Last night I went to go see the \u201cThe Batman\u201d with my two older grandsons.\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t gone to the movies since before the whole COVID mess and I figured with them on Easter vacation from school it was now or never.\u00a0 They\u2019d heard good things about the movie.\u00a0 I was skeptical about it because Batman was being played by Robert Pattinson.\u00a0 And I remember he\u2019d been the actor in those lame Twilight vampire movies that teenage girls were so excited about a while ago.\u00a0 But I figured it would still be fun hanging out with these descendants of mine.<\/p>\n
So, we met up after their work hours.\u00a0 These two guys are working on their holiday and doing nine hours a day of manual labor.\u00a0 I told them I was embarrassed that I never had the work ethic they have at that age.\u00a0 I drove to the nearest cineplex for the last night of the movie\u2019s run.\u00a0 But I wasn\u2019t familiar with the town or mall it was in, so I was amazed to see that the mall was almost completely empty.\u00a0 All the biggest chain stores like Macy\u2019s and Target were vacated and even most of the smaller stores were boarded up.\u00a0 It felt like we were walking onto the set of a zombie movie.\u00a0 There were barely a dozen people walking around in the mall at 6:45 at night.\u00a0 The theater was empty except for the ticket seller, popcorn girl and the ticket taker.\u00a0 It was pretty creepy.\u00a0 But they still got their popcorn and drinks.<\/p>\n
The plot of the movie revolves around the familiar scenario of Bruce Wayne acting as an avenging angel stalking the streets of Gotham City fighting against organized (and disorganized) crime as the caped crusader.\u00a0 In this iteration James Gordon is a police lieutenant who has teamed up with Batman to allow the city to benefit from Batman\u2019s vigilante activities.\u00a0 The current crime spree is a series of high-level city government officials being murdered by the Riddler.\u00a0 The mayor, police commissioner and district attorney are murdered gruesomely and their killings are videotaped by the Riddler and shared with the public on-line.\u00a0 The Riddler highlights the corrupt activities of the men he\u2019s murdered and announces that he will be \u201cunmasking\u201d the full depths of the partnership between organized crime and the present city administration.<\/p>\n
Batman starts following clues that the Riddler provides specifically for him.\u00a0 And in the investigation, he meets up with Selena who has her own secret identity as the Catwoman.\u00a0 They become romantically involved, sort of, and together they discover the link between Batman\u2019s father and the crime boss Carmine Falcone (played ably by John Turturro).\u00a0 We find out that Falcone is also Selena\u2019s father.\u00a0\u00a0 Mixed up in Falcone\u2019s vice trades like drugs and prostitution is Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot also known as the Penguin.\u00a0 The Penguin ends up shedding light on the origins of Falcone\u2019s control of City Hall. \u00a0The details of this old history illuminate the basis for the Riddler\u2019s campaign of vengeance against the city\u2019s power brokers including Bruce Wayne.\u00a0 By the end of the movie, it\u2019s clear what the Riddler was up to but it isn\u2019t in time to prevent a plot to blow up the sea wall that keeps the river out of Gotham\u2019s downtown.\u00a0 And it also barely allows the foiling of a massacre at a political rally being held for the reform candidate running for mayor.<\/p>\n
Of course, Batman must almost single-handedly prevent thirty, gun wielding acolytes of the Riddler from shooting Gotham\u2019s citizens like they were literally fish in a barrel.\u00a0 But in doing so he learns that his negative role as a vigilante seeking vengeance is too limited to help save Gotham City.\u00a0 And that he must become also a positive force to help people survive the mayhem all around them.<\/p>\n
So, what did I think?\u00a0 Well first of all, this movie is almost three hours long.\u00a0 That\u2019s really long.\u00a0 And the movie is unrelentingly bleak.\u00a0 Bruce Wayne in the few scenes when he is not Batman looks almost suicidal.\u00a0 There are no lighter moments in this movie at all.\u00a0 There is a grittier and uglier feel to this movie than, for instance, in Nolan\u2019s Dark Knight movies.\u00a0\u00a0 On the other hand, the action scenes are very well done.\u00a0 This Batman apparently has a much more capable armor than the Dark Knight had.\u00a0 He is blasted by machine guns and even a shot gun and not only survives but doesn\u2019t even show any damage to his suit.\u00a0 And a chase scene on a crowded expressway is pretty spectacular, even if absurdly unrealistic.\u00a0 On the negative side, Selena does utter the phrase \u201cwhite privilege\u201d at one point which annoyed me mightily.\u00a0 But on the whole the movie is an effective and enjoyable Batman movie.\u00a0 I recommend it to fans of the genre.<\/p>\n
Leaving the theater, we were the only people in the huge mall except for a guard who escorted us to the only door still open in the building.\u00a0 Our car was the only vehicle in this enormous parking lot and as we walked through the eerily empty space, we reflected on its resemblance to some of the darker corners of Gotham City that we had recently visited.\u00a0 We spent the long ride home discussing the pros and cons of the film and all decided that it had been a worthwhile expedition.\u00a0 I got them home an hour later than I had estimated and their parents told me of the unbelievably early hour they had to get up for work the next morning.\u00a0 I felt awful getting them home so late but the boys still claimed it was worth it.\u00a0 Score one for nonconsecutive generational male bonding.\u00a0 Now, bring on the great grandsons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last night I went to go see the \u201cThe Batman\u201d with my two older grandsons.\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t gone to the movies since before the whole<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237,4,243],"tags":[43,38,1355,1631],"class_list":["post-18651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-superhero"],"yoast_head":"\n