Only read a few pages of this thread, but I just got back from it.
I love the shit out of the Nolan trilogy, and TDK will probably remain my favorite for some time to come because of the characterization, and that punchy way the film rolls.
But this movie is far and away number two for me out of all the other film offerings and takes on the character. In so far as TDK trilogy was a character study on Bruce Wayne, this movie felt like it was all about Batman. Fuck, don't quote me on this, but it feels like the most screentime Bruce Wayne has gotten in the actual costume in some time.
I enjoyed how this was an origin story of sorts without rehashing the Wayne's murder and how Bruce found the cave and decided to be a vigilante. It was the second step, how Batman went from a vigilante and the embodiment of vengeance and fear to an icon in the city that people could look to to stand up against the corruption oozing out of every street corner.
I enjoyed the different take on the rogue gallery in this incarnation, too. I guess Nolan kind of pioneered this, in a sense, but every film before Batman Begins (and even kind of including it) was tongue in cheek, wink at the audience aware of the source material, in a very jaded, executive way. Villains were super eccentric scenery munchers, with flamboyant costumes and armies of mooks in villain-themed uniforms and it was just all very fake, and hammy, and not always in the charming way.
So seeing faces like Catwoman, Penguin, and the Riddler dialed back into (still outrageous, but) not entirely implausible characters was neat. The early reviews were pretty accurate, it feels like the love child of classic comic books, Sherlock Holmes and Seven, with just a few drops of Burtonesque dark and gloomy for flavor.
It's also worth noting that for the portrayal of this iteration of Batman, they really couldn't have picked better villains. Batman is a detective, he works with the police, he's a brilliant person. If you were to choose basically any villain in past movies to feature here, it would clash with the atmosphere, I think. Riddler was a fantastic foil to "the thinking man's Batman," and weirdo that I am, I thought it was a major subversion to A. Never have the hero and the villain physically fight each other, and B. Have your big action setpiece climax occur AFTER the villain has been taken out of the picture. Felt like the ferry experiment in TDK, but even then Joker and Batman ended up throwing hands. Pretty cool.
Cinematography was ace, sound design was pretty cool, the aesthetic of Gotham was tastefully off kilter and faithful to it's source. I've got my jeans with holes in the knees and my flannel shirt close to my heart, but I'm an absolute dirty whore for "Something In The Way," by Nirvana, and I never imagined it could be used so well in fucking Batman of all things, and at two separate moments, and evoking two separate emotions.
Downsides (and these are minor)
It could have been trimmed down 15-20 minutes, easy. It was slow, and I like a slow burn (Kingdom Hearts II intro is my favorite, fight me) but I could see it being a bait and switch for people used to the TDK and Batman Forevers.
The race swapping for certain characters was noticeable, and if you did that in the reverse order, you'd surely hear about it, but every actor was very suitable for their characters, and nothing felt out of place.
I thought some of the climax was LOL and a bit on the nose #Ally. The whole commentary on "rich white men," and the masked bad dude doing a livestream to promote an armed insurrection on election day was just kind of...blatant.
But yeah, surprisingly happy with this film.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
