The Batman in contention for besting The Dark Knight?
In all honesty, the first thing that I did when the credits rolled on The Batman was text my friends to say, "Fuck, The Batman seriously may have outdone The Dark Knight."
I'm not really happy with myself that that was the first thing that I said to anybody about the movie. I saw it alone; so, I didn't have anybody sitting right next to me to muse to.
It was the quickest way for me to express how impressed I was with the movie. I mean, I saw The Dark Knight eight times in IMAX.
Still, playing the comparison game with this movie isn't like comparing the first Toby McGuire Spider-Man to The Amazing Spider-Man. Obviously, it's still a Batman movie; but, it's hard to describe how different it is.
Sure, I think that we can objectively say that the Burton films were better than Schumacher's; but, they're also clearly different in tone and design. The Nolan films decided to go as realistic as possible.
The Batman threw most of that out. This is a Batman that you would expect if it were produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by David Fincher. It's noir to its core. Seriously, this is the darkest movie that I've seen since Dark City. It has a tone as similar to Seven as you can get with a PG-13 rating - it's a detective story that sometimes feels like a horror movie.
I think that the comparison game is going to create a lot of clashes among us nerds. Which Bruce Wayne was better? Do you prefer the persona of the arrogant, billionaire playboy; or, do you prefer the mentally damaged recluse who isn't comfortable in his own skin? A lot of people have already expressed disappointment with The Batman because the Bruce Wayne persona wasn't different enough from the Batman persona. I personally enjoyed the portrayal of Bruce Wayne as somebody who is so damaged that he needs to be reminded to take a shower.
I will likely be seeing The Batman a couple more times in theatres. I can say that I wasn't thinking about The Dark Knight or any other Batman movies while I was watching it. I was just intrigued by what this movie offered on its own.
#review #batman #dark #knight