Least Favorite Things about the Batman Movies.

@Veektarius said:

@BlindRapture said:

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Batman hasn't been seen in eight years. Bruce Wayne has been a recluse for eight years.

Bruce Wayne is suddenly back in the public eye. Batman is suddenly back to work.

Bruce Wayne is dead, let's hold a funeral for him. Batman is dead, let's erect a statue in his honor.

...too bad, I guess we'll never know batman's true identity.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Bruce Wayne was one of probably tens-hundreds of thousands of people who died during Bane's reign, you know?

Spending two movies on the awkward Rachel character, and shoe-horning in Talia al Ghul at the last second.

Also did anyone else catch that the Pit was clearly a reference to the Lazerus Pit?

Just hokey.

@Veektarius said:

My pet peeves are...

1) The editing at the end of Batman Begins is so choppy and there are so many, "I'm going to cleverly repeat what you told me earlier!" lines of dialogue. "Didn't you get the memo?"

Batman does that turn-the-villains-one-liner-against-them in all three movies, just realized it last night watching Batman Begins again. "You never did learn to mind your surroundings."

"Wanna know how I got these scars?" "No, but I know how you got these."

"When I have the detonator, THEN you have my permission to die."

Also yeah, Begins is definitely the odd one out in the trilogy, both in name and in tone. Gotham seems like a far grittier, more dangerous place in BB than it does in TDK or even TDKR, almost like a more realistic skewing Tim Burton Gotham. The narrows never showing up again makes sense in a way, since they mention at the end of Begins that the narrows is 'lost', but the cities in TDK and TDKR both look significantly different from the Gotham presented to us in Batman Begins.

@mtcantor said:

Also did anyone else catch that the Pit was clearly a reference to the Lazerus Pit?

Just hokey.

I just noticed that a couple of days ago. I didn't find it Hokey so much as I enjoyed the nod.

My biggest gripe with the whole trilogy is the 8 year gap between TDK and Rises. Really? The streets of Gotham are at 'peace' for eight years because a guy died? That just seems unrealistic. Further more, they expect us to believe Alfred would allow Bruce to live in seclusion and misery for eight years and then suddenly decide to tell him the truth about Rachel. With how pained Alfred seemed when he finally told him, I have a very hard time swallowing the idea that he would let that shit fly for almost a decade.

@punkxblaze:They explained the Dent Act allowed the cops to crack down on pretty much all organized crime. So, yeah there was still small time criminals but nothing like it was before. I kinda agree with the Alfred thing but I think he felt the time was right because it looked like Bruce just wanted to become Batman again so he could die to end his misery, there's a conversation that goes like this "You're afraid that if I go back out there, I'm going to fail." "No, I'm afraid you want to."

I don't really get the insane amount of praise this trilogy has gottten. Yeah, it's a great series of movies but nothing that spectacular besides what they're willing to do with their insane budget. Overall, it's definitely the best Batman as been on film but it's definitely flawed:

• I don't really care if it's true to the character or not, the gravelly Batman voice Bale uses sounds ridiculous. JUST SPEAK NORMALLY!
• The plot holes in TDKR
• Heath Ledger's Joker felt less like Joker and more like a regular nutcase with make up. I want to laugh with the Joker and feel bad about it, he barely laughed at all in the movie. The Animated Series/Arkham games are my ideal renditions of the Joker.
• My biggest problem with the trilogy is how incredibly self serious it is and how realistically it tries to portray Batman. I love me some goddamn Batman but at the end of the day, he's a rich dude who beats up criminals while dressed as a bat. You can only have a certain level of seriousness and realism because the whole thing just comes off is utterly preposterous.

@Liquidus said:

@punkxblaze:They explained the Dent Act allowed the cops to crack down on pretty much all organized crime. So, yeah there was still small time criminals but nothing like it was before. I kinda agree with the Alfred thing but I think he felt the time was right because it looked like Bruce just wanted to become Batman again so he could die to end his misery, there's a conversation that goes like this "You're afraid that if I go back out there, I'm going to fail." "No, I'm afraid you want to."

Ahh, I had forgotten about the Dent Act, thank you. Having seen the film once, and at midnight at that, some of the details escaped me. The Alfred thing, yeah, you're right, but it still strikes me as odd that he seems to have made no attempt to bring Bruce out of his recluse state in eight years.

@punkxblaze said:

@Liquidus said:

@punkxblaze:They explained the Dent Act allowed the cops to crack down on pretty much all organized crime. So, yeah there was still small time criminals but nothing like it was before. I kinda agree with the Alfred thing but I think he felt the time was right because it looked like Bruce just wanted to become Batman again so he could die to end his misery, there's a conversation that goes like this "You're afraid that if I go back out there, I'm going to fail." "No, I'm afraid you want to."

Ahh, I had forgotten about the Dent Act, thank you. Having seen the film once, and at midnight at that, some of the details escaped me. The Alfred thing, yeah, you're right, but it still strikes me as odd that he seems to have made no attempt to bring Bruce out of his recluse state in eight years.

Agreed but that's the least of the problems that movie has with regards to plot inconsistencies/holes. I really enjoyed TDKR but I have a hard time saying I love it after giving it some thought.

My list of "least favourite things" about these new Batman movies far outweighs any of the good things I have to say about them. Heath Ledger was pretty much the only saving grace of the entire trilogy for me. I mean don't get me wrong, they're decent as popcorn flicks, but taken as works of art, they don't stand up to scrutiny. They're all full of obnoxious pacing issues, aborted or non-existant character arcs, phoned in acting from key members of the cast.. I could go on.
In fact, I'd say pretty much all of the Christopher Nolan films I've seen have had this exact same problem of being entertaining but fundamentally void of any real intelligence. Inception and Memento, I'm looking at you...
 
Now as for the 60's Batman movie with Adam West in it.. THAT is art!

As a hopeless romantic and devout believer in the Batman/Wonder Woman romance - that'd be Wonder Woman, heavy petting with kickpunches and roundhouse kisses, sexplay with the lasso of truth - and other fun activities Batman and Wonder Woman could engage in.

I really liked the batman movies and all but I just wish it wasn't constantly so goddamn dark. Like I don't have night vision so give me some sunlight please.

Nothing I suppose, I thoroughly enjoyed all three. I just saw Batman Begins last night for the first time. Now that I've seen them all, I believe it's one of the greatest trilogies ever lol. All were great in their own way. For me, the first one had many great fighting scenes with Batman, the second had a great villain with an awesome performance by Ledger and the third showed a villain who could beat the shit out of Batman and look like someone who is serious about taking over Gotham.

I hate the gravelly voice that Christian Bale uses when Batman in the Nolan trilogy. It's laughably bad.

@punkxblaze said:

@Veektarius said:

My pet peeves are...

1) The editing at the end of Batman Begins is so choppy and there are so many, "I'm going to cleverly repeat what you told me earlier!" lines of dialogue. "Didn't you get the memo?"

Batman does that turn-the-villains-one-liner-against-them in all three movies, just realized it last night watching Batman Begins again. "You never did learn to mind your surroundings."

When done right, it works incredibly well. Like Hot Fuzz.

@GreggD said:

@punkxblaze said:

@Veektarius said:

My pet peeves are...

1) The editing at the end of Batman Begins is so choppy and there are so many, "I'm going to cleverly repeat what you told me earlier!" lines of dialogue. "Didn't you get the memo?"

Batman does that turn-the-villains-one-liner-against-them in all three movies, just realized it last night watching Batman Begins again. "You never did learn to mind your surroundings."

When done right, it works incredibly well. Like Hot Fuzz.

I think the Dark Knight does it right. TDKR it's not really clear that it's appropriate, but they at least show moderation. Batman Begins just dumps a whole bag of them out like it just learned the trick and needs to practice.

It's a craft/writerly thing, but I don't like how the movies deal with time and space. Never have, never will. We don't have a good idea how old Wayne is when he makes his exile in Begins, how long it takes him to go from stocking mask-face to The Batman, and The Dark Knight seemingly takes place over the course of a few days, when really the Joker's threat has been escalating for months (if you take into account the final scene in Begins).

Rises is especially bad about this. It shifts erratically from day to night to day again within the frame of a few moments. Bane's Wall Street heist is an exceptional example. It's the middle of the day when they leave the Stock Exchange, and suddenly, boom, nighttime. Because Batman. Furthermore, when Wayne is incapacitated and taken to the Pit, Bane more or less apparates between Gotham and the (vaguely, stereotypically-detailed) Middle East in a few hours.

Batman's return is extremely hurried, but he spends time pouring gasoline on thin ice and up to one of Gotham's bridges for the sake of theatricality? I guess. He needs to get that bomb out of the city but devotes precious seconds to playing tonsil-hockey with Selina Kyle? Alright. He travels six miles in thirty seconds in the Batwing? That's a bit much.

Whatever. I love these movies. But, yeah, that's a big inconsistency Nolan can't seem to get right.

Spoilers, obviously.

The whole bomb thing was dumb. It's mobile with decoys, some random citizen possesses the detonator (but in fact nobody does), it will blow up in 5 months no matter what but Miss Al Gul tries to blow it 11 min before it would do by itself, then she floods the reactor only when she gets caught (why not before?). A plot revolving about a ticking nuclear bomb is always cheesy, especially when they make a super long ''communist'' masquerade before just for the sake of it, since the villains want it to explode. Why wait? To torture Bruce's emotions? Please.

I also think they didn't handle the aging hero struggling to keep up thing too well either. I watched the whole series in a week, and Batman is fucking clueless about what's actually going on in Rises. I get it, Nolan wanted this, we viewers are expected to appreciate the sidekicks more and all three of them (Gordon, Blake and kitty) are brilliant indeed. It just clashes a lot with the two previous films and it's not nearly as satisfying. Robbed by kitty, crushed by Bane, rejected three times by the pit, backstabbed by the bitch -- his only success was his goddamn retirement plan. I was comparing it with MGS4 and while Old Snake gets a lot more help than usual, he still gets the job done with a minimum of elegance.

This might sound like I didn't appreciate Rises but I really did, it was an excellent film. By far the weakest of the trilogy though, which is quite unusual for a blockbuster production.

Last thing: the 3000 officers with sticks charge was super dumb. They had about 100 AKs pointed at them, the hell?

That time travel section in The Dark Knight Rises when the Batpod hit 88mph and Batman had to fight that Aztec prince was lame... I liked the robotic T-Rex part near the end though.

SPOILARZZ!!!

(I like them all really... except Batman & Robin and Forever obviously. None are perfect, but I'm still happy we have FIVE great Batman movies)

@Zella said:

@stinky said:

@Zella said:

@grayfox1210 said:

@kumquat said:

Bale's stupid Batman voice.

This a thousand times over.

Also, I think the editing is incredibly choppy. Haven't seen the third film yet but to me the first one was all over the place and had no idea what was going on and why for that matter. I thought it was better in the second film but still bothered me.

While it is kind of silly in the movies the voice is a part of the character from the comics, so at least they are staying true to the character.

how would you know the voice from the comics?

did i miss a leap in tech that allowed them to speak?

It's mentioned in the comics that he specifically uses a deeper gravelly voice when he's talking as Batman.

I like his voice, although originally I would have had to agree. I mean, when I saw both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight in theaters, there were a few times when I just laughed at it, but now, I just think it's the best use of Batman. It may be ridiculous, but at the same time, it's kind of intense and it makes sense that he'd do it. I now kind of dislike all the others 'cause it's just Bruce Wayne talking in a Bat suit, while Christian Bale (or Nolan) created an alter ego.

You can ask, why does he need to do the Batman voice when he's around people, and only people that know who he really is? And it always just comes down to him believing in that when he puts on the suit, he's a different kind of person. He should just hold the mask he wears in front of his face and do the voice, then pull it down and talk like Bruce Wayne and just rapidly do it as his voice changes quickly back and fourth. He could have a conversation with himself. The one thing I think is funny though is that in every film, he has that one thing where he goes "Where are they!". I like it though, and I think I've already said that.

I hate to complain about anything in these because I really do like them a lot and I like Christian Bale in almost everything else, but for me he never really works very well in costume. So Batman is essentially my least favorite thing about the Batman movies.

"SWEAR TO ME!"

The part in DKR where he shoots the nuke truck and directly kills two people. I'm fine with Batman killing, but they make no mention of it and no one seems to notice or care.

@Rainbowkisses said:

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

In The Dark Knight Rises when they reveal the cop's character legal name to be Robin. That's like if the called Bruce Wayne, Batman Wayne. I understand that they didn't want to make him out be a specific Robin, but no one names their kid that and it's just way too on the nose. I get that he was kind of like Batman's sidekick through the movie and he's taking up the mantle, but then if he's becoming the new Batman why would they name his character after Batman's sidekick, who never became Batman? Please feel free to correct me and tell me how Robin did become Batman in some continuity.

@mtcantor: I didn't get that. It's not super obvious and its not like it is actually the lazarus pit, if anything its kind of a metaphor for Batman's rebirth which is really clever. Thanks for pointing that out. Ties the Bane and Rahs Al-Ghoul stuff together. Also good that all of the people that knew batman's identity are dead or on his side.

if the bomb was actually a reactor re-worked to be a bomb, why in the hell did it have a chronometer built in??

Batman is totally careless when towing a GODDAMN FREAKIN NUKE!!!!

"I am not going kill you, but i'm not saving you either" thing in Begins was and still is way too dumb, ugh.

Bane's voice. Not only was it poorly chosen (Bane speaks like a Bond villain, complete with british accent), his voice was so loud in the mix it sounded like dialogue from a different film spliced in... just horrendous

@DetectiveSpecial: yes, it's pretty cool seeing a movie being filmed. i saw a little bit of indiana jones and the crystal chronicles being filmed. there was a part where they filmed it at yale university. some of the stores changed their windows to the 50's or whatever year it was placed in. the clothing were changed in the windows. i just saw haraison ford drive a motorcycle into the entrance of the library.

one thing i hate about the batman series is that batmobile is always driving fast. it's a city there's lots of traffic everywhere.

what another person said, christains bale's batman voice. i didn't like it all that much.

@Rafaelfc: I actually didn't mind Tom Hardy's voice for Bane. It actually made me think he had some intelligence and cunning, and was fully capable of doing the things he did in Rises.

Not sure about most here, but I'm not a big comic book person, so my only perception of Bane was the terribly-saddening depiction in Batman and Robin, and...was he even in the Animated Series? Haven't watched it since I was 8 :P Compared to Schumacher's nipple and crotch fantasy adventure, this was a breath of fresh air.

Anyway, my gripe? Killing off Two-Face in 15 minutes. I realize you can only do so much with a villain that flips a coin, but cmon.

P.S. WHEEEEERE AREEEEE THEYYYYYYYY?

@Apparatus_Unearth said:

Heath Ledger's death.

This, absolutely

@kumquat said:

Bale's stupid Batman voice.

hahaha Especially when Catwoman disappears on him and he's standing there alone and goes "So that's how that feels" and he STILL uses the stupid fucking voice.

@hollitz said:

The part in DKR where he shoots the nuke truck and directly kills two people. I'm fine with Batman killing, but they make no mention of it and no one seems to notice or care.

This more than anything. And myself; i'm not fine with him killing folk. Thats his one rule he never breaks and the whole damn plot of the second film for fucks sake.

Pardon my french but this really shat me off.

@Video_Game_King said:

How I had to go to the bathroom twice during The Dark Knight Rises.

I was definitely holding onto it during the last 45 minutes of it, but I held on like a man.

@Socialone:

Why wait?...... Cause it's a movie.

I had to post in here because one thing has been bugging me so badly about these movies... When Batman Begins first shows Batman as this horror boogie man thing, it's AWESOME. It works so well... Until you see Christian grab Moronie. The suit, the voice, the TONE is so jarringly whip lash after the very serious and oscar worthy first half. I wish those movies could have been just a tiny bit more comfortable being super hero flicks. I wouldn't sacrifice the first hour of Begins for anything, but I think Nolan could have found a better tone to stand on later with maybe Clayface, more fantastically, slightly more gothic in the animated series sense but without losing the sense of "a grounded" world.

The ending of The Dark Knight Rises. Such absolute bullshit from what was pretty brave and bold.

How Bruce Wayne is portrayed as a beat up rich kid with a nice armory when in almost all other mediums Bruce Wayne is one of the smartest characters in the DC universe mostly developing all his technologies him self.

I also found the audio editing pretty poor in the new movie, almost every time bane spoke it sounded like a dubbed over sound clip almost never the same volume as background sounds.

My only gripes are: 
 
1. Gotham is too Sunny. I like my Gotham dark, and I know there realistically has to be a "day time," but I think seeing Batman in his suite during the day looks goofy. 
 
2. Nolan puts TONS of plot holes and errors in his film. In the Dark Knight, it's the scene where Joker is at the ballroom party, and throws Maggie Gyllenhal's character out the window only for Bruce to switch into Batman real fast to save her, leaving Joker with a room full of people to go nuts on, but instead Nolan cuts to another scene. And 
 

@zombie2011 said:

With all this talk about how great The Dark Knight Rises is, and it is a really good movie what were somethings about it that just bothered you. Actually about all the movies. Spoilers!!!! Obviously.

1. The Batcycle: Is it me or does that thing seem to move incredibly slow? The motorbike should be fast and nimble but this thing seems to be the opposite, sure it can turn on a dime, but it just seems slow and clunky in all the scenes. For example the reveal scene of it in The Dark Knight kind of sucked, not the action with The Joker and the truck, but the scenes with the batcycle. When he crashes through the store and is driving it trying to catch The Joker the entire time i felt like i could probably go faster than this thing on just a bicycle.

2. The Armor: This is a hard thing for the creators to fix, Batman wears armor and because of it he moves and fights like a robot. When they re-designed it in the 2nd movie i think they even had a joke in there were Bruce said it would be nice if i could turn my head. Not a problem when he is just standing there, but look at the fight against Bane for example, Bane just looks so much more badass when he fights than Batman does.

3. The City: I haven't seen the 1st movie for a while but i remember it being a lot darker and futuristic looking with the monorail and Wayne Tower, kind of how i imagine Gotham to be. In the newer movies they are just cities New York obviously and i think Chicago and Pitt. Makes sense seeing the 2nd and 3rd movies were a little more realistic than the 1st but still i liked the darker Gotham from the first movie.

Those are probably the only big things that bother me in the movies, not bad, they just stick out to me. One more thing is implying Blake becoming the next Batman, i like Joseph, he was great in 3rd Rock From The Sun, but him kicking criminals asses? Come on, imagine if he had to fight Bane! He would have been dead in one hit.

As a general thing for almost all the movies, I find it weird that the villains take such a central role in the proceedings.

@Phyrlord said:

How Bruce Wayne is portrayed as a beat up rich kid with a nice armory when in almost all other mediums Bruce Wayne is one of the smartest characters in the DC universe mostly developing all his technologies him self.

They mention how smart Bruce is in the movies. He made that cellphone/spying thing in TDK, and in TDKR Fox tells him he isn't smart enough to fix the autopilot issue with the plane but Bruce is.

@huser: I think thats what makes the movies so great, in every movie i kind of wanted the villains to destroy Gotham just because i found them to be such great characters i didn't want them to fail. The first two spiderman movies as well as Thor were similar in that they introduced the villains early on and developed their villains so eventually when they did square off against the hero, people actually cared about the fight.

@zombie2011: See it's not that they have an arc. It's that the DOMINATE the narrative. Did I care about Bruce loving Rachel and finding Dent to be a rival? Not even remotely. The chemistry was off in the first movie, and the change of actress puts a block on any other connections they had. Did I particularly care about troubled/conflicted Bruce Wayne in the Burton films? Kinda, but not in comparison to the freakshow celebrity gimmick villains he had. Heck, Forever made in the mid 90's probably couldn't have had actors flying higher playing villains at that time.