March 3, 2022 – The Batman.

First of all, it was fantastic! The plot wasn’t too complicated. The characters were well spaced out so everyone had their own time. The score was amazing of course. And as advertised, this showed the detective side of Batman much more than the other films.

Pattinson did quite well as Bruce. Showing us him during his second year as Batman where he’s known but still not yet quite trusted was a good move. Gotham is in a state of transition in many ways and everything felt built up in a way that offered change to come.

I wasn’t so sure about how they chose to portray Riddler from the promo information and the trailers and such, but it was well done. The characterization still seems a bit off when we see his goals and reasoning for what he’s doing, but it works for the story I suppose.

Selina Kyle. Zoë Kravitz was brilliant. There wasn’t too much about her past really other than what I feel like they made up for the plot, so that one part was a bit odd. But again, worked for the story. But she was great as this proto-Catwoman version of Selina. Also, Bruce and Selena’s chemistry was good. I mean Bruce is putting out his stoic kind of personality as Batman but it still works. And could set up for more down the line.

The action was certainly amazing. The fights were brutal and sound design assisted in that. The lighting was also well crafted. Of course it’s Gotham, so there’s a lot of darkness and the use of shadows was all over the place. Specifically the beginning of the movie when Batman is being introduced, the way the shadows are used in those sequences was probably a favorite aspect of the movie.

I may have to watch it again to really see if this is part of the movie, but I didn’t really feel the city of Gotham as a character. Sometimes with Batman projects, you watch or read and you just feel Gotham. There was a little bit of that, but as I said, I’ll watch it again to see for sure. But either way it didn’t detract from the movie.

It was a well done movie. Certainly one of the best Batman movies. The balance between crime fighter and detective was very well done. I’d still like to see Bruce be a bit more detective-like, but this was a good start.

Of course, we have no idea how we’ll see this iteration of Batman in the future of DC Films, but I’d be happy to see more of this. There were hints at what could be coming at the end, but we’ll see. This is on another Earth compared to the other DC Films as far as I remember being announced. But with the Flash movie basically being a Flashpoint story, this Batman could be ours in the future. Time will tell.

I certainly enjoyed The Batman. I hope that Pattinson stays in the role for a while.

Mid-credit scene: no

End-credit scene: not really a scene, but there’s something. You could probably guess what it is after seeing the movie, but if you want to stay, go for it.