Batman, The (Blu-ray)

Okay, first let me start by saying that I have never seen the Twilight series, nor have I seen this actor in anything else. Second, let me inform you that Batman was never my favorite hero. I thought he was okay, but I preferred Superman and even Spider-Man over Batman, so none of that has anything to do with my review here.Now, having said that, I have still seen all the Batman movies with all the different actors. None of them were "great" movies in my opinion. They were just okay. If I had to choose, I would have said Ben Affleck's Batman is my favorite and in my opinion, Batman vs. Superman and Justice League had the best Batman. That was before I saw this movie.This movie, however, is really, really good. This takes place early in Batman's career, 2 years into it, and it is almost a prototype Batman. His suit is more realistic looking, his gadgets are more primitive and he doesn't have an endless supply of different gadgets yet. Even his Batmobile is very basic and more "mobile" than "bat". Commissioner Gordon is not yet the Commissioner of Gotham City. Bruce Wayne himself is still young and is just learning who he is and who The Batman is going to become. And he is one BAD dude! This Batman is angry and doesn't like criminals a whole lot. When he fights, it is deliberate and he fights to take someone down as quickly as possible. There's no playing around. This batman takes no bs from ANYONE, including the police!This movie really captures The Batman's early years and shows him struggling to change from Vengeance to Justice! In all honesty, If ALL the other Batman movies and even the comics had shown these early years of a struggling Batman, he would have been much higher on my favorite superhero list.Even the make-up and wardrobe for the bad guys is by far the most realistic and best I have ever seen. The Cat-Woman has a very primitive costume. The Penguin FINALLY looks like a man AND does still somewhat resemble a penguin somehow. It's amazing. The mob boss is a likable and believable character. The Riddler confused me a little bit at first because to me he looked like Bane, another Batman adversary. But his wardrobe grew on me and I can accept this costume as the Riddler. I don't really have a choice anyway. The crimes and gangs are much more realistic and as a whole, "Sorry Ben Affleck" this is now my favorite Batman movie and favorite Batman to date.I highly recommend buying it. Don't let the gossip about Twilight boy interfere with you watching a good movie. Accept it as the young Batman just starting out and you should love this movie as well. Especially if you are a true Batman fan, which I am not.And as an update: I've had the dvd for about a week now and I've already watched it 5 times. This Batman is just so cool and especially in the beginning when he moves all slow and deliberate, using fear just as much as fighting skills to defeat his enemies! Just buy it already.Second Update: Okay, it's been several months now, and I've watched this movie so many times I can recite the whole thing word for word. Let me just add that I am 49 years old and as mentioned earlier, Batman was never one of my favorites. I liked him, but he was way down on my superhero list. But I like this movie so much I'm almost tempted to check out the Twilight series. I don't think I added in the fact that this movie has only a little Bruce Wayne and a lot of The Batman, in costume. Which I think is part of why I like this movie so much. I get bored with the "people" side of my heroes. I watch because I want to see the heroes in costume like I saw them in the superfriends cartoons in the late 70's, early 80's. I mean, come on ... that's why we bought the comic books and watched the cartoons and bought the action figures IN COSTUME. Who ever played with a Bruce Wayne or a Clark Kent action figure? I know I never even SAW one in the toy stores.But anyway, I digress. I've read all the negative reviews here and although I support the right for everyone to have their own opinions, I truly don't understand them. Maybe they're all Marvel fans at heart? I know for me, it was DC first (cus I'm old) and Marvel are like the younger wannbe's trying to impress Superman.

Love this movie! Everyone in the cast is excellent in their roles. A very different kind of Batman film. Very "dark." I definitely would recommend getting this film. Robert Pattinson is very good as The Batman, as is Zoe Kravitz. Then there's Paul Dano as the Riddler and Colin Farrell as the Penguin who are such excellent foils! A must see movie!

Matt Reeves’ 2022 film, “The Batman,” loosely adapts Jeph Loeb and Tim Sales’s story, “Batman: The Long Halloween.” It begins with the Batman (Robert Pattinson) in his second year of crime-fighting, putting this story in a chronologically similar setting as the comic while also referencing events from Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One,” which itself inspired “Batman: Begins.” This film references events familiar to Batman fans without re-treading familiar territory. It introduces a different version of the Riddler, inspired by Zodiac, who targets corrupt political officials in the increasingly economically-stratified and corrupt Gotham.Pattinson’s Batman gets to demonstrate his detective skills, following clues and trying to figure out the crime, though the nature of the story means that he only catches up to the Riddler (Paul Dano) toward the end. Assisting him are Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), GCPD Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), and Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz). They face the Gotham mob, represented by Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot/Penguin (Colin Farrell) and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). Selina Kyle’s story with Falcone further draws upon the events of Loeb & Sales’s “Long Halloween” and “Catwoman: When in Rome.”Set early in the Batman’s career, this story shows a Batman who has not yet developed the Bruce Wayne persona that other actors use to show the dichotomy between Wayne/Batman. Reeves also balances the desire for gritty realism with more comic book elements, creating realistic gadgets and villains for Batman who are just across the line into fantasy and don’t use exposition to firmly ground them in reality. In this, Reeves captures the best parts of the comics he references while showing the influence of Christopher Nolan’s grounded “Dark Knight” trilogy. Furthermore, each actor perfectly fits their part and brings something that fills out the world or advances the story. The score by Michael Giacchino works particularly well to build the films atmosphere. Finally, this is one of only three live-action Batman films in which Batman realizes he can be more than a Dark Knight and symbol of fear (the other two are “Batman Forever” and “The Dark Knight Rises”). As the first in a planned series, this realization opens up interesting story possibilities for the forthcoming sequels.This Blu-ray/DVD combo pack includes the film on one disc of each as well as an extra Blu-ray disc containing the bonus features. These include a making-of documentary, deleted scenes with director Matt Reeves’s commentary, a breakdown of the car-chase sequence, a look at the creation of this iteration of the Batman compared to his predecessors, a look at how Zoë Kravitz got into character as Catwoman, and more.