Movies The Batman (04 March 2022) - Information Thread, update: deleted Arkham Asylum scene released

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Yeah she definitely shouldn't see this... he's uncomfortably creepy in this and has done for the Riddler what Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix did for the Joker. Dano is an AMAZING actor and I will burn this town down if he doesn't get some awards recognition.

 

21 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

If anything Dano's performance is EVEN MORE unsettling than Ledger's simply because we HAVE ALREADY SEEN individuals like that in real life.

The sequence after

Spoiler

he is arrested and Batman goes to talk to him is easily one of the best things ever done in a comic book film. Everything from the camera department to the sound design and to the editing suite enhance the incredible interplay between Batman and Riddler as performed by Pattinson and Dano. Maybe my favorite scene in any Batman movie to date.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Just now, sblfilms said:

The sequence after

  Reveal hidden contents

he is arrested and Batman goes to talk to him is easily one of the best things ever done in a comic book film. Everything from the camera department to the sound design and to the editing suite enhance the incredible interplay between Batman and Riddler as performed by Pattinson and Dano. Maybe my favorite scene in any Batman movie to date.

 

 

That sequence is absolutely terrifying.

[Brick]

1 hour ago, sblfilms said:

If she is creeped out by Dano, under no circumstance try and make her watch this. He creeped me out in this role!

 

35 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Yeah she definitely shouldn't see this... he's uncomfortably creepy in this and has done for the Riddler what Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix did for the Joker. Dano is an AMAZING actor and I will burn this town down if he doesn't get some awards recognition.

 

Noted.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I honestly do believe that this film should've received an R-rating even with the content that was present in the theatrical release.  There were definitely parts that I felt were just far too thematically mature for a PG-13 film.

 

Gotham has never looked and felt grimier or seedier.  It genuinely reminded me of a 1970s crime film like Taxi Driver or Serpico where you can feel the sleaze and corruption slithering off  the screen and on to your skin to the point where I genuinely felt dirty.

[Captain Pickle]

6 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I honestly do believe that this film should've received an R-rating even with the content that was present in the theatrical release.  There were definitely parts that I felt were just far too thematically mature for a PG-13 film.

 

Gotham has never looked and felt grimier or seedier.  It genuinely reminded me of a 1970s crime film like Taxi Driver or Serpico where you can feel the sleaze and corruption slithering off  the screen and on to your skin to the point where I genuinely felt dirty.

I can’t wait to see this film. F it. I’m going alone

[best3444]

This sounds phenomenal. I have to see this.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I wanna see it again. I'll definitely be watching when it's out on streaming.

 

Kinda makes me wanna dive back into some of those unread Batman graphic novels I have on Comixology.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

6 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I wanna see it again. I'll definitely be watching when it's out on streaming.

 

Kinda makes me wanna dive back into some of those unread Batman graphic novels I have on Comixology.

 

It's pretty evident that Year One, The Long Halloween, and Dark Victory were the primary influences on this film.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

1 minute ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

It's pretty evident that Year One, The Long Halloween, and Dark Victory were the primary influences on this film.

Yeah. I've read The Long Halloween, but not the others. I do have Year One, though. Probably start there.

[Keyser_Soze]

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I honestly do believe that this film should've received an R-rating even with the content that was present in the theatrical release.  There were definitely parts that I felt were just far too thematically mature for a PG-13 film.

 

Gotham has never looked and felt grimier or seedier.  It genuinely reminded me of a 1970s crime film like Taxi Driver or Serpico where you can feel the sleaze and corruption slithering off  the screen and on to your skin to the point where I genuinely felt dirty.

 

But now they can sell toys of this borderline R movie!

[best3444]

9 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

But now they can sell toys of this borderline R movie!

 

Precisely. No way they make a Batman movie rated R lol.

[skillzdadirecta]

11 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

It's pretty evident that Year One, The Long Halloween, and Dark Victory were the primary influences on this film.

There's a couple of others as well... Zero Year is definitely an influence too.

[cusideabelincoln]

On 3/6/2022 at 8:38 AM, SuperSpreader said:

My notes above your post. It might have been better than the Nolan films?

 

 

The only thing that would give TDK the edge over this movie is Ledger's performance. It was just so good and unexpected at the time. But... I think I do also prefer this movie over the Nolan ones, and it probably is the best Batman movie overall. It's the best take on Gotham and the Wayne legacy, Patterson is a phenomenal Batman and Bruce Wayne, the plot is intriguing and not overly-convoluted, just about every bit of dialogue is in service to the characters' motives, and the cinematography is emotional. There's a lot of Batman mythos at work here, and I love how the movie takes all the things we have been shown about Batman in his other movies, perfects them, and then takes the character in the complete opposite direction from when we last saw him - in the Justice League where that version of Batman realizes he has no chance of inspiring hope.

 

On 3/6/2022 at 12:29 PM, skillzdadirecta said:

Yes. Immediately... go to the first showing on a weekday if you want to avoid crowds. It's what i did. The one thing that really stands out to me is the directorial choices and confidence on display in this movie. One of the reasons for the run time is that Reeves let's scenes really play out and develop so that the story is being told by actions and acting and not through dialogue. For instance in past movies we're told  that Batman is scary and scares criminals. In this, they really show it and go out of their way to put us in the criminals perspective when he shows up. Like when 

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Batman shows up when a gang of Clowns are attacking a guy on Subway. There's an extended sequence when you just hear his footsteps before he emerges out of the darkness.

or

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In the GREAT sequence when he's chasing Penguin in the Batmobile and you see the chase from Penguin's perspective. There's a whole couple of minutes where you don't see Batman at all in the car. You just see the car pursuing Penguin like Christine or something.

Even his interactions with the police...

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Most of the cops view him as a psycho so when he shows up on crime scenes you can see their discomfort and he absolutely TOWERS over everyone in the room. I don't know how tall Pattinson is in real life but they deliberately make Batman as intimidating as possible in those scenes.

So many touches like that make this the closest live screen representation of the character I grew up reading. Great Stuff here.

 

I tried, and failed because they were played everywhere, to avoid all the trailers after the first one, because I think they showed way too much for my liking.  While the scenes were visually gripping even knowing what was coming, I prefer the surprise of being awed and I felt like I was robbed of that surprise by the car chase scene being shown in trailers. If anything, the only trailer that should have existed for this movie should have been the shot of Batman walking out of the shadows. That's it; that's all it needed: intrigue and word of mouth. 

[SuperSpreader]

5 minutes ago, cusideabelincoln said:

 

The only thing that would give TDK the edge over this movie is Ledger's performance. It was just so good and unexpected at the time. But... I think I do also prefer this movie over the Nolan ones, and it probably is the best Batman movie overall. It's the best take on Gotham and the Wayne legacy, Patterson is a phenomenal Batman and Bruce Wayne, the plot is intriguing and not overly-convoluted, just about every bit of dialogue is in service to the characters' motives, and the cinematography is emotional. There's a lot of Batman mythos at work here, and I love how the movie takes all the things we have been shown about Batman in his other movies, perfects them, and then takes the character in the complete opposite direction from when we last saw him - in the Justice League where that version of Batman realizes he has no chance of inspiring hope.

 

 

This felt the most like the animated series 

[cusideabelincoln]

14 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

This felt the most like the animated series 

 

That exact thought went through my mind about halfway through the runtime. A part of that is Batman is not

 

Spoiler

fawning over some chick like he is in the Nolan and Burton movies. We finally get a good Batman story where he doesn't have to save a damsel in distress. 

 

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, cusideabelincoln said:

I tried, and failed because they were played everywhere, to avoid all the trailers after the first one, because I think they showed way too much for my liking.  While the scenes were visually gripping even knowing what was coming, I prefer the surprise of being awed and I felt like I was robbed of that surprise by the car chase scene being shown in trailers. If anything, the only trailer that should have existed for this movie should have been the shot of Batman walking out of the shadows. That's it; that's all it needed: intrigue and word of mouth. 

Yeah I avoided most of the marketing for this movie besides the initial one or two trailers. I did see some of the car chase but even with that the scene was still as impactful on me as if I had gone in completely blind.

[SoberChef]

A lot of people keep pining for Court of Owls, and while absolutely warranted & would be a welcome change to be adapted & brought forth, there are elements of that storyline that I feel work better having the Bat-Family. That being said however, to see Reeves & Fraser work together to bring the labyrinth/maze scene to life, would alone be well worth the price admission. I got major "No Man's Land" by the end of this film & that itself would be an interesting story line to develop as well. 

 

I feel as though Matt Reeves very well may be the steward of all things Bat related through at least the rest of this decade & I am very much OK with that being a thing. Hell of a legacy for him to leave after playing with as much of it as he wants. Just please keep Giacchino on the payroll for the films as well as the show(s) being developed for HBOMax. Genuinely, I wouldn't mind if DC/Warner just left THIS "Bat-verse" alone & unto itself, away from the rest of the DCEU.

[skillzdadirecta]

So for those who saw the movie, do you think 

Spoiler

that the substance Batman injected himself with was Venom?

because that's my guess. @SoberChef there's a VERY underrated Batman story that I always wanted to see adapted called Prey that would be PERFECT for the big screen. It probably hasn't been because Hugo Strange is the main villain along another character called The Night Scourge who I believe was a one and done character. Catwoman was part of this storyline too. Great storyline that takes place right around this time period in Batman's career. I think another reason why this story is overlooked is because the very next arc after it is the Venom arc that introduces that substance several years before Bane is introduced.

 

@Commissar SFLUFAN You ever read that one?

[SoberChef]

I just got done watching the Fatman on Batman review The Batman & they spoke about that aspect specifically & I wondered when I watched the scene as to why exactly the substance was that color, and it totally makes sense!

Hugo Strange has not had his moment in a live action film & I don't know why it never dawned on me until now of that fact. As for "Prey", I hadn't heard of it but I'll definitely look it up after this post to see what its all about!

[skillzdadirecta]

 

Dano is a fucking G... I'm normally not a fan of letting actors "direct from in front of the camera", but when you have someone that talented and frankly brilliant, you let them do their thing. 200 takes is a LOT but in this case, it seems like it was worth it.

 

On another note, another incredibly underrated Batman story is Batman: The Cult written by Infinty Gauntlet and Thanos creator Jim STarlin and art by Bernie Wrightson who did a lot of horror comics in the 70's. This was a four issue Prestige Format comic that came out in the late 80's and had Batman facing off against Deacon Blackfire, another under used Batman villain. What's great about this is it's a very horror influenced comic and it was the first time that I know of that a villain actual "broke" Batman. Yeah Deacon broke him years before Bane did and while Bane broke him physically, Deacon broke him mentally. GREAT story that I think got overshadowed because it came out RIGHT around the same time as the Killing Joke which ate up all of the oxygen. This is another story BEGGING to be adapted at some point.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

8 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

So for those who saw the movie, do you think 

  Reveal hidden contents

that the substance Batman injected himself with was Venom?

because that's my guess. @SoberChef there's a VERY underrated Batman story that I always wanted to see adapted called Prey that would be PERFECT for the big screen. It probably hasn't been because Hugo Strange is the main villain along another character called The Night Scourge who I believe was a one and done character. Catwoman was part of this storyline too. Great storyline that takes place right around this time period in Batman's career. I think another reason why this story is overlooked is because the very next arc after it is the Venom arc that introduces that substance several years before Bane is introduced.

 

@Commissar SFLUFAN You ever read that one?

 

I haven't read that one, but I'll definitely add it to the list.

 

Also, I definitely agree with your hidden content, because that's EXACTLY what I said to myself when I saw it!

[skillzdadirecta]

33 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I haven't read that one, but I'll definitely add it to the list.

 

Also, I definitely agree with your hidden content, because that's EXACTLY what I said to myself when I saw it!

Read The Cult too, if you haven't. Ten Nights of The Beast is also a good one too but may be a little dated given it involved a plot to kill Ronald Reagan  It doesn't age very well and is peak 80's, but it's fun and introduces the KGBeast who up until me meet Bane a couple of years later, was portrayed as Batman's equal if not superior in a lot of ways. 

[TheLeon]

3 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

 

Dano is a fucking G... I'm normally not a fan of letting actors "direct from in front of the camera", but when you have someone that talented and frankly brilliant, you let them do their thing. 200 takes is a LOT but in this case, it seems like it was worth it.

 

After being so good in Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood in back to back years, I figured it was only a matter of time before he became a huge star. He also has Spielberg’s The Fabelmans coming (presumably) this year. I bet he’ll get some recognition for a combination of that movie and this one. 

[Brian]

Back in college, a local movie theater had a $5 student ticket if you saw a move before 3pm. It was hard to get people to come to a movie early so I saw many alone. It didn’t bother me.  I actually ended up preferring being alone. It was a nice place to relax and unwind. Plus in the hotter months, it had ac unlike the dorm rooms. 

[osxmatt]

I saw this last night. First movie I've seen at a theater in 4-5 years.

 

It's exactly the movie Matt Reeves promised, and I'm so happy to see it delivered to perfection. This is the Batman movie I've always wanted. Robert Pattinson was incredible as Batman. A visceral fighter and physically imposing, and his dialogue delivery as Batman was fantastic. The nearly 3 hours went by just like that, and I found myself wanting to sit there for more.

 

I think the movie was best when Batman was 1-on-1 with another character, either scouring a crime scene or exploring their characters. I actually found myself uninterested and underwhelmed during some of the larger set pieces.

[Kamusha]

 

[skillzdadirecta]

13 minutes ago, Komusha said:

 

50% of that is me.

[Kamusha]

I was already a sad emo girl before The Batman made it cool again.

[Brick]

Wait, why couldn't Hugo Strange make it to live action? What's preventing that? 

[skillzdadirecta]

46 minutes ago, Brick said:

Wait, why couldn't Hugo Strange make it to live action? What's preventing that? 

Nothing... I just don't think he's "high profile" enough. Most Bat-fans have no idea who he is.

[Brick]

15 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Nothing... I just don't think he's "high profile" enough. Most Bat-fans have no idea who he is.

 

Yet

 

Ra's Al Ghul I don't think was mainstream before Batman Begins. I think if Reeves wants a lesser known villain Warner Bros. will let him. I believe he's stated interest in the Court of Owls, and they certainly aren't mainstream. Really the big villains are any that appeared consistently in the Adam West show, that's why Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and Riddler are always safe bets, since it was that show that made Batman mainstream and popular to the masses. 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Brick said:

 

Yet

 

Ra's Al Ghul I don't think was mainstream before Batman Begins. I think if Reeves wants a lesser known villain Warner Bros. will let him. I believe he's stated interest in the Court of Owls, and they certainly aren't mainstream. Really the big villains are any that appeared consistently in the Adam West show, that's why Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and Riddler are always safe bets, since it was that show that made Batman mainstream and popular to the masses. 

People know Ra's Al Ghul because he's been featured on Several Batman cartoons, has been in videogames and is Batman's son's Grandfather. The Court of Owls isn't as widely known but they're also relatively new and they are have been pretty popular even in the comics. They are in a similar position Bane was in at one point. Hugo Strange isn't even poplular or well known in comics. He's also just a guy... no costume, no flashy gimmick. Even in the story I cited, he uses another guy to be a physical threat to Batman.

 

I hope you're right and Hugo Strange DOES get his time to shine on the big screen. I think he would be PERFECT for Reeves' Gotham. I just think he would be a hard sell to the suits at Warner Bros as a big bad. Reeves wants to do Mr. Freeze next from what I understand... he said in an interview he has an idea for Freeze he wants to try. Batman has one of the best rogue's galleries in comics if not THE best (Spiderman might be a close second) and I would hope we don't keep seeing the same villains over and over again. 

 

 

[Brick]

27 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

People know Ra's Al Ghul because he's been featured on Several Batman cartoons, has been in videogames and is Batman's son's Grandfather. The Court of Owls isn't as widely known but they're also relatively new and they are have been pretty popular even in the comics. They are in a similar position Bane was in at one point. Hugo Strange isn't even poplular or well known in comics. He's also just a guy... no costume, no flashy gimmick. Even in the story I cited, he uses another guy to be a physical threat to Batman.

 

I hope you're right and Hugo Strange DOES get his time to shine on the big screen. I think he would be PERFECT for Reeves' Gotham. I just think he would be a hard sell to the suits at Warner Bros as a big bad. Reeves wants to do Mr. Freeze next from what I understand... he said in an interview he has an idea for Freeze he wants to try. Batman has one of the best rogue's galleries in comics if not THE best (Spiderman might be a close second) and I would hope we don't keep seeing the same villains over and over again. 

 

 

 

People know Ra's now, but before Batman Begins I don't think so. I certainly didn't know about him. Now of course he's been in the Arkham games, Arrow, animated movies, etc., etc. Damian Wayne didn't even make his proper debut until the year after Begins came out.

 

As for Mr. Freeze I didn't know Reeves said that, which if true and he uses him next, HELL YES! Freeze is one of my favourite villains. I hope he can make him work without watering him down too much to fit the more realistic tone of this movie series.

[Guest]

I feel like we can safely retire “people don’t know X character” as any sort of talking point after the MCU, a series filled with characters only comic nerds knew anything about.

[EternallDarkness]

Saw it today. Decent but not mind blowing.