I don’t know that anything was stupidly over the top. There were several instances in which Batman walked away unscathed from a situation in which a real person should be seriously injured.
For example, being shot at nearly point black with automatic weapons. Batman’s armor was apparently impenetrable to the point of invulnerability. And no one thought to shoot him in his unprotected mouth. Also, he used his cape/glider gizmo to fly down from a building, hit a bridge, top of a bus or something, and then the street. Also a bomb blast that destroyed a car, and a person, and did a bunch of damage did nothing but fling him across the room.
Just watched it. Definitely seems from the comments here it would have been a fun movie to see on a big screen in a dark theater, rather than partly on a flat screen TV and partly on an iPad.
In general, I agree with many of the comments in this thread, both positive and negative. One thing I’m absolutely OVER, though, is the criminal who’s always a step ahead, who can always organize and build and deploy his extremely elaborate contraptions, and just never gets stopped or caught or hindered in any way. Like, his master plan for kidnapping the crooked DA, who had to know that he was a target, was to hide outside in the back seat of his car? So, like, if the DA had a single bodyguard, or was prudent enough to look in the back seat of his car, then his entire scheme falls apart right there?
I agree with your general statement regarding villains with elaborate plans.
However. I disagree with your specific example. It wouldn’t take much planning to kidnap a local prosecutor. Even a federal prosecutor. I don’t have any problems with the hiding in the back seat trick.
Now, getting away with it for an extended period of time, that would be a much more difficult feat, and that would take a lot more planning and preparation.
I was under the impression if you’re flying using a wingsuit and hit something incredibly hard, you’re either dead or severely disabled. It isn’t like knocking a radiator with your knee and crying out “Ouch! That really hurt.”
No doubt superhuman ability to endure physical punishment is routine in the genre. I don’t think this particular movie is anywhere near the worst in that respect. This Batman is probably somewhat less superhuman than the Black Widows were in their recent movie.
Right. Kidnapping a DA: probably pretty easy. Kidnapping a DA within 48 hours of when the city’s mayor and chief of police, who the DA knows were involved in the same corruption as he was, were kidnapped and murdered: should not be easy.
Well, we saw how he made it easy. He went to a mafia club, parked in the dark under an overpass, got high, and left by himself.
You could maybe say that some theoretical prosecutor in that set of circumstances wouldn’t have done that but (1) this one did, and (2) people do stupid things all the time.
After ruminating on the movie for some time, I realized that the plot shares a lot of elements with Batman: The Telltale Series, the episodic adventure game from 2016.
Bruce Wayne has only been Batman for a year or two
Jim Gordon is an up-and-coming lieutenant
The events take place just before and after Election Day
The incumbent mayor is assassinated by the villain just before the election
The villain is an orphan who wants to expose the corruption in Gotham’s government and destroy the entire system
They inspire a popular uprising of people who dress like them and join in the violence
Thomas Wayne is revealed to have had criminal entanglements with the Falcone family
Wayne Manor is directly attacked
Batman and Catwoman meet for the first time
The villain exploits the Penguin to carry out part of their agenda
The Joker is already locked away in Arkham
At the end Bruce has determined to right the wrongs of his family’s legacy and bring hope to Gotham
It certainly seems like too much to be coincidence, and makes me wonder whether Reeves had played the game at some point while working on the screenplay.
Superheroes are inherently silly so movies about superheroes only really work for me when they try to be fun. They can have serious issues in the plot but the movie can’t present itself as a serious thing because that just never works for me. MCU usually does a decent job of this and the worst movies are where they seemingly forget this (Thor 2, IM3, etc). DC usually takes itself too seriously for my tastes and this wasn’t any exception. Of course, some of the DC “fun” ones include clunkers like Suicide Squad (original) and WW84.
Good point; it fits with how Shazam! was also one of the better DCU movies – generally fun (albeit with some scary intense moments) and willing to play with the tropes of the genre, like the scene just before the climactic battle where
Sivana delivers a classic supervillain rant while he and Shazam are hovering some distance apart over a city street, and Shazam can’t hear a word he’s saying.