It’s amazing how things we love can easily be ruined and disfigured all because of the desire to satisfy some inner fanboy, or maybe because of the overwhelming desire to remain relevant and be able to make top dollar.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman is a good movie, don’t get me wrong. An enjoyable piece of storytelling that carves out its own immortal place in the Batman lore.
Is it a memorable Batman movie? I don’t think so.
You see, despite how many positive reviews and fan reactions we are going to get, when we really look at this iteration critically, we’ll realize there is nothing new this movie brought. Go ahead and make a checklist; new costume? Check. Batmobile? Check. Believable villain? Check. Memorable action sequence? Check.
This Batman movie actually put the main character under unwanted scrutiny I had hoped no movie director would ever have to deal with. There’s a scene where The Batman takes the full force of an explosion in the face, straight on, with only his cape, cowl and heavily rigged forearm there to protect him. Believably, he is knocked right out. The next time he is conscious he’s in a room with more than a dozen GCPD officers, including Jim Gordon, all of them standing over him. This must have been hours after the explosion, and somehow between that incident and him coming to, not even one paramedic thought it wise to remove his cowl or relieve him of his body armour to help with some damn ventilation?
I could have believed all of these missteps if the movie wasn’t trying too hard to be serious, like, really trying its darndest to craft this believable and relatable world of Gotham and goth.
I know this is supposed to be Bruce Wayne’s year 2 as the caped crusader but this movie made him look like he hadn’t learned a single thing from year 1. I can’t even deny it, I wasn’t impressed with this film as a Batman movie. I only enjoyed it as a movie, just like I enjoyed watching Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman’s Seven or Denzel and Angelina Jolie’s Bone Collector. This was definitely a mid Superhero movie for me.
Lastly, the Riddler’s final act before his boys took over left me scratching my head. 7 vans filled with explosives parked at strategic locations on the city’s waterfronts, powerful enough to burst sea walls and flood almost half the city. Come on. In a post 9/11 world???
Even Nolan made it seem as if Bane almost got caught with so many explosives which were eventually used to cut off almost all entryways and exit routes. This time around, I don’t even know what to say.
This movie isn’t that deep philosophically. It’s just a movie that wants to be taken seriously and ends up barely able to look distinct. Or maybe I’m just an MCU fan who doesn’t like DC movies.
