👼💩🦇👨

[alaterdate]

I went to go see The Batman on release day and it was the first time I went to an IMAX in years oh my god. I love going to the movies, but I've usually just gone to my local rinky dink theater down the street because it's super cheap compared to out-of-city and even downtown. I even drove an hour both ways to go see it and I hate driving (but it was not too bad a drive if I have to rank it). The movie released on my friend's birthday and we'd been excited to see it ever since we heard Robert Pattinson was going to play Batman, so I was willing to make the drive, for them 😌🙏.

I liked the trailers for The Batman because they were so emo. Pattinson with the black makeup around his eyes and the scrungy hair. They felt like a vibe. I thought the movie was either going to be good, or hilariously bad. Either way, what bliss. I didn't want to have too high expectations though because: superhero movie.
But holy shit, Batman. I loved it.

The last superhero movie I saw was Spiderman: No Way Home and that movie pleasantly surprised me by reminding me how much I love Spiderman. The Batman reminded me how much I love movies.

Cut for length and spoilers

The camerawork, set design, lighting, score, script, costumes. Everything meshed together so well to create this movie. It felt like a collaboration, a concentrated effort all colliding into a cohesive vision.
The opening, slow, weird, caught me off guard. It immediately told me that this was not a superhero movie (whether or not you think Batman is technically a superhero lol).

I fucking loved the un-hyper quality of it. The slow pacing, the use of rain as censor, the color, the shadow. There's this old, or indie, or practical, quality to it that brings it down from the heights of how we think of Batman and other superheros today, even if it was meant to be a big budget blockbuster.
The citizens of Gotham even being creeped out and wary of Batman in the movie plays on that too. Who is this guy? We don't know him. He doesn't even know himself.
And there's this immediate element of horror in it as well when it begins with the criminals in the city being afraid of the shadows, that then dissipates when Batman finally appears onscreen and the criminals he confronts practically laugh at him only to be brought back by the fear in the face of the young criminal-to-be whose initiation Batman had stopped. The whole film weaves in and out of this.
I've heard people saying that it's "too dark and humorlessness", but I don't find that true at all. Batman does exhibit a dark sense of humor at least once and there were a lot of parts where in-world it may have been "serious business", but as a viewer it's funny. And I think it can be hard for people to get, because they've come to expect to be told that something is a joke and not have to wonder about it (which bleeds into a conversation I'm loathe to have, so let's move on).

The score is absolutely haunting in the best way. The reason I'm even writing this post right now is because I was listening to the score while working on a horror story. It's so damn good. The way they incorporate the music so well is a highlight of the movie. There's these stings that are so reminiscent of the "cheesy" Adam West version, yet so integrated into the score that they don't feel out of place in a modern movie. I absolutely loved every time it happened.

Gotham was brought to life in such a beautiful way that captured many aspects of the Batman story. There's the brutalist city buildings, the gothic cavernous church, and the art deco mob hangouts. I loved how framed the architecture was in the movie.
There are these great shots in front of this one art deco window that I adore. And one part where a flashlight shines into a dark elevator and BAM the interior is art deco, then they come into a hallway, and the bottom part of the building is brutalist, modern, looks like a damn prison. Ah, it's such a unexpected blend that I enjoyed seeing.

I did not mind that this movie was nearly three hours long because the slow pacing was able to complete an entire story with different threads and the base level of action made the heightened scenes that much more suspenseful. The car chase scene, chef's fucking kiss.
They also got to explore this Batman who was just getting his wings. And I loved the direction they went with the character too. There's a great line from the Riddler near the end of the movie that I think really sums it up.

The Riddler tells Batman, that like him, he is most himself when he dons the mask. Highlighting the lack of Bruce Wayne's persona in this film. It's about his obsession as much as the Riddler's. There's pretty much no Bruce Wayne in this movie. Even the woman running for mayor has that line about the Wayne's history of philanthropy and how Bruce was not living up to it. Which splits between both this lack of the Bruce persona and the reveal about his father, so it's putting in double work while also being brushed off by Bruce at the same time. So I like that line a lot too (and they used it in the trailers as well).
He's the Batman. He wants to be the Batman all the time, but he needs to learn that it's not enough. He'll need to use the persona of Bruce Wayne as well to help the city. He's not even the greatest detective yet. He's clearly primed himself to be aggressive and let his rage fuel him until the very end where compassion is shown to be the thing the city truly needs.
It's a great sort of lead to what this character can grow into and I'd love to see it explored if they do decide to make another movie.

I'm also fine with this being a single movie, because I don't think they'll end up keeping the same director honestly and it won't be the same then. Franchises don't seem to care about keeping up a coherent story and tone in their trilogies and milliogies.

This movie knows what themes it's playing at and it does it well. It's refreshing in it's style and I'm going to go see it again for sure. I recommend making a trip out to see it in theaters if you can and feel comfortable with that.

Comments

[sideways]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Not sure if I'll get to see it myself, but it sounds like they tried a few cool things. I remember reading an argument once that it was such a mistake to make "superhero" its own genre cinematically where there is room for so many within them - romances, action-adventures, comedies, and yes, horror. The best superhero flicks seem to be the ones that recognise this and lean into it.

[alaterdate]

I agree! It was refreshing to see (i think i already said this lmao).