Batman, The (DVD)

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.

Dark, but a favorite of our teen.

Great deal for 4K.

Deep, Dark(Literally) and Dramatic.Oh! And "Gollum" starred in it! ; )

Fantastic

This is a more dark and foreboding take on Batman. It explores the mental, emotional, and physical tolls that being the Batman takes on Bruce Wayne, more so than in the previous trilogy by Nolan. It laid bear the depravity and corruption of Gotham City which in turn require the Batman. It also showed how inequality can motivate different people to escalating levels of violence based on their own skewed viewpoints, not unlike what we see in many societies today.Robert Pattinson was good as Batman, not perfect but I do hope he has a chance to reprise this role! It's hard to compete with Michael Keaton but yeah... Overall I think he understood the toll of being Batman and the internal struggle he has in wanting to save the city and reform Gotham to the point it doesn't need Batman and actually having to do what he does as Batman. From my viewpoint Pattinson was able to translate that to the screen.It also explored the sadistic nature of The Riddler, it bordered on the level of sinisterism, mania, and psychosis found in real life serial killers. Paul Dano fit the roll of the Riddler very well. The interactions with the other Arkham prisoner (that we can only assume is the Joker) was a nice little wrinkle. I felt that Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman was a superb pick although her actual catwoman costume was lacking. I get that there are limitations due to the current issues facing the world right now but come on costume dept. No offense to her as an actress but she looked like Dumb Donald from the Fat Albert cartoons from the 70's. Shame on you costume dept. shame! The exploration of her backstory fit with her motivations. Colin Ferrell as the Penguin/Oz could have been fleshed out a bit more but this could just be a prelude for a second movie.I have been a fan of Jeffery Wright for a long time, going back to before his work with M. Night. His portrayal of Jim Gordan was monumental in that is showed the difficult waters he has to navigate between using the Batman as and ally and "consultant" and the hostilities of the GCPD viewing Batman as a menace and vigilante. I am on the fence about Andy Serkis as Alfred. I felt there was a lot left on the table for this movie and the Alfred character. Peter Sarsgaard's depiction of Gil Colson was lacking. This may just be a set up for introducing Harvey Dent? John Turturro was good as Carmine Falcone. I know there is only so much you can put into a movie so his character development for this movie was adequate and played into the motivations of both Batman and Catwoman.Overall this is a much different take on Batman than the crap of the Clooney and Kilmer batman and darker in nature then the Christopher Nolan Trilogy.