8/10
Let's get that part outta the way. This was a great Batman movie, and a great movie on its own too.
Leaving the theater for the second time, a friend commented, "That was a long movie, but I don't know what I would have cut!"
True. 2hours 56minutes is no joke of a flick, so you'd better come correct with that nonsense! And it did. Nothing felt wasted, or stretched out. Pretty much everything propped up the story and felt balanced to me.
Well. . . perhaps I should say stories. I think there is a thing with 3s in this movie, and as I see it there are 3 stories working here.
- Who is the bad guy? Like, we kinda know, cause, trailers. But WHO is he? And why?
- Who is The Batman and why?
- Who is Gotham City?
The first two are probably pretty straight forward, and typical in most movies. Who is the hero and his/her counterpart? The third is probably more nebulous, or could be in most movies. In Nolan's Batverse, Gotham was kind of, incidental. Basically just Chicago, even when Bane was severing the ties to the mainland and trying to (in the voice now) "give Gotham back to the people". I think this was an attempt to personify the city, but it was a miss. Matt Reeves' Gotham seems to have it's own personification and mentality of its citizens. Batman and Gordan seem to be the outliers trying to make the city better, and everyone else is happy to wallow in the muck and corruption. This is really well illustrated in the the opening intro of the character of The Batman, or Vengeance as he calls himself, after saving a dude from a beatdown the guy is just as terrified of Bats as he was of the Joker gang. If someone saves you, there is a catch and you won't like it.
There are some other 3s that I noticed, SPOILERS ahead!
The three "bad guys" at the beginning as the suspense was built up for 'where is Batman?', three times entering Penguin's club, three stories about his parents, 3 villains, and if you add them all up it equals, awesome! Seriously I don't know if any of that is significant, it's just what I noticed.
Three villains?
Yup, that is correct! Well, one might say, protagonists I suppose.
- The Riddler. Okay, duh. I think this needs no explanation, it WAS in the trailers after all.
- Falcone. This mastermind ended up being the motivation for the "main" baddie thanks to his greed and scheming and drops dealing.
- The city of Gotham/the people's perception of Batman.
Number three is by far my favourite and the most interesting for Batman's character development. BatPat's first line of dialogue is answering a question, "who are you?" the reply?
"I'm Vengeance"
Setting the tone for what his reputation is in Gotham, and for what he is trying to do. The problem is that no one askes him "for what, bruh?" On top of the missing question, no one cares. This is Gotham, a cesspool of everyone looking out for only themselves with no regard to how their actions effect anyone else. So "Vengeance" is too close to "revenge" which is leaving everyone hurting already. The opening scene with the three sets of thugs and BatPat saving a dude from a pummeling, then said dude running away terrified that "Vengeance" would attach him next really shows this well. Contrasting that scene with the end sequence and the person being airlifted away, but they won't let go of Batman sums up perfectly that he had won against his own persona, and become a symbol of hope.
It is my hope that if they continue The Batman, that the themes will continue. Perhaps define in that same way of it being a background character growing device to show what is justice?
Overall, loved it. I saw it twice in theaters, something I pretty much NEVER do, and I will buy it when it comes out on disc.
-Vengeance
-Klerik
No comments:
Post a Comment