I went to see The Batman with high expectations. Robert Pattinson has proven that he is a great actor, and I couldn't wait to see what he would bring to the role. I was also excited to see the new darker approach that they've been promoting for the movie.
I ended up disappointed. I'm not saying the movie is bad, it still held its own, the story had good moments and wasn't boring throughout its 3 hours, some action scene were really good, it looked good, but it could (and should) have been so much better.
I found the directing very uninspired. Making batman a dark detective movie is a great idea, but that was undermined by dialogues and monologues that were EXTREMELY cliché. The Batman monologue in his mind at the end about the scars was just so American blockbuster empty bullshit... It works against the whole gritty detective thing they've been trying to set up this whole time.
The writing lacked that realism that the photography and music were pushing. It made most characters appear quite empty, especially when such great actors are portraying them. Pattinson is a great actor and he's trying his best with what's given to him (when he looks at the kid in the church, it's powerful, he knows how to convey emotions) but he is not given much to work with. He is a charismatic Batman with a great voice, but his Bruce Wayne is horribly written as some broody teenager. When Alfred wakes up at the hospital and the first thing B says was "You lied to me", I just laughed. The man raised him and he almost died. No.
Zoe Kravitz does her best too, but she has some really unfortunate lines that are a hard sell.
Don't get me started on the romantic relationship between the two that is not only not needed and out of character, but just comes out of nowhere. Yeah sure, this incredibly pretty, strong and clever woman is going to throw herself at some guy she met twice, heard him spoke literally 5 sentences total and only saw the bottom part of his face. Nope. Hollywood would have gotten away with this lazy writing 10 years ago but it's 2022, time to step up.
The main issue is that the movie doesn't know what it wants to be. It does not fully commit to one direction. It could have been so great if it just really fully went into this s7ven-style realistic dark psychological thriller vibe.
But it finds itself stranded between a dark thriller and an empty Hollywood action blockbuster, and the empty part really works against the realism of the movie here. It just doesn't say anything, the characters are under developed, the characters are acting out of character for plot purposes (Batman is shown to be incredibly intelligent throughout, figuring out the riddles with (maybe too much) ease, but he has to be told by the riddler about the grand finale?), some plot holes are left open (the police was supposed to go after Batman after the police station incident, where they literally shoot at the guy, but it never comes up again, and he is seen working with the police in the Riddler's apartment like nothing happened?), and the characters just really don't get much development for a 3 hours run.
Finally, unlike a lot of people here on IMDB I was not a fan of the score. There were a lot of times when I thought the score what painting a very different picture than the actual picture I was watching. When Batman rescues people at the end (the kid and the mayor) the music is so dramatic when what we're seeing is actually quite underwhelming. Same with his empty monologue at the end, the music tries to push it as some meaningful thing but it clashed with the emptiness of the lines. Lots of times the music is super dark and suspenseful but what we're seeing just isn't. The poor writing is probably more at fault that the score, but we still ended up with a ripped-off Darth Vader theme for the last combat scenes, so... yeah.
Overall, I was disappointed that the movie didn't hold up to what it could have been. That said, I would 100% watch the sequels in the hope that they hire better writers, take a bolder stance, develop Bruce Wayne's character and make something that lives up to the potential of this franchise and this cast.
I ended up disappointed. I'm not saying the movie is bad, it still held its own, the story had good moments and wasn't boring throughout its 3 hours, some action scene were really good, it looked good, but it could (and should) have been so much better.
I found the directing very uninspired. Making batman a dark detective movie is a great idea, but that was undermined by dialogues and monologues that were EXTREMELY cliché. The Batman monologue in his mind at the end about the scars was just so American blockbuster empty bullshit... It works against the whole gritty detective thing they've been trying to set up this whole time.
The writing lacked that realism that the photography and music were pushing. It made most characters appear quite empty, especially when such great actors are portraying them. Pattinson is a great actor and he's trying his best with what's given to him (when he looks at the kid in the church, it's powerful, he knows how to convey emotions) but he is not given much to work with. He is a charismatic Batman with a great voice, but his Bruce Wayne is horribly written as some broody teenager. When Alfred wakes up at the hospital and the first thing B says was "You lied to me", I just laughed. The man raised him and he almost died. No.
Zoe Kravitz does her best too, but she has some really unfortunate lines that are a hard sell.
Don't get me started on the romantic relationship between the two that is not only not needed and out of character, but just comes out of nowhere. Yeah sure, this incredibly pretty, strong and clever woman is going to throw herself at some guy she met twice, heard him spoke literally 5 sentences total and only saw the bottom part of his face. Nope. Hollywood would have gotten away with this lazy writing 10 years ago but it's 2022, time to step up.
The main issue is that the movie doesn't know what it wants to be. It does not fully commit to one direction. It could have been so great if it just really fully went into this s7ven-style realistic dark psychological thriller vibe.
But it finds itself stranded between a dark thriller and an empty Hollywood action blockbuster, and the empty part really works against the realism of the movie here. It just doesn't say anything, the characters are under developed, the characters are acting out of character for plot purposes (Batman is shown to be incredibly intelligent throughout, figuring out the riddles with (maybe too much) ease, but he has to be told by the riddler about the grand finale?), some plot holes are left open (the police was supposed to go after Batman after the police station incident, where they literally shoot at the guy, but it never comes up again, and he is seen working with the police in the Riddler's apartment like nothing happened?), and the characters just really don't get much development for a 3 hours run.
Finally, unlike a lot of people here on IMDB I was not a fan of the score. There were a lot of times when I thought the score what painting a very different picture than the actual picture I was watching. When Batman rescues people at the end (the kid and the mayor) the music is so dramatic when what we're seeing is actually quite underwhelming. Same with his empty monologue at the end, the music tries to push it as some meaningful thing but it clashed with the emptiness of the lines. Lots of times the music is super dark and suspenseful but what we're seeing just isn't. The poor writing is probably more at fault that the score, but we still ended up with a ripped-off Darth Vader theme for the last combat scenes, so... yeah.
Overall, I was disappointed that the movie didn't hold up to what it could have been. That said, I would 100% watch the sequels in the hope that they hire better writers, take a bolder stance, develop Bruce Wayne's character and make something that lives up to the potential of this franchise and this cast.