Superb filmmaking. I love that the film dispenses with that lame fetish of wealth as a superpower. It leads us back to character as The Batman's key trait, and not a moment too soon. Inspired writing for a film rebooted so many times.
A terrific choice is the attempt to find in the rank and file police both a universal distrust of Batman as a meddler in police business, and attempts to avoid caricaturing police as a monolithic brotherhood, instead one of mixed motives, unpredictable and that that may not be unified - not new, but so much more believable.
The narrative is unpeeled slowly and it makes the pleasure of watching feel more like binge-watching a carefully crafted mini-series. I found myself delighting in the slow-reveal and sincerely enjoying how well the movie was made. So much of the techno-glitz of the Nolan films is gone, as is the gothic, operatic, design-y excesses of Burton's legacy. In fact it harkens closer to the stripped-bare "Joker" here. Every larger is unpredictable - you feel that like Batman's over-cranked car, his character is not quite in his control.
I loved the characters and how they were portrayed - Batman was solidly held in Robert Pattinson portrayal and his physicality was also not made foolishly superhuman but more realistic. Gordon was played with firm in non-flashy resolve by Jeffrey White and Zoe Kravitz was perfect as gritty, damaged and driven. Paul Dano was a truly inspired choice and out-Spacey'd Kevin Spacey as a Se7en-like villain. After seeing the film, knowing that Colin Farrell was the Penguin still fails to compute - he literally vanished into that role.
My one thought concerns the roundup at the end - it seemed like there was so much story left to tell with the same conviction and skill, but it wasn't quite there for me. The film prepped us for it, so that was a surprise. A small note in a massive hammer-crash of a film. Supremely enjoyable.
A terrific choice is the attempt to find in the rank and file police both a universal distrust of Batman as a meddler in police business, and attempts to avoid caricaturing police as a monolithic brotherhood, instead one of mixed motives, unpredictable and that that may not be unified - not new, but so much more believable.
The narrative is unpeeled slowly and it makes the pleasure of watching feel more like binge-watching a carefully crafted mini-series. I found myself delighting in the slow-reveal and sincerely enjoying how well the movie was made. So much of the techno-glitz of the Nolan films is gone, as is the gothic, operatic, design-y excesses of Burton's legacy. In fact it harkens closer to the stripped-bare "Joker" here. Every larger is unpredictable - you feel that like Batman's over-cranked car, his character is not quite in his control.
I loved the characters and how they were portrayed - Batman was solidly held in Robert Pattinson portrayal and his physicality was also not made foolishly superhuman but more realistic. Gordon was played with firm in non-flashy resolve by Jeffrey White and Zoe Kravitz was perfect as gritty, damaged and driven. Paul Dano was a truly inspired choice and out-Spacey'd Kevin Spacey as a Se7en-like villain. After seeing the film, knowing that Colin Farrell was the Penguin still fails to compute - he literally vanished into that role.
My one thought concerns the roundup at the end - it seemed like there was so much story left to tell with the same conviction and skill, but it wasn't quite there for me. The film prepped us for it, so that was a surprise. A small note in a massive hammer-crash of a film. Supremely enjoyable.