Its time for the hype to be over & to go & see the batman. I mean i say its been hyped. Ive seen more adverts for things in the batman like he drives an audi or is on oreos that actual batman trailers on the big screen (& its not like im not going to see any films is it lets be honest). But i am looking forward to this.
10:10 am on a saturday i am here for this. & its 60% full which is good. Someone actually asked me to move as i was on my seat, & then i showed them my ticket & they were in the row in front haha. Proper mix of ages, but it was mainly guys. so i was an anomaly.
Trailers were all the new ones from the last week so the new Morbius, new fantastic beasts, new doctor strange, new unbearable weight & the lost city (standard). All of which i will be seeing & am hyped for. However it was 20 minutes worth of adverts before 15mins of trailers. 35 mins in a cinema before the actual film starts & its not like its a short film either its 3h.
& eventually the film started… Oh there will be a whole group of people who absolutely adore this from the get go. I feel im in a grower group.
So i asked my family which version of my review did they want for The Batman
a) the casual film viewer who goes to see box office films & not much else
b) the film nerd & inner critic who over analysis everything
c) the biased Nolan & Dark Knight Trilogy super fan
d) all of the above
They went for D. Im going to try & comprehensively five you D on here without spoiling it at all, it maybe hard, but im going to have a bloody good go at it.
So it is a good film, there is no denying that. It hit lots of Batman marks & was very of the now & the moment & was what a box office film should be.
Robert Pattinson is a very good batman & i love the fact that he was more Batman that Bruce Wayne. With the darkness & new noir era it would have been very tempting to have more Wayne, but he nailed it. It was very compelling. When it started with narration then didnt do it for 2h25 & the narrated again i was just like ahh cinema sins where are you.
Paul Dano was a very good Riddler, really spooky & nice to see him be very dark. But (& i know im a paid up fan club member) Colin Farrells Penguin was amazing. I spoke to one of my friends after seeing this as we were out for someones birthday party & she had no idea it was Colin, until i said. She went fuck no & then i mentioned about one of his rants with a side glance & she went shit your right. Give that man all the awards for everything forever please.
Zoe Kravits was good, but we didnt need the will they wont they doomed romance in the story, especially when we are only just meeting this batman. Also does every female lead who lives with a woman have to been seen as Bi at the moment, its becoming a little predictable now.
Not enough Andy Serkis as Alfred, when he was on the screen he was brilliant, but i guess if we arent hearing about Wayne, that does make sense, but then why only have someone that epic with only 20mins screen time. Nope not happy.
There are a couple of shots that will become iconic. After a card chase (which was the best set piece of the film by a country mile) & with a flare later on without spoiling it. Those moments in 10 to 20 years time people will talk about.
There were moment where you looked at a few bits & went yea thats very Nolan. I mean i know theres some things you cant avoid, but a fight on a balcony of a night club & flying up those stairs, i did just go Chris is going to see that & go oooh thats me thats me.
I liked the glasses tech that was really cool, i recon that is something we could all have.
Looking at moments which were clearly liverpool & glasgow were odd. You know its meant to be Gotham but when its there & youve been there or you see it so often on the news its hard not to see it. Especially when he was on top of the liverbuilding.
It was however too bloody long. Way too long. So something happened & i thought we were going to start summing up for maybe 10 mins & i looked at my watch 40minutes still to go. & then about 25minutes later there was an iconic shoot which it could have ended it on & then it still wrapped up after that. It does get a lot in during the 2h47min (no credit scene but if you stay theres a message at the end which glitches to reveal something). But it was too long. Every person who ive spoken to about the film (liked loved & hated ive spoken to all 3 types of people) all agreed that as a standalone its still long but okay but if its going to be more than that it is way too long.
The other thing that pissed me off was some of the shots. I know its dark & mysterious & filming certain things were done for effect, however there were some moments where i was like, hang on this shouldnt be out of focus, i need to see this why is this blurred or obscured. It worked 80% of the time but there was one scene where i was like what the heck, i need to see this. Art isnt helping tell the story here.
Bat mobile was alright but not used enough. I like that it took a while for it to turn up, but if youve got a batmobile bloody use it.
He actually did look through clues for a change & try to solve the crimes, which was good.
So your question is do you go & see The Batman? If your bladder can cope & you have comfortable chairs yes & see it on as big a screen as possible, then yes go. You will enjoy it. If the run time & me telling you that it is bloody long puts you off wait for it to be on sky cinema at christmas (100% the christmas day film calling it now). It is worth it, & one day people will ask where did you see The Batman for the first time.