Fear and Focused Violence: The Batman (2022) Review

Director: Matt Reeves

Notable Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell

 

Fear and a little focused violence. In a line of dialogue in the third act of The Batman, Paul Dano’s Riddler gives the classic villain monologue which gives Robert Pattinson’s Batman a bit of credit for his style of unmasking the corruption of the city. It’s a reference to one of Batman’s opening voice-over narrations about how he uses the shadows, violence, and a sense of fear to try and repress the criminal element of a decaying Gotham. Now, his tactics are being used against him by a serial killer-styled Riddler, who is subsequently hunting down corrupt individuals from Gotham’s 1% and leaving riddles to drag Batman into the light. 

 

The Batman is bleak. It’s grim. It’s a film dedicated to honing in on the dark part of the Dark Knight. 

 

Director and co-writer Matt Reeves never avoids it either. With his latest piece of the DC Extended Universe of live-action comic book films, Reeves doubles down on the darkness of the early days of the caped crusader, giving audiences a new cinematic vision of the long-running hero (or in this case, very much an anti-hero) and possibly delivering one of the more intriguing incarnations of him. The Batman is not the easiest film to digest, particularly with its butt-numbing 3-hour runtime, but it’s one that encapsulates a Batman that is both inherently a throwback to older versions while running parallel with the themes and societal fears of a new generation. 

 

Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

Director: Zack Snyder

Notable Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Jason Mamoa, Ezra Miller, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons

 

On a normal day, I would start my review for a film with context, perhaps my expectations, a bit of history, or an angle to address the “world” that this film was watched in. When it comes to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, most of our readers already have a strong opinion of the events that have led to the resulting decision by Warner Bros. in allowing this new version of the film to exist. There are certainly arguments to be made on both sides of its existence, the right for an auteur director to have their vision is one stance that I usually subscribe to, but Zack Snyder’s Justice League is one that comes with a price attached to it - more than the reported $70 million that WB forked up to allow Snyder to “finish” his intended version. However, this is a review of the film and not an analysis of the problematic lingering effects of it- although I will drop this link to an article that aptly describes my feelings on the matter: LINK.

 

Instead, let’s focus on the film itself, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a four-hour epic opus of the now mostly defunct DCEU meant to culminate the scattered and often insanely problematic universe that Zack Snyder was spearheading. Released on HBO Max, as a way to drive viewership to the service, the newly minted Zack Snyder’s Justice League is certainly an improvement over the theatrical version that Joss Whedon had worked on. It’s also a marked improvement over the other two Snyder DC films, Man of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Not that it means much as both of those as tragically flawed. 

 

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

Directed by: Cathy Yan

Notable cast: Margot Robbie, Ewan McGregor, Rosie Perez, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell

Adaptation is a funny game. You have to make a story or property viable for a different audience or medium while trying to balance fealty to the originals and the fans thereof. And if you even kind of manage that small miracle you usually still have to worry about making something entertaining as a stand-alone piece. Birds of Prey is already juggling all of these balls and decides to double down by swapping in the flaming chainsaws of being aggressively feminist in a space that’s so far been unwelcoming to it, and by being a sequel to a movie nobody seemed to like. That the movie came together at all is no small feat, that it did it this well is more or less unprecedented. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, allow me to channel our subject’s protagonist and backpedal a bit to do this right.

Justice League (2017)

Director: Zack Snyder

Notable Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, JK Simmons, Connie Nielsen, Ciaran Hinds, Joe Morton, Amber Heard, Billy Crudup

At some point, I should just know better. To get my hopes up at all that Justice League could pull off the ambitious task of continuing the plotting of where Batman V Superman left off, introduce three new heroes, and still manage to balance the tones and intents of the course correcting DC Cinematic Universe (DCCU) was just silly. Perhaps it was the heights that Wonder Woman actually reached as a heartfelt and interesting blockbuster that made me hope for the best. Perhaps it was the rumors and articles claiming Joss Whedon had to do extensive reshoots to try and produce a stronger film that made me hope Justice League would work. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter all that much because Justice League is a film that tries to cover its gaping holes and problematic issues with quips, cheesy moments, and the quickest pace of any DCCU film thus far. No matter how much fun the film tries to be, it’s built on extremely cracked and challenging foundations that undermine the experience of the film.

Suicide Squad (2016)

Director: David Ayer

Notable Cast: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Karen Fukuhara, Adam Beach, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, Ben Affleck, Ezra Miller, Alain Chanoine, Jim Parrack, Common

In the grand aspect of all things cinema, Suicide Squad is going to go down in the history books as one of the more fascinating films in the age of superhero film spectacle. With all of the behind the scenes drama, rumors, and confusion about what this film should be, what Warner Bros wanted it to be, what fans wanted from it, and what it is, it’s amazing that the end product is even as entertaining as it is. Of course, it’s not the kind of shit storm film that the stories and end product ended up being with Fantastic Four, so there is that for whatever comfort that gives its audience. Suicide Squad is entertaining on plenty of levels even if the end result is something of a scattered mess. In fact, when compared to its other DC Universe brethren like Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, it’s the best that Warner Bros. and DC have released thus far…which is not necessarily a good claim to be making considering the end product that made it to the screen.