I watched The Batman on HBO Max. I enjoyed it. The cinematography was superb and I loved the Riddler taken seriously. I liked the portrayal of Catwoman. Batman has never used his detective skills better than he does here. It had some elements from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman Year Zero and other things from The Long Halloween. Some stuff from Geoff Johns' Batman Earth One graphic novel as well.
I remember when the Christian Bale/Dark Knight Rises movie came out and Dial B for Blog photoshopped all these great posters featuring Caesar Romero as the Joker. Here's a great take on that theme, with Adam West in the new movie.
Spoilers...
Afterward I thought that Batman is not really that effective in the movie; he doesn't really trigger any meaningful change as he does in Year One, where he and Gordon partially clean up the Gotham police. What does the Batman really accomplish? The Riddler is more of a hero than Batman is, if we factor out his terrorist methodology, because he exposed the corruption and got rid of Falcone, Maroni and Colson. Batman punched a few criminals, helped Catwoman and saved people from drowning in the end. Once again, the villain is more important than Batman in this movie.
The other thing is going down the well-trod path of making his parents flawed. This also happened a few years ago in the Superman comics, where we found out Jor-El was a bit flawed.
Thomas Wayne was a billionaire, ergo, he must be slightly crooked? Thomas was a surgeon as well as a rich guy; I think when Batman started he was referred to more as a doctor with a trust fund, but the wealth grew as Batman was reinvented so many times. My first thought was, if I was Bruce Wayne - who idolized his parents and mourned them - and I just learned my father was working with gangsters, wouldn't that take away some of my motivation to be Batman?
After thinking of some of these elements that bothered me, I went and re-read Batman Year One again. What a masterpiece! Nuff Said.
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