The Batman

A lot of yap incoming “Vengeance won’t change the past, mine or anyone else’s. I have to become more. People need hope.” After watching The Dark Knight trilogy with a friend, I wanted to come back to this film to see how I feel about this film compared to Nolan's trilogy. I need to rewatch movies more often, because this rewatch bumped this film up to a 10/10 for me because of all the small details that I caught this time around (plus I actually watched it on a decent screen this time). I already love this film, and simply watching its trailer with my friend was enough to hype me up enough to want to watch it again. Another review makes a really good point about whilst Nolan's trilogy might be stronger, Reeves' Batman (the actual character) is better, and I completely agree. I'm so torn between this film and The Dark Knight in terms of which is my favourite, because Heath Ledger's performance is one of the best I've ever seen in a superhero film, but this movie just hits different for me in so many ways. Enough about Nolan's films though, and onto the masterpiece that is The Batman. First off, the score by Michael Giacchino is absolutely unreal. It clearly takes inspiration from 'The Imperial March', and that parallel works perfectly for a dark, brooding character like Batman. The bells especially in the context of the movie hit so hard — they're so similar and yet their repetition is exactly like Batman, resolute and unyielding. His theme honestly sounds like the very sort of thing that would strike fear into the hearts of criminals. Bruce's character development in this film is also fantastic — he's a recluse who only cares about fighting crime, because he believes it upholds his parents' legacy. I didn't take much notice of it on the first watch, but I realized that the little offhand comments he makes to Alfred are actually quite scornful. "You're not my father." “What about you? Are you a Wayne?" It's only when Alfred's life is at risk, and he has to confront the same feeling of fear that he felt when his parents were murdered, that he realizes how important Alfred is to him. One thing I felt was cool throughout this movie was the use of boundaries throughout — the Riddler watches the mayor through binoculars, we see him attack the DA whilst the windows are blurred, and when Alfred reaches out his hand to Bruce, we see only outside the room. But when Bruce reaches back, we finally get to see inside the room; it's as if we finally see past the emotional boundaries that had been set up. All the small details — from Bruce squinting at the light because he's a "nocturnal animal", to Alfred's realization when he sees the orphan on the video playback, to Bruce's look towards Selina when Gordon says "he's strangling her" — made me realize how much love went into this film. People subtly change through this film, and the direction (and filmography as well) is good at showing Gotham as this living, breathing entity that is a reflection of the people in it. Jim Gordon goes from "I don't even know who you are, man" to "you're the only one I trust." Catwoman goes from wanting to kill her own father to trying to stop Bruce from killing one of Riddler's gunmen. Penguin goes from being a seemingly spineless coward to an important gangster. Seeing The Riddler as the villain was a nice change, too — he was a very well-written character, and his belief that he and Batman were the same forced Bruce to look at himself and decide whether he is the man or the mask. I wonder if we'll see more of him in future films. The topic of whether the Riddler knows is a debatable one — I think that Riddler decided for himself that Batman wasn't Bruce Wayne as they talked to each other in person, and because he's so arrogant, if he's decided something for himself, he won't change his mind. Some final, random, scattered thoughts: * I love the reddish-orange and black aesthetic that this film goes for, and its use of darkness is brilliant * Jim Gordon's "OPEN YOUR EYES!" was so good * Robert Pattinson did a fantastic job of showing how uncomfortable Batman is with the prospect of The Riddler knowing his identity * the flare scene is one of the best scenes in superhero cinema that I've ever seen * even though they're not part of the same universe, I love how both Superman in the 2025 film and Batman in this film have been portrayed as symbols of hope, with the former holding onto it, and the latter realizing that he must become it for those who are innocent — plus,Lois told Superman "you think everyone is beautiful" whilst Selina told Batman "you assume the worst in people" If you read all of this then shout out to you, and as you can see, I love this film, and dare I say, this is my favourite Batman film to date