Reviews

The third act was underwhelming and frustrating due to a very out-of-character decision made by the villain in what was otherwise a semi-reasonable and rather fascinating scheme to end corruption and bring about change.

The romance between the Batman and Catwoman was particularly off-putting for me as the actors had extremely little chemistry and their characters even less so. Catwoman is selfish, instinct-driven and overall quite morally reprehensible while Batman, despite his internal conflicts, has always tried to be the exact opposite of that.

That brings us to the film's ideological stance, and more specifically, that of the Batman himself. While we're used to having a Batman that is morally incorruptible and adamant in defending what he believes in, what we got in this movie was more of a complete pushover when it comes to beliefs. From the Riddler to Catwoman, characters in this film take every opportunity they get to out-victim the Batman as they make the argument that the death of his parents should mean little to nothing due to his wealth. This stance obviously disregards the insane amount responsibilities he possesses and how he manages to maintain a good form of righteousness despite such trauma at a young age. The same cannot be said about either Catwoman or the Riddler, who have either chosen to use their skill and influence for purely selfish goals or a goal that ended up not making any sense in the latter's case.

While it is a great thing that these flaws are present in all the characters beliefs and identity, my problem with it lies in the fact that the film purely focuses on bashing its hero's entire character while having him lay down and take these ideological beatings without fighting back, whether it was in his conversation with Riddler in jail or Catwoman at the end. It's almost as if the film supports the ideas of those two characters and just run with the incredibly one dimensional narrative of "rich people bad".

Obviously, my point on ideology can change over time as the movie has made it clear that this is only the beginning of this story with the shameless and ever so unoriginal sequel set-up near the end. Despite that potential redemption, it is frustrating enough to know that we can no longer expect satisfying stand-alone films, but will instead be dealt 2.5 hour long TV pilots that set up the next episode, only for it to also set-up the episode that comes after that. Oh well, I guess that's the ever-growing tumor that the MCU has planted in modern day cinema, and at this rate, it seems like that formula will never change.