More On Bats

Just so you know, I agree with “Isnoproblem”. It’s a good film, but not a great film. I give it a solid 8 out of 10 but no more.

The editing was poor. Not just in terms of it containing a lot of stuff that could (and should) have been cut down, but also the actual craft itself… I really want to watch it again, because there were definitely moments that I felt like going Ughhh? Like when Bats rescues Rachael having fallen out the window, we immediately cut to somewhere entirely different, completely ignoring that the Joker and a bunch of armed Goons are still at Bruce Waynes party with all the richest people in Gothem (presumably they just went, oh shucks and left???). I’m pretty sure there were others like that as well…

As well as that, in areas the actual editing technique was sloppily done. There were several sequences (action ones) where they were evidently trying for the very fast quick cut look that is becoming increasingly common nowadays. BUT it failed to flow well so certain shots seemed to jar between each other and this spoiled the whole effect.

The main flaw in the movie though was that they had too many storylines / themes to explore and that because they weren’t going to make a 4 hour film, I suspect large chunks of it had to be cut, but rather than removing the themes in their entirety they just kept small elements in which didn’t really work… We should have had:

1. Batman – Basically completely overshadowed and very wooden because basically he had nothing to do except turn up and kick butt when required. The two themes that were established they failed to follow through with, namely:
a) The idea of exhaustion. They hint at the idea (Wayne falling asleep in meetings, the shot of all the scars on his back), but they never manage to get across the idea of a man battling to do all he can to keep his city safe. He is a man driven to always do the right thing, and it takes his toll as he spends every night out fighting injustice, and has the scars to prove it. Just to keep going is the struggle. Hinted at, but you never actually see it.
b) The idea of finally being able to stop. Again hinted at in a few lines, Harvey is not the cities White Knight, he is Batman’s White Knight. The man who could finally bring his struggle to a close.
These two themes should have promoted the conflict within that was solely missing as Batman battles to both keep going and find a way to stop. Was this explored? Nope.

2. Harvey Dent – And I thought that this was going to go so well. But no. The transformation from White Knight into the crazed criminal just seemed to occur too fast. You got on elittle hint at it, when he is flipping the coin with the captured villain, an dthen bang the single event sets it off. This needed to be better done as the conept and the ideas there were so good, just not as well executed as it should have been…

3. The Criminal Underworld – Again hinted at but never explored, the fact that releasing the Joker was like opening Pandora’s box for them. Sure he did what they wanted him to do, but in reality it made life much worse for them. We never see the doubt they have, or their human side at all apart from in little annoying hints.

Now, The Joker, yep he was great. In my mind though he wasn’t “The” Joker, in that he wasn’t what the comics and over portrayals have previously portrayed him as. But that’s fine, the performance was excellent and he was a really cool villain and I’m tempted to leave it at that, but I won’t… I’ll foolishly step up and say, I think the writers missed an important trick with The Joker. What they got across, and got across well, was the Jokers desire to make the world like him, or at least convince the world that they are like him. What they missed out on though was the more personal side of that battle with Batman as his target, instead focusing it on Harvey Dent. What made the production week most of all was the lack of Batman as a point of conflict, if they had put across the Jokers obsession with Batman and trying to turn him, it would have involved the Bat so much more. Instead you get a kind of heart hearted attempt to persuade him and then he just kind of gives up and goes after Harvey. A missed opportunity if ever I saw one.

It’s interesting that this film was both too long and both too short at the same time. It was too long given what they did explore, but too short to adequately explore what really should have been explored. Guess it’s a lesson to the writer about the importance of making sure what you write is going to fit the time available. Too much material and chunks of it WILL have to be cut to make a movie of a manageable length. Too little and you’ve got nothing there.

Still liked it though, and the Batpod was cool…