Stormbringer wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 3:31 pm
Raid wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 9:12 am
Would you care to elaborate on that? I thought it was probably the best live-action superhero film. Dripping with atmosphere and with great performances from everyone involved.
I really think I would have trouble articulating myself; I struggle to put it into words. But, it was one of the most disappointing films I've ever seen. I'm only glad I waited long enough to see it for 'free' (it was on Amazon Prime not so long ago) and didn't pay money for a cinema ticket. That would have felt like a kick in the teeth.
If I could pick one element I hated the most, it was how much of the story was told through screens. Phones, laptops, TVs. I hate it when a screen experience relies on screens within the screen to tell the story.
Hate it.
Another thing I hated was seeing Batman...
There were many other things too. The overall effect for me was one of lifelessness, dullness and tedious cliché. One outstanding 'I'm insane' scene by Paul Dano did not make up for the rest of it.
I'm with Raid, it's probably my favourite Batman film ever after the 1989 one. Batman does actual detective work, gets beat up plenty, has believable tech. Catwoman is human and has genuine hatred and fear so rather than just being 'sexy'. The Penguin is a brilliant villain, flawed, faceted and again has lots of human aspects like obviously being deeply insecure and, again, fear.
The lower points were:
- Paul Dano phoning it in as a standard frothing at the mouth antagonist although I did like how it was all his own logic inside his head which was a decent motive if nothing else.
- Robert Pattinson actually did a better job than I expected as Batman but just didn't quite manage to fill Bruce Wayne's persona that well.
With regards to the story through screens - this is the world we live in these days and it's hard to get away from them, granted it's trickier to make it interesting. You can't rely on spoken exposition of visual information as that would be really jarring and unnatural.
Finally, the sound design of the film is next level and it has the best Batmobile ever - you can absolutely believe that it's designed to punch out sub sonics and other noise to instil fear in the perps.