Plot & Interpretations-
The beginning starts with an interesting concept. Batman (Robert Pattinson) is narrating what seems to be his journal of the journey of being Batman. It was interesting to get this perspective of Batman and how he viewed that he felt he wasn’t truly changing the city and insight into what the Bat signal meant to him and the city. The world-building in the movie was incredible and I found that most of the exposition was delivered properly and seemed organic to the flow of the story. Through his journal it was clear he has been batman for a while but he’s still just starting and is getting the hang of it. By the end of the first segment of the movie (which I would mark as the subway fight scene), I knew that we would have a good time with this story. The death of the mayor set the tone for the type of Batman movie that we are going to get. It’s gonna get gruesome and bloody and real. This was demonstrated from the get-go.
I love the fact that it is a good ole fashion detective story. The riddler (Paul Dano) is proven to be a formidable antagonist from the beginning. I didn’t find him to be distant from Batman and be the type of behind-the-scenes antagonist. His presence was very much felt. The riddles of course were good, but I think they were all solved too easily. I was tryna figure them out too but Batman beat me every time. I’m just gonna chalk it up to him just being Batman.
The first interaction between Bruce and Alfred (Andy Serkis) was one I wasn’t particularly fond of. I found Bruce to be acting like an emo kid acting out toward Alfred. He seemed so immature it slightly turned me off from the character. After a while however, as more dimensions of him started to get exposed I began to be more empathetic. A great scene to expand this point would be when Batman was at the mayor’s crime scene and he’s on his way out. On his way out he saw the son of the mayor sitting down distraught because he was the one who found his father murdered. Bruce shined over Batman at that moment as Bruce stood there staring at the kid for longer than he was welcomed to. At that moment finding the killer became personal to him. The whole reason he became Batman is to stop people from doing the type of thing that happened to him when he was younger. Also, earlier in that scene Batman is walking through the crowd of officers on his way to the crime scene. Before he gets to the scene an officer stops him from entering. At this moment I saw Batman look almost vulnerable. It was weird, but I could see that side of him for a second. Something that we see later on in the film when Bruce is confronting Alfred about the news of his father. This is a new and necessary side of Batman and Bruce Wayne. As far as a logical plot goes it had good pacing and I found it to be a masterclass in an escalating plot. As more time went on the stakes were rising. The more we learned about the corruption of Gotham the more people were impacted by the new knowledge. The antagonist (Riddler) is similar to Joker from the Dark Knight in the sense that his actions, however bad, helped Batman clear up the streets of Gotham. The big difference would be the end plan of flooding Gotham this seemed a little incoherent in relation to his main goal of exposing all lies of Gotham.
Now the relationship between the Bat and the Cat (Zoë Kravitz) was a big highlight of the movie for me. Anytime they shared the screen it was amazing. I love how the Cat was her own character that shared goals with the Bat at times but when she didn’t she would abandon him and go her own way without a second thought. The scene of the Cat explaining her entire background was a bit of a problem for me because there are other ways to do that but it was the only scene between them that wasn’t as good so I’ll give it a pass. It seemed they gave the Cat a type of arc when she didn’t kill Falcone but it wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been. If there was a moment earlier in the film where the Cat killed someone without hesitation in the name of Justice and through the interactions with the Bat she then didn’t with Falcone then her arc would’ve been more felt by the audience.
Gordon’s (Jeffrey Wright) and Batman’s relationship was also greatly depicted in the movie. I like that it was like they only had each other to make it through the riddles. Gordon can’t trust anyone in the Police department and Batman only has a relationship with Gordan out of all of the cops. It was a kind of duo cop team that occasionally supplied some good comedy.
I wish that they introduced the court of owls into the conspiracy of Gotham. I think it would’ve been nice and a good way to set up conflict for the next Batman film. I like where the characters left off specifically Batman and Catwoman. We don’t know what Alfred’s status is but it’s 100% likely that he’ll make it out of the hospital fine. We also didn’t get a glimpse of the situation with Gordon, normally we would’ve gotten a small scene where he’s appointed as the commissioner but I guess it’s too early in their journeys. Even the Riddler had a somewhat final destination going to prison seemed like that’s it for him, for now. Then they did something interesting when they introduced what I think might be Joker. It’s impossible to be sure but it’s likely to be him. He said the word “clown” and began laughing hysterically with Riddler. The arc of Batman was well done. He now sees the value of his presence in Gotham and now knows that he can make a difference in the city.
