The Batmans

 A riddle: What is and is not a Batman movie? The Batman, apparently.

Yes. There will be spoilers.

In some ways it's very easy to say this isn't Batman - or rather, it's a dark crime thriller with various stock tropes, that someone decided to stick a label on as Batman characters. You have an autistic alt-right serial killer. Let's call him the Riddler. You have a morally gray badass woman who swims in the world of sex and drug trafficking and is looking for revenge for her mother and kidnapped friend. Let's call her Catwoman. And of course you have the emo trust fund protagonist who wears too much eyeshadow and journals to himself, looking intensely vulnerable. That's our Batman. He fails to save the city from a disaster that kills thousands, but at least he finds himself. You can imagine a lot die-hard fans would complain about in this movie.

And yet, there was so much about this epic that felt reminiscent of previous Batman outings. The strings and sort of art-deco depiction of Gotham as a full character on its own, reminded me a great deal of the Tim Burton movies (Batman '89 and Batman Returns), especially with scenes like "Bruce Wayne goes to a funeral of a high profile victim, and it gets crashed by the supervillain." The corruption stories were like the ones that drove the plot of Dark Knight, but even deeper and darker. And of course the explosive finale was very similar to the world-shaking twist in Dark Knight Rises.

Is it good? Yes. Did it really need the three hour runtime? Well none of it is wasted at least. Stuff is always happening that couldn't be easily cut without changing the whole story.

But move beyond that two thumbs up or down emptiness, what is the movie saying? 

On the most obvious level, it's a morality play about corruption and current politics. The rich, from the Mayor to Thomas Wayne, have failed to shepherd this city and even their good gestures (like a philanthropy project called Renewal) are cynically used to entrench criminal power. There are two responses to this: the atavistic rebellion of put upon white men, from the Riddler to Bruce Wayne, who just want to punch back at who hurt them and nothing more. Renewal is impossible, so instead let's let in the violent tides of change (literally) and see what's left after everything is swept aside.

(QAnon style conspiracy theorists are less dismissible when there really is an underground sex-trafficking club that all the politicians go to. Of course it's only been a recent thing that believing the government is run by a cabal of satanic pedophiles is specifically right-coded.)

And the other side is two Black women trying to fix things in a reasonable manner. Bella Real is running for mayor, and while in any true noir the candidate of hope would ALSO be in hock to the crime lords, she seems the real deal. And Selina Kyle is the only one getting vengeance for the sex-trafficked innocent woman, while the cops and Bat focus on rich and powerful (and guilty) politicians who have been murdered. 

Selina gives the most fascinating scene of the movie, where she wears contact lenses and ear pieces for Batman to investigate a sex club, so he has to do his job through the eyes and abilities of a woman. Yes, she can look at any man (to get a solid ID) but if she does so the man may look at her and she'll have to play along - instead of just aloofly leaving and using his intimidating physical presence. She can find out a lot of information he can't, but at a real cost in opportunities. It's clear this Batman had never considered the perspective he is forced to deal with.

But what's the lesson here? Don't just go along with The System. But also don't try to burn it to the ground. Wait for some hero to come along, vote the bums out, and trust everything will get better? This seems like a message from 2008 not 2022.

Away from the plot, there are two more abstract things that stuck with me:

1. Sound. This movie has a dominating score and sound editing, and those aspects are definitely part of the experience. I can't talk about sound engineering well, I can only say pay attention to this one. When I saw it I sat right next to the speaker in a Dolby cinema and so the sound overwhelmed me frequently, shaking my eardrums uncomfortably. But that unpleasantness was certainly thematic to the moments.

2. Strength. Superhero movies are often about very dexterous acrobatics, where the skilled assassin dodges all attacks and delivers one killing blow. Or if the movie is saying a hero is strong, then a bullet or other major attack bounces right off them with no effect. We are rarely shown what it means to be "strong" in the sense of your punch mattering more, but also not being an unstoppable force.

The two examples I think of for strength in cape movies are the subway station fight in Matrix 1 (with those after-image fists slamming into concrete and bellies) and Daredevil('s ability to take a punch and keep going.)

This Batman was raw and brutal and strong. He beat criminal's heads in (well after they were defenseless.) The Batmobile, in its one overly long chase scene, roars with an jet engine that is barely restrained, and pushes cars and trucks off the road. Everything in the fight and car scenes is designed to give you the feel of thrumming power under the seat, where justice will be achieved but punching for it hard enough.