sounding Riddler is as 180 as you can get from every other version of Riddler. But just about everyone else seems to be depressed, gloomy and the same. Batman himself looks and acts like he's stoned half the time.
I'd say overall the setting, action scenes and gear is the best part of the movie as it's the most grounded. Other movies have him zooming around with crazy high tech gear and cars. This movie has it, but the fights and gadgetry seem more toned down where he can screw up and get beaten up a bit.
Just to show how grounded the director tries to make it
A lot of the time, Batman/Bruce Wayne gets from location to location riding a motorcycle and he carries his costume in bags strapped to his back or bike. You'll never see that in other Batman movies
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pesaddict
Banned
You mean Colin Farell lol
sankt-Antonio
:^)--?-<
Great movie, but way to long. Its ten endings drag it down. Love story between Bat and Catwoman makes no sense at all.
There's only like five locations the movie takes place in and are revisited a lot of times. They met at the construction side where the bat signal was located at least 10 times it felt like. Club five or four times etc.
There's only like five locations the movie takes place in and are revisited a lot of times. They met at the construction side where the bat signal was located at least 10 times it felt like. Club five or four times etc.
eyesabitdull
Banned
"Guess I'll go look in The Batman thread and see what people have been saying about it since I last checked in..."
Same.
I thought politics was banned, but I guess since the whole Ukraine conflict we're back right into it unofficially.
Anyway, great discussion thread about the movie 5 pages in - just don't read past that lol
Hugare
Member
I was really excited for it. Matt Reeves is an incredible director, loved the casting choices and etc.
But yeah, I was disappointed a bit.
Hopefuly they will improve with the sequel
But yeah, I was disappointed a bit.
- The pacing was kind of a mess.
- Batman and Catwoman romance came out of nowhere.
- Too much Batman, not so much Bruce. Pattinson was a great Batman, but the jury is still out on his Bruce side.
- Catwoman's storyline was boring and held the pace too much. The Riddler storyline was more than enough to carry the whole film.
- Dialogue wasn't really great (I remember the Nolan trilogy being better in this regard)
Hopefuly they will improve with the sequel
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DeathScentance
Banned
Thanks for bolding it, otherwise I'd have thought it was a documentary. Since you only skimmed it, I'll ask you this, since no one else has seemed to answer.
If, in that opening subway scene he'd made the attackers primarily POC instead of white, there would be any outrage? Follow up question, if there was, would you tell those outraged in bold letters...
It's just a fictional comic book.?
Final round. Do you know what the word hypocrisy means?
DeathScentance
Banned
To me this isn't about politics. This isn't about woke or the culture war.
It's about being honest or telling a lie. When you spin a web of lies in your movies it becomes propaganda.
DeathScentance
Banned
I apologize for interrupting your bread and circuses, please return to your usual programming.
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AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
I think it's easy to find people on Twitter being "outraged" about literally anything, so sure, I'm sure you could find some ragebait if they had some more POC thugs in that scene. Pretty sure there was already several POCs anyway so I don't even really know what the problem is. Either way I don't think that outrage would represent the public's general opinions at all and I absolutely would say the same thing to anyone angry about it.
It's a superhero movie set in a fictional city, no sane director is going to look at the crime statistics for a city he's not even portraying on screen and think, well, I should definitely hire less whites for this scene because that wouldn't be truly representational of the crime statistics. If you were watching a movie about a man in leather chaps wearing high-tech contact lenses driving a Charger with a jet engine strapped to the back, and all you could think was "there should be more blacks in that gang, it's not very realistic" then that's a you problem.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I didn't think the dialogue was anything great either. I read articles how Andy Serkis playing Alfred did a great job. He did? The guy was barely in the movie. Totally forgettable performance.
I bet most people dont even remember anything he did or said aside from his 2 minute family issues speech to Bruce while on a hospital bed
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Youre right that it is a movie and the writers and directors can do whatever they want with the cast selection.
But let's face it. Catwoman bringing up "privileged white assholes" (I think that was the line) to Batman as her crusade against social/racial demographics is a modern day drama queen line. You know as well as all of us that kind of line wouldnt be said in any other superhero movie in the past. But due to modern day cancel culture/BLM kind of stuff, that line got tossed in to support the movie's narrative that all the bad guys in the flim are white, and all the good guys are minorities.
Superhero movies at their core is good vs evil with no focus on gender or race. It's a bunch of people with special powers and costumes jumping around. IMO, it doesn't need this kind of real life drama for sake of it. I dont think most people would even notice the racial split until she said that line and then people go over the movie to see what she's talking about. The movie's plot has nothing to even do with Nazis or anything like that. Now if the movie was a drama (fictional or not) that had to do with race relations then sure having race based dialogue fits the plot. But how Catwoman would churn out a line like that in a DC Comics movie is odd.
It not dumb because it was in a Batman movie in isolation. If Black Panther or Storm in a Marvel movie said the same kind of line that all the good superheroes should go after evil white people, it would be just as stupid.
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DeathScentance
Banned
PaddyOCanager
Member
Ok, but can you see the irony in the line given who she says it to? And especially the ending, where she is proven to be shallow in her beliefs when it comes to actually fighting to make things better? How she chooses to pursue her path of vengeance against who she believes are wrongdoers, whereas Batman has come to the realization he needs to be something more? You may feel the studio or director had other intentions, but could you be open to the possibility that maybe it's not so black and white?
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
The line got "tossed in" because a poor black woman probably does think of most CEOs as "privileged white assholes" (because most are) and because the entire point of the line is that the person she's talking to, the hero of the movie, is one of them. Do you not think the line is there to undermine what's she saying in the first place? There are good and bad white guys in Batman just as there are good and bad POCs, it's just that most bad guys on screen are white because the movie focuses on the mob.
I mean, it's nice that you work at Warner Bros. and so know their hiring processes in and out, but they certainly had no trouble having black gangs in The Many Saints of Newark. I'm sure that doesn't count because everyone is a gangster or it's set in the past or some other arbitrary reason. There were POC bad guys in The Suicide Squad not long ago if you need another modern superhero movie from WB to compare to. It's not an agenda, it's an enormous chip on your shoulder you obviously have for very personal reasons.
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PaddyOCanager
Member
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
You must be soured by the media, because IMO every CEO I've met have been good people. I work with them.
Just because the leader of a company has a high level job and makes good coin doesn't mean they are soul crushing Scrooges.
But if you want superhero movies to turn into social demographic battlegrounds that's your call. I'm not a big superhero movie watcher (I skew to DC movies), but I prefer them to be just that. Good vs Evil with some characters with super powers beating each other up. If you want them to include modern day racial and job level critiques like it's a Twitter thread that's your choice.
The people in this thread mocking the movie's motives isn't limited to GAF. You can find other people bring it up to if you google it.
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DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
What lie?
What propaganda?
That Batman is a hero? That Catwoman can fight? That Falcone is a SOB?
So what YOU'RE saying is that there shouldn't be any good black or other POC characters and keep Gotham white...
I mean in the Nolan films, the ONLY good white characters were Alfred, 'Bruce/Batman, Rachel (edit: and Gordon).. That's pretty much it. Dent became Two Face so he doesn't count. All the rest of the characters were corrupt... And they were white.
I'ma ask nicely... Please let this go. This thread is dangerously turning into something it shouldn't and it's looking ugly!
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DeathScentance
Banned
DeathScentance
Banned
The opening fucking scene of the movie. If you want this to stop, stop asking questions you aren't prepared for the answer to.
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DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
That a group of mixed hoodlums are bad?
Yeah. You're getting blocked. You're dragging this thread down the toilet with your dumbass posts.
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
I'm not talking about my perspective, I'm talking about the perspective of the character. Most CEOs ARE white and it's not hard to imagine a poor person thinking that those people are assholes. It's not an unrealistic line and once again, the entire point of it is to underline the fact that she's misguided for saying it in the first place. She's literally talking to one and he's the guy that saves the city.
If you think one line in a comic book movie turns it into a "racial critic Twitter thread" then that's on you too. I'm sure there are plenty of internet pits where I can find people who think this movie was race baiting but it's just a gigantic pile of nothing to normal people. Nobody I know who's seen the movie has a thorn in their side about how white the bad guys are, it's so weird. If that's what you got out of the movie, so be it.
From the opening scene to the credit roll, every single evil person is white and every single POC is virtuous. Not a one bad POC in all of Gotham I guess. Super realistic, no agenda.
The bad guys in the Falcone crime family are all white? The few online incel radicals we saw beneath their ski masks were white? Shocking. If one scene in which a group of criminals (who aren't even all white) was too white and it ruined the movie for you, I would suggest a therapist. If you have one, get a second.
DeathScentance
Banned
If you can't see that that was a group of older white guys trying to convince a young POC to beat up an Asian... It means the propaganda is working.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
But it is an odd line to toss in that's why people are talking about it. If it was a totally normal kind of line to say in a superhero movie, nobody would bring it up.
How many superhero movies have been made the past 20 years? I dont know. Maybe 30 films? How many of them have people talking about dialogue involving racial accusations and "white privileged" people in the other 29 films if you exclude this movie?
Probably none because no other film has this kind of line as it's out of scope. Now if Batman was a modern day version of To Kill a Mockingbird, then OK it makes sense for people to talk race. But in a superhero movie where the focus is typically people with super powers going for world domination, to inject some race relations into it is not the kind of content fitting for a comic book film unless lets say the plot involved Zombie Nazis or something.
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WoodyStare
Member
Seeing it a second time tonight. Quite an experience in the Dolby theater.
PaddyOCanager
Member
I loved it in the theater, but gonna wait for streaming for my next viewing. Settling in on the couch, in my own home and shutting out the outside world sounds great.
WoodyStare
Member
Yeah being on HBO Max after 45 days isn’t bad, and I debated waiting for that. During my first viewing the theater was dead silent and I just loved the experience so I figured what the hell, I’ll see it once more with a few friends and support it. Definitely buying the 4K steelbook when it comes out.
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
This movie has nothing to do with any movie made in the past 20 years, though. It's DC for a start and it doesn't even tie into any of their awful shit. There isn't some rulebook superhero movies are "supposed" to follow and thank god for it. It's literally one line in a 3 hour movie, the movie is not about race in any way, a very small minority of people are reading into it too much because the internet has taught them to be on guard for this stuff in everything they consume.
You should stop thinking of it as a writer injecting something with an agenda and start thinking of it as something a poor black woman would absolutely say about CEOs. They ARE mostly white. They ARE rich assholes, to those people with nothing. That doesn't stop one of them being the hero of the movie and that's the point you didn't take with you, you just heard a black woman say white and that was apparently it. The irony of the line is the takeaway, not the line itself.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
DeathScentance
Banned
PaddyOCanager
Member
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Might be a struggle considering he's dead, but if the line actually had a purpose, for instance pointing out the irony in the line itself and who it's aimed at? Sure, it would be fine. If the line was literally just "whites bad" for no reason? More of a problem. Context matters and here I just don't have a problem with it. If you wanna see real "woke" DC, there's Batwoman.
I don't know or care what race you are because it's completely irrelevant to what you're actually saying about the intention of the movie, put the card away.
Taking the advice of the above though and stepping out, if people want to live Twitter-level conspiracies about superhero movies pushing race agendas live rent free in their heads, it's up to them, can't change that. Normal people will recognise it as one line in a crime thriller script and move swiftly on.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Vaelka
Member
I really don't like how Batman is basically portrayed as Superman tbh.
It's especially bizarre when people call it '' grounded and realistic '', ffs can people stop saying that just because something is dark and gritty lol?
The Nolan movies felt more grounded and realistic imo, and I don't think they actually were but they gave off that feeling better at least.
It's just kinda dumb tbh to see Batman walk through a hallway while getting shot at full-auto not even trying to dodge anything or being affected at all by bullets.
In the Nolan movies Batman getting shot felt like an actual threat and he even got stabbed almost to death.
Not saying this movie is bad I just find the portrayal to feel very odd for Batman and also it makes it feel difficult to take any threat seriously.
It's especially bizarre when people call it '' grounded and realistic '', ffs can people stop saying that just because something is dark and gritty lol?
The Nolan movies felt more grounded and realistic imo, and I don't think they actually were but they gave off that feeling better at least.
It's just kinda dumb tbh to see Batman walk through a hallway while getting shot at full-auto not even trying to dodge anything or being affected at all by bullets.
In the Nolan movies Batman getting shot felt like an actual threat and he even got stabbed almost to death.
Not saying this movie is bad I just find the portrayal to feel very odd for Batman and also it makes it feel difficult to take any threat seriously.
PaddyOCanager
Member
Yeah he's definitely the most bulletproof/explosionproof Batman we've ever seen. They have set up a challenge from a physical threat perspective. That's why someone like Mr. Freeze or Poison Ivy could be cool, or a Court of Owls. Killer Croc or Clayface could probably still tear his arms off too.
Cleared_Hot
Member
I gave it 7.5/10
Visually 10/10 though. It felt like Blade Runner meets Taxi Driver. Which is perfect. I only wish TDK series had this look.
I guess young Batman is still learning ... But uh, he doesn't even try to be Bruce Wayne-y. Just Batman in and out. But it's okay, I liked how fucking pissed off and miserable he was. His life was fucking destroyed by a POS and now he's surrounded by pos's every where he goes. He's going to have to mature a bit and realize Bruce can be just as valuable at Batman.
Some of the romantic stuff was out of place/forced.
Dano was decent but his scenes felt somewhat ripped from TDK (cell phone video/getting caught on purpose + interrogation scene), and his performance is overrated. Felt like "there will be blood" theatrics all over again.
Gordon casting it's excellent, just seems like he keeps Batman around because he sucks at being a detective without him. I mean Alfred contributed way more than did Gordon by deciphering everything. Like all Gordon did was get Batman in trouble, or plug a fucking thumb drive into a computer connected to the internet (holy fuck that was stupid). Gordon's only benefit was literally the fact that he got Batman into crime scenes lol. He better up his game or I'm HOPING the "killing joke" takes place.
Also, outside a couple of throwaway woke lines by Catwoman, who in all honesty her character design would probably say some woke shit so I'm cool with it... I did notice the whole film was basically like "white guys=bad/black people=good" with Batman being either bad or good depending on how you look at it... Little too obvious to honestly
Visually 10/10 though. It felt like Blade Runner meets Taxi Driver. Which is perfect. I only wish TDK series had this look.
I guess young Batman is still learning ... But uh, he doesn't even try to be Bruce Wayne-y. Just Batman in and out. But it's okay, I liked how fucking pissed off and miserable he was. His life was fucking destroyed by a POS and now he's surrounded by pos's every where he goes. He's going to have to mature a bit and realize Bruce can be just as valuable at Batman.
Some of the romantic stuff was out of place/forced.
Dano was decent but his scenes felt somewhat ripped from TDK (cell phone video/getting caught on purpose + interrogation scene), and his performance is overrated. Felt like "there will be blood" theatrics all over again.
Gordon casting it's excellent, just seems like he keeps Batman around because he sucks at being a detective without him. I mean Alfred contributed way more than did Gordon by deciphering everything. Like all Gordon did was get Batman in trouble, or plug a fucking thumb drive into a computer connected to the internet (holy fuck that was stupid). Gordon's only benefit was literally the fact that he got Batman into crime scenes lol. He better up his game or I'm HOPING the "killing joke" takes place.
Also, outside a couple of throwaway woke lines by Catwoman, who in all honesty her character design would probably say some woke shit so I'm cool with it... I did notice the whole film was basically like "white guys=bad/black people=good" with Batman being either bad or good depending on how you look at it... Little too obvious to honestly
Cleared_Hot
Member
How tf do you review a movie without comparing it to what you know is good?
Cleared_Hot
Member
BS. He did a lot of deciphering. More than we can say for Gordon's contributions
Dr.Guru of Peru
played the long game
Just saw it too. Loved it. I don't know if they should even make a sequel, it would only risk tainting the greatness of the original.
alstrike
Member
Watched it today in IMAX and holy fucking shit Matt Reeves knocked it out of the park.
By the way, I was one of those that thought Robert Pattinson couldn't be a good Batman. Let me tell you, not only he's good, he's the best after Bale.
The moment he beats the living shit out of that first goon I was 100% in.
By the way, I was one of those that thought Robert Pattinson couldn't be a good Batman. Let me tell you, not only he's good, he's the best after Bale.
The moment he beats the living shit out of that first goon I was 100% in.
DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
Gordon wouldn't be commissioner OR solving crimes without Batman. That's how it always is in the movies LMBO!
PaddyOCanager
Member
Really? I'm actually very interested in a sequel which is rare for me. I'd like to see him coming into his own as Bruce Wayne.
MaestroMike
Gold Member
nice action scenes. i'm used to the characters paul dano plays so he didn't really weird me out if thats what he was trying to pull off playing the riddler. I didn't even remember that he was in the movie until I saw him, but the riddler guy kept reminding me of him before I saw that it was actually him. I guess it was the voice. lol they should've been able to drop f-bombs in this movie in that chase scene with penguin when he called batman freaking psycho that was a perfect time to drop the f-bomb! but I guess rob plays a decent batman like him more than ben affleck christian bale is still my guy tho I guess the next one is going to have the joker in it.
DonJorginho
Banned
I told you guys that Pattinson would be the greatest on-screen Batman.
Sybrix
Member
I know what you mean, its a great film in itself however Warner Bros want a DC Universe so sequels will be coming.
My concern is like Wonder Woman, the sequel does damage to the original.
Really hope they dont fuck it up
I saw the movie a week ago, and wouldn’t put myself through that again. I spent the last 30mins or more, giving it the wrap up signal with my hand, much to the delight of the people next to me.
It is a well crafted movie, with a lot of great elements, however they didn’t culminate in an enjoyable film. I wasn’t massively engaged with the story, I didn’t find the detective work that interesting, and the payoff wasn’t worth the tedious nature of it.
The performances were solid overall. I wasn’t a huge fan of serkis as Alfred. Not sure if it was the writing, or minimal scenes.
In the end, if The dark knight and The batman we’re both playing on TV, I’d watch The dark knight.
It is a well crafted movie, with a lot of great elements, however they didn’t culminate in an enjoyable film. I wasn’t massively engaged with the story, I didn’t find the detective work that interesting, and the payoff wasn’t worth the tedious nature of it.
The performances were solid overall. I wasn’t a huge fan of serkis as Alfred. Not sure if it was the writing, or minimal scenes.
In the end, if The dark knight and The batman we’re both playing on TV, I’d watch The dark knight.
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DeafTourette
Perpetually Offended
This Batman isn't going to have supernatural heroes in it. He's the only one. No wonder woman, no Superman, no Aquaman. It's standalone like Keaton and Bale.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
I don't think DC and WB understand what makes a good comic book movie.