I also saw this opening weekend and really didn't like it, which was quite disappointing, since Batman has always been the comic book hero that I have most appreciated and enjoyed historically. For me, both the Tim Burton Batman movies and all of the Nolan films were far superior, but "The Batman" does have a very high rating on IMDB (8.4/10, I think), as well as strong reviews from critics, which has me kind of questioning my own judgment on this. I just don't understand why people like this movie so much. Can those of you who liked it go into some more depth on your thoughts on it?
For me, I found it to be much too long. I found the story to be highly convoluted and at times difficult to follow. The tone of the film felt far too dark and gloomy, and even visually, I found the cinematography, which a lot are loving, to also be far too dark. Yoda is right that some scenes were well done, such as the scene where the screen was illuminated largely by the bullets flashing. However, at times, it was actually difficult to see what was happening on the screen for me, and most of the scenes were set during the evening, or when it was raining, etc. I do have an OLED TV though, so that could help explain why I felt this way, as I find watching movies in theaters generally don't have the color vibrancy and contrast between color and the deep black levels that I am used to from watching my TV.
For a Batman film, I also found the pacing to be uneven, with at times a much too slow moving plot, with much less action than I would have expected when compared to the other films in the series. In terms of the performances, I felt several of the actors were miscast, including Jeffrey Wright, who acted much the same as he did in "Westworld," which I felt to be an odd depiction for the character, as well as Zoe Kravitz, who played Catwoman. I also didn't much like Paul Dano's performance as the Riddler, and also felt like Andy Serkis was miscast as Alfred.
Regarding Robert Pattinson's performance as Batman, which a lot of people were concerned about when he was cast, I actually felt that he was mostly fine, but I did find that there was very little of Bruce Wayne in this film, and that Robert Pattinson really acted much the same portraying both Batman and Bruce Wayne, which I found to be quite odd and a flaw in his acting, given that the duality of the character has always been a large part of the portrayal in other films. Casting is a very subjective determination though, so many may like the casting better than I did. I also felt that since the film focused largely on Batman, with many of the other characters being more in the periphery, that most of the other actors had much less character development, which I didn't like, so I may have liked these performances better if the writing and character development to support those performances was, in my opinion, stronger.
I also found that due to the dark and gloomy tone and slow pace, much less action, and relative absence of Bruce Wayne, that the film kind of lacked the fun factor and broader action set pieces that made a lot of the other movies in the series entertaining. This film felt more insular, more confined in scope, and the action felt more interior, which I didn't really like, since that made it feel less like epic and less like a Batman film to me when compared to both Burton and Nolan's films.
As for what I did like, the corruption theme, and the fact that fighting corruption in Gotham and exposing its hypocrisy was front and center in the film. I also liked that Reeves seemed to be trying to make a film that was different than the other films in the series, and offer something we hadn't seen before, even if I didn't like the execution of it. If I were to rate it, I think I'd give it a C. "Batman v. Superman" and "Batman and Robin" were definitely worse, and I do think that the director was successful in achieving the aesthetic that he was obviously going for, so the film was technically proficiently made, but I just didn't find the movie to be entertaining to watch.
Hope those of you that are looking forward to seeing this like it better than I did! For those that disagree with this review, I'm totally fine with that, as I like to hear different points of view. What did you appreciate that I'm missing here?
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