The Batman (Matt Reeves) ***spoilers from post 1030***

dublinman1990

The deleted scene showing Barry Keoghan as The Joker, that is available online, is not the only deleted scene for the movie.

There are more deleted scenes that will be included for the Blu-ray release of this movie which is due to be out sometime in late May.

The main thing from this news though we don't know how many deleted scenes are included in this physical release as of yet. More information will be included at a later date.

https://comicbook.com/dc/news/the-batman-blu-ray-special-features-deleted-scenes/

klose

Finally got around to catching this last night, must say the hype was real and a gripping watch. Really liked the gritty real tone the film set and the world building was on point. Nice change from the dark Knight trilogy which was ridden with tech and in this its largely batman a couple gadgets and his fists. Excited to see what reeves and co can offer up in another installment.

fritzelly

I'm only just over an hour into the film and I'm bored, could rewatch the Nolan films over and over but I'm struggling with this and Pattison doesn't do it for me as Batman, or maybe doesn't do it for me as Wayne

Hoping it gets better

Well that was utterly disappointing

Far too long for an insubstantial script - 1½ hours would be more than enough

Pattison is too puny for Batman

I'm going to flood the city - everyone under 2 feet of water saying ok...

No sense of doom or impending threat

Why does he wear eye shadow when not batman?

Far too friendly with the police - supposed to work alone in the night, not being all pally with the local cops

Catwoman story was totally unnecessary - only dragged the film out even more

As for the riddles why make it about the Riddler when you are gonna solve all the riddles in 2 seconds???

Lots more issues...

Cannot believe this film got such an high score, seen references to Seven, not even close to that film - will have to rewatch The Dark Knight to scrub my memory of this rubbish

FunLover18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118941703#Comment_118941703

"Why does he wear eye shadow when not Batman"

Every Batman before him has worn eyeshadow under the mask and it mysteriously disappears when they take it off. I liked seeing that bit of realism personally.

flasher0030

Wow. Watched it yesterday. Really enjoyed it. The 3 hours flew by. Robert Pattinson really nailed it. Christian bale was also excellent. But Pattinson brought something extra - that element of Bruce Wayne being psychologically scarred. And therefore an angry Batman. Loved that element of it.

woukd definitely give it a rewatch. I’d have it easily on par with the Dark knight. I thought the music really led to the tension. Especially “something in the way’

Brief_Lives

I am lucky enough to have a HBO Max account, so will be watching this again tonight. As for the poster who asked "why is there a catwoman"??? for shame. A brilliant character brought to life by Zoe Kravitz. Almost as good as Michelle Pfieffers version.

Dav010

Watched it last night, enjoyed it a lot. Pattison is a very good Batman, the rest of the cast is excellent, and the music is fantastic. It is long, but I didn’t think it dragged as much as the recent Bond film. This is a different, more detective themed take on Batman rather than a purely beat em up based hero. They finished on a good note, introducing the joker, and keeping the Penguin alive.

DrZeuss

I thought this was a good film but not great, and the problem is I am comparing this film to both Begins and Dark Knight which are films that upon first viewing could almost instantly be re-watched. I didn't get that sense with The Batman.

The first 20 minutes were amazing, the tone was set and we knew what Batman we were getting. A broken, lost soul and possibly willing to go too far to fix Gotham. But I feel after this it started to drag and should possibly have finished around the 90/105 minute mark (if I recall there felt like an ending spot there). It felt every minute of its runtime to me.

I would like to see a sequel, but as mentioned a few times back I don't think it should be another Joker (unless Phoenix is cast), and I don't think I'll be re-watching this anytime soon either.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945956#Comment_118945956

The Batman is miles better than Batman Begins. I wouldn't rewatch Begins if I was paid to do so. I'd happily watch The Batman right now (saw it 3 days ago). I'd equate The Batman to The Dark Night alright. That was also top-notch.

DrZeuss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946454#Comment_118946454

Oh I wouldn't have it anywhere close to Begins or Dark Knight, its better than Dark Knight Rises alright. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the origin story aspect of Begins and while most seem to regard TDK as the best I still find Begins is the one I return to the most.

Differing opinions is good though, or we would all be watching the same film repeated.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946578#Comment_118946578

True about differing opinions.

I seem to have taken a dislike to Batman begins. It's a while ago since I watched it. But I think a lot of it is set out in the mountains where he is growing up and doing training etc. I found thaty really tedious. And then when a bit of action sets in, I though The Scarecrow was a pure waste of space. Didn't think he was any good as a villain. However, the riddler was menacing with a capital M. And for me, Bale was good. But I think Pattinson absolutely nails it altogether. To be honest, I didn't think he would. But then again, it's probably one of the easier roles to take too. The Bruce Wayne character is constantly forlorn and as The Batman, the actor is practically faceless and just has to be angry the entire time.

Potatoeman

This was too long, three hours is ok for an ending of a series but even then it’s not comfortable for a cinema. They could have ended it when they caught the riddler. It feels like they were trying to cram two movies into one.

He was hardly the greatest detective in the world either. He seemed to miss some basic things.

Snake Plisken

Watched The Batman on HBO Max last night really enjoyed it. A solid and different take on Batman. Still not as great as Nolan's trilogy but I have a lot of faith in Matt Reeves take on Batman and look forward where he takes the franchise.

Btw poster saying he hates Batman Begins, not sure if your trolling but that Movie was everything I wanted in a Batman movie and didn't get from Burtons take on the franchise. A perfect movie from start to finish. I cried tears of joy watching it in the cinema at how epic it was and it still stands up today on repeat viewing

My rankings below

1) Batman Begins.

2) The Dark Knight

3) The Dark Knight Rises

4) The Batman.

Brief_Lives

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118947491#Comment_118947491

The Dark Knight

Batman Begins

The Batman

Batman

Batman Returns

Batman Forever

daylight

daylight

Batman Returns

Batman & Robin

buried

The world looked absolutely brilliant, seemed physically real and genuine. But then the poor writing takes over and I was taken out the game big-time on a good couple of occasions.

The first section of the film seems to take place in a totally different world to the last section. The first section is absolutely brilliant. Once the car chase was over it quickly descended into a weaker and weaker realm and the entire thing kind of becomes ruined.

The art direction in this is brilliant though, very much like the world of 'Batman' from 1989. Pity it couldn't have kept it up towards the end though, art direction was lost there in the last section too.

pixelburp

Say what you will about the respective quality of each of the films, the Batman franchise has often had distinct visual identities, beyond what you'd normall get from superhero films: from the gothic Burton versions; to the neon vulgarism of Schumacher's iteration; the clean urban Michael Mann inspired landscapes of Nolan's attempts; and now Matt Reeves added his own style with all the blacks & reds of what was probably the most hellish of the Gothams.

The script really really wanted to be up there with Zodiac or Seven but didn't come close; in fact it fell apart in some key areas. But the look of the thing was never a flaw.

buried

The look of Nolan's films, especially his last two ,were very much based on the look of actual real life American cities, Chicago/New York. Kind of boring because you have seen them countless times before. This one, but especially in the first half, the city had the definite look of its own design and almost gothic motif, similar to Burtons ones. It completely lost that artistic motif in the last hour. Was very off-putting.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118948753#Comment_118948753

I dunno: it depends on what you expect one's fictional cities of course; but to take your comments at face value Michael Mann's Heat (or Collateral), Nolan's inspiration, was boring 'cos we've seen LA innumerable times before. But obviously, part of Heat's success was how Mann shot the locations. IMO part of the cinematic language is taking places and giving them a sense of grandeur, a scale to match the events happening on the ground. They're not just backdrops but part of the pulse of the overall feature itself.

Nolan's movies never tried too hard to disguise the fact it was Chicago - and the manner in which the Kowloon inspired Narrows just disappeared from existence more than a little sloppy. But those latter films were basically epic mob thrillers, taking cues from Mann's opus. Chicago Gotham never looked so epic, in a purely hyper-real sense. Not especially artistically interesting, but a colosseum all the same.

The White Wolf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945956#Comment_118945956

I'm of a similar feeling, just watched it on Monday.

It's ambitious, ballsy and plays to the character's strengths, but I'm not sure I'll be rewatching it in the years to come like I do with Nolan's films.

It's a weird one, I enjoyed it but I guess I'm suffering from exhaustion with the character and extended library. Which is insane because I'm a fan boy for the character. I look forward to the next film but won't be putting half as much thought into it as I was in years gone by.

jo187

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118784665#Comment_118784665

I'm bit confused to your first point about not knowing the character arc going in?

It up to the film to tell us there. I Dont think we should have to read and listen to interviews and essentially do homework to watch a film.

I also saw what the film was trying to do with his arc but think they failed. On point 2 I am a batman fan but didn't like the direction they took.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118954148#Comment_118954148

If you were a Batman fan, you'd know all about Bruce's character development and his younger years so not sure what your issue is. It's not all suits and pretending to be a playboy, as I'm sure you know... Unless you mean you just watch the movies...

"I shouldn't have to read about or know what the film is about, it should tell me"

Different level of arrogance that :D

The White Wolf

On a separate note, having finally watched it, I really have to stop getting riled up by the opinions of fans who are 'pundits' in the media. Seen plenty of claims that it surpasses Nolan's interpretation and maybe it will, but all it was is merely a solid start just like Batman Begins was.

It really pisses me off that there are people out there making a dime on such over the top analysis.

jo187

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118956500#Comment_118956500

Not sure what different level of arrogance comment mean?

The film should deliver a story in it's running time. Obviously a trend in comic book films is to have easter eggs which is one thing.

To have no character in the film as Bruce or Batman and expect people to get it, if they read the comics seems a failure of the film.

pixelburp

Ah now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

If a film's narrative requires clarification from its director or actors then arguably, the script failed. Subtly is fine, preferred even if it opens up debate and interpretation from the audience, but any standalone film should be able to tell its story in isolation. Doesn't matter if it's Batman, or, I dunno, something really abstract like Under the Skin.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118954148#Comment_118954148

I'd actually argue that the problem here isn't the film expecting someone to know stuff from other comics/films, it's someone already having an expectation from other comics/films that they feel wasn't met here.

Taken on its own merits, if you knew nothing about batman before watching, this character makes total sense. I mean, he's clearly a bit of a nutjob going through some serious trauma, the reasons for which are all spelled out in this standalone movie.

The expectation of him being 'a good Bruce', is down to how someone feels Bruce should be played based on their previous experiences of Bruce... I totally get someone not liking the choice, but to say that choice requires previous information to justify it I think is wrong. IMO this movie required zero prior knowledge to understand who this guy was, and what was going on.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118957611#Comment_118957611

Do you get the sense this is a standalone film, or the first in a series of films exploring this take on the main character? I have no problem with a film leaving questions unanswered or Directors explaining their thought process. I hope the story lines are developed more in future films. My favourite films are Godfather I and II, the second answered/explained many of the less obvious themes explored in the first. I suspect if the first came out today, people such as yourself might wonder why the Director assumed the audience understood the genesis of Don Corleone’s story arc.

The White Wolf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958084#Comment_118958084

I think in some aspects the script did fall down in fully forming Bruce without the requirement for prior knowledge.

For example the relationship between Bruce and Alfred seems to mirror what Gotham did, in that it was Alfred that trained Bruce who didn't seem to spend much time away. Both Bruces act like dicks to Alfred, the difference being one was a teen/preteen and the other is into his late 20s/30s. It didn't ring true to me. This guy in his 30s at least and is throwing **** at Alfred like "what's my family to you!?" C'mon. Especially when this Batman seems to be active for 3 years at least so not as if they're still in getting to know each other stage.

Bale's Bruce was a dick to Alfred too but at least there it was cleary defined that they were getting to know each other again after a prolonged time away.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958890#Comment_118958890

That feels like a separate criticism to me than the thing of someone needing prior knowledge to understand whats going on. Like, it's a total reset of their relationship anyway - all we need to know is that Alfred is the family butler, which is all established within this movie. Beyond that, any failings are simply just regular old fashioned failings of the script. Like, having prior knowledge doesn't help with those failings. I agree by the way, think they pushed the emo 'youre not my dad' sorta angle a bit too hard.

All in all, I liked more than I disliked. Was too long, and in an ideal world I think the Catwoman story could've been simplified so as not to take us away from the main through-line so much. Or, if they wanted her to have such a major part, could've had her story be the actual focal point of the film, which he becomes a part of. But the tone and mood was great, the character was interesting enough, and it kept moving along swiftly enough despite its runtime.

The White Wolf

I did enjoy it myself just not that aspect. Bruce staring at that kid after his father was murdered while Something In The Way played is up there as an all time character moment for me.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958929#Comment_118958929

Same, told us so much in an image.