Warning: Rant. Not because I hated it but because I think I could have loved it.
I'm conflicted. I had high expectations that it did not live up to based on the source material which I'm not sure is fair to use in a critique, but a lot of what made it good was the source material that it didn't flesh out. Think Alfred being blown up. If you knew nothing of Batman this scene meant near next to nothing as they barely spoke.
It would be like if you they started with Rocky III and you saw Mickey die, it just wouldn't have the same impact without Rocky and Rocky II. But because it's Alfred and we know Batman we know how important that bomb is.
Except...then it actually doesn't matter because Alfred ends up being a metahuman who can survive bombs that blow up floors. He can also solve riddles that the greatest detective can't. So I don't see why we need Batman, just get this Alfred out there to clean up Gotham in a night.
And then even the aftermath of the bomb doesn't really matter. Thomas Wayne was corrupt? Actually no, he just loved his wife and was stupid.
We have Joker minions who don't know who Batman is? A low-level Gordon (not Commissioner) just let's a crazed vigilante walk through a crime scene of the the commissioner and no cop speaks up? Crooked or clean, every cop should have shown a huge problem with that. And the killing of a commissioner would warrant having someone more than a lieutenant in charge of the crime scene.
Like have them do the crime scenes sans Batman and get the envelope and have some random cop ask how they going to get it to him and then have Gordon look to the shadows somewhere say "shouldn't be hard" and have Batman come out of it. Now you got Batman being ninja and Gordon being the best cop to realize he was there without having to resort to "it's a comic book movie who cares" to defend something so stupid as them allowing a criminal vigilante hated by most of the people there taint the evidence of the most important murder since the Waynes. And what's worse it they bring this up like 2 hours into the movie after another crime scene. It's weird and little things like this and the explosions that could blow up buildings but not hurt plot armored characters really took me out of the the grounded story they were going for.
I really liked the Riddler's character. I wish they were able to give his minions a more compelling backstory, whether it was incels or white nationalists that Riddler was using as a means (especially with the running mayor being a person of colour and could have her a bit of an AOC hate from the far right) or even anarchists or the dreaded antifa. I understand though that in doing so the movie be labelled as "woke" or some ####. But without doing that you just get a cliched third act with Batman saving Gotham from some random goons and disaster that came out of nowhere.
I was really hoping that this movie would be one that you would need to watch again after Riddler's clues come together to see what we missed (think Memento or The Usual Suspects). But nah, it was a generic blow up the dam out of nowhere attack.
The chemistry between Selina/Catwoman and Batman was also out of place given that Selina was looking for her friend who I first thought was her lover but then seemed to be more of a surrogate mother-child, older sister-younger sister, relationship I guess? Either way her and Batman making out seemed in poor taste as they are trying to save her (or just found out she died).
Tone, style, overall plot, I would rate high. Execution though poor. If you want to turn into a popcorn flick comic book movie it's above par but if you're looking for a smart detective noir with Batman finally showing his amazing detective work (DETECTIVE COMICS afterall), you'll be letdown.
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