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Streaming Service: HBO Max Movie Name/Year: The Batman (2022) Genre: Action, Crime, Drama Length: 2h 56min Rating: PG-13 Production/Distribution: 6th & Idaho Productions, DC Comics, DC
Entertainment, Warner Bros., HKC Entertainment, Cinemundo, Tanweer Alliances,
Roadshow Films, Warner Bros. Pictures Germany, Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO Max,
Home Box Office Director: Matt Reeves Writers: Matt Reeves, Peter Craig, Bob
Kane, Bill Finger Actors: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz,
Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Peter
Sarsgaard, Barry Keoghan, Jayme Lawson, Gil Perez-Abraham, Peter McDonald, Con
O'Neill, Alex Ferns, Rupert Penry-Jones, Kosha Engler, Archie Barnes, Janine
Harouni, Hana Hrzic, Joseph Walker, Luke Roberts, Oscar Novak, Stella Stocker,
Sandra Dickinson, Jack Bennett, Andre Nightingale, Richard James-Neale,
Lorraine Tai, Charlie Carver, Max Carver, Mark Killeen IMDb Blurb: When the Riddler, a sadistic
serial killer, begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is
forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's
involvement.
Cat’s Point of View:
Schubert’s “Ave Maria” has never sounded quite so sinister
as it did within The Batman’s
soundtrack. This is definitely not like any other live-action Batman movie we’ve seen before.
Writer/director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield,
Let Me In, War for the Planet of the Apes) went dark with his new iteration
of the beloved DC staple. Gotham City has never been a shiny happy place, after all.
It’s only fitting that this story offered a fresh, yet decidedly grungy take on
Batman’s hometown. (I swear that wasn’t a reference to the lesser-known Nirvana
song on the soundtrack. I promise.) Honestly, Reeves could have gone harder on
the edge of horror and even bumped the rating to an R level and it still would
have killed at the box office. That being said, The Batman hit just the right tone as PG-13. This was an example of a DC live-action movie
done right.
Reeves cited the Zodiac killer as one of his inspirations
drawn from for the version of The Riddler shown in this production. I’d say that
if you put the infamous serial killer, the movie Se7en (1995), and a classic detective noir film in a blender, you’d
begin to get an idea of what The Batman
brought to its audiences. The Batman
absolutely was not one of those feel-good family superhero movies. We got a
deep dive into the Caped Crusader’s psyche – his quest for vengeance and the
price paid for it. It was glorious. I was happy that this film wasn’t trying to
copy the feel of another franchise in a bid to win ticket sales. Reeves had a
clear picture of where he wanted to take the story in this first installment of
his contracted trilogy, and it was grounded both visually and by the story in the
actual comics the character hails from. (If you’re curious which, check out
IMDb’s trivia section for this listing.)
This story was fabulous for more than the dark ambiance,
kick-ass fight choreography, and grounded gumshoe work. The cast was unreal. I
had a hard time believing at first, when I first watched the trailers, that Colin
Farrell (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths,
After Yang) was portraying The Penguin. The make-up team worked a miracle
with the fat suit and prosthetics. I bought every second he was on screen and
sincerely hope that his story continues in the next sequel. Zoë Kravitz (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Big
Little Lies, Kimi) was a good fit for Catwoman, as well; and her on-screen
chemistry with the bat vigilante felt right. I would be remiss if I didn’t address the elephant in the
room by commenting on Robert Pattinson’s (Good
Time, The Lighthouse, Tenet) portrayal of the lead role. To his haters, I
say – deal with it. Pattinson nailed this performance. He captured the edge,
angst, physicality, intelligence, and humanity of this flawed character. I
covered this a bit with my #1 mention in March 2022’s Top 20 article. People need to stop holding
his early work against him, stop rolling their eyes, and instead focus on his
current film roles with some objectivity. I’m not a screaming, swooning
super-fan – I just believe in giving credit where it’s due. Reeves was onto
something great when he envisioned this role for Pattinson. I can’t wait to see what the next 2 installments will look
like. The Batman has
landed on HBO Max; so if you have a subscription and enjoy either this genre
blend or the character of Batman in general, my recommendation is to watch it
or add it to your collection yesterday.
Rotten
Tomatoes Critic Score – 85% Rotten
Tomatoes Audience Score – 87% Metascore – 72% Metacritic
User Score – 7.5/10 IMDB
Score – 7.9/10 Trust
the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 5/5 P.S. - There isn't a full post-credit scene, but there is a teaser.
Production Companies:
Cloud Atlas Productions, X-Filme Creative Pool, Anarchos Pictures, A Company
Filmproduktionsgesellschaft, ARD Degeto Film, Ascension Pictures, Dreams of
Dragon Picture, Five Drops, Media Asia Group
Producer: Stefan
Arndt, Alex Boden, David Brown, John Chong, José Luis Escolar, Peter Grossman, Grant
Hill, Lora Kennedy, Caroline Kwauk, Peter Lam, Philip Lee, Marcus Loges, Roberto
Malerba, Ulli Neumann, Gigi Oeri, Wilson Qiu, Alexander Rodnyansky, Uwe Schott,
Pearry Reginald Teo, Tony Teo, Ricky Tse, Tom Tykwer, Alexander van Dülmen, Lana
Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Director: Tom
Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Writer: David
Mitchell, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Chris Lindsay
Actors: Tom
Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben
Whishaw, Keith David, James D’Arcy, Xun Zhou, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Hugh
Grant, Robert Fyfe, Martin Wuttke, Robin Morrissey, Brody Nicholas Lee, Amanda
Walker, Ralph Riach, Andrew Havill, Tanja de Wendt, Raevan Lee Hanan, Zhu Zhu
Blurb from Netflix:
In this star-studded drama, six seemingly disparate stories explore the complicated
links that humanity shares through the generations.
Selina’s Point of View:
I have a bit of a strange outlook on Cloud Atlas.
I spent the majority of the film confused. Unlike other
films that explore how lives intersect, this one didn’t just casually roll
through the stories with a basic framing device in place. It shot me from one
to the other and back again so quickly that I felt a little like I had mental
whiplash. There were times when people from one story were voicing over a whole
other story. There were transitions that gave no time for me to take a breath –
let alone figure out where it belonged in the timeline.
When I say the majority of the film, I mean something along
the lines of 90% of it. Maybe higher. It was disorienting and dizzying, but I’ll
be damned if those three hours didn’t fly right by.
I pretty much hated the method of storytelling in Cloud Atlas, but it worked. In the end,
I found that I really enjoyed the entirety of the movie – not just because I
liked the message either. Though I believe righteous rebellion is always a good
lesson to learn.
Although I wouldn’t tolerate the disjointed time and
story-skipping in most films, I feel there was no other way to make this one.
Due to the fact that Cloud
Atlas dealt with reincarnation, I believe the story was told in the choppy way
I mentioned because we were meant to have that mental whiplash. I think we were
supposed to feel like we were looking at a story that was ultimately about
eternity. It wasn’t supposed to be easy to grasp. Every transition and abnormal
voice was meant to keep us disoriented and struggling with a sense of clueless déjà
vu.
I’m well aware that a lot of critics, and audience, weren’t
fond of Cloud Atlas and I get it. It
was definitely not an easy film to watch. No one is coming home from work at ten
o’clock at night and turning this movie on for some light watching. Not a chance.
It requires too much attention, too much brain power. On top of that, it’s LONG.
I’ve never understood bad ratings for a film I’ve enjoyed
quite so much as I do here.
What it comes down to is that not everyone is going to like Cloud Atlas. I don’t recommend you sit
down and watch it unless you have the time and energy to do so. It’s not a
background-noise kind of film.
However, if you do feel like challenging yourself, keep this
movie in mind.
Cat’s Point of View:
I’m having a hard time finding the words to describe my take
on this movie.
That’s not automatically a bad thing, though.
Cloud Atlas has
been on my to-watch list since it was first released. This wasn’t my first time
attempting to watch it, however – this was just the first time I was able to
get all the way through successfully. I don’t feel that it was entirely the
movie’s fault. It was mostly a bit of narcolepsy. Chronic fatigue can be a pain
that way. I digress.
The beginning of the film is a bit slow to make sense,
though, and that could have been a large contributing factor. I think I made it
through this time out of sheer stubbornness.
I spent a good deal of this movie experiencing an odd mix of
curiosity and confusion. Sometimes there was a clear rhyme and reason to the
focus shifts between characters and timeline; but other times, it just felt a
bit frenetic.
All in all, I did end up investing in the characters and finding
some thread of cohesion to the tales. When it was all said and done, though,
I’m afraid I was still left wanting more.
The speech patterns in the future-tribal segments remind me
a bit of the ‘grounder’ language in CW’s The
100 (2014-). In spite of the quasi-familiarity, it did make those segments
significantly harder to understand for me.
In fairness to the movie, I do plan to give it another
watch-through in the near future when I am not experiencing the side-effects of
a hectic holiday. Headaches and trying to understand strange future-speak
apparently don’t mix well.
Part of what drew me in from the beginning, beyond the tale
of love that transcends death and time, was the cast. I’d watch just about
anything with Tom Hanks (Saving Mr.
Banks, Bridge of Spies, The Post) in it. He could make reading the
dictionary interesting for me – though, this time, I should have used
subtitles.
I don’t think I would go out of my way to steer anyone from
this film, but I don’t think it’d be high on my list of recommendations.
Production Companies:
Quat'sous Films, Wild Bunch, France 2 Cinéma, Scope Pictures, Vértigo Films,
Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), Canal+, Ciné+, France 2 (FR2),
Eurimages, Région Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Centre National de la Cinématographie
(CNC), Pictanovo Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France Télévision, Le Tax Shelter du
Gouvernement Fédéral de Belgique, Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la
Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Scope Pictures
Actors: Lea
Seydoux, Adele Exarchopoulos, Salim Kechiouche, Aurelien Recoing, Catherine
Salee, Benjamin Siksou, Mona Walravens, Alma Jodorowsky, Jeremie Laheurte, Anne
Loiret, Bonit Pilot, Sandor Funtek, Fanny Maurin, Maelys Cabezon, Samir Bella,
Tom Hurier, Manon Piette, Quentin Medrinal, Peter Assogbavi, Wisdom Ayanou,
Stephane Mercoyrol, Lucie Bibal, Baya Rehaz, Marilyne Chanaud, Camille
Rutherford, Michael Skal
Stunt Doubles: None
Blurb from Netflix:
Determined to fall in love, 15-year-old Adele is focused on boys. But it’s a
blue-haired girl she meets on the street who really piques her interest.
Selina’s Point of View:
We only have a few films on our queue that fall into the
NC-17 category, so I don’t really bother to look at the MPAA rating before I
start watching. I really regretted that choice here because I had no clue I was
walking face-first into a three-hour long porn.
Now, I have no problem with sex scenes in movies. Sometimes
they add another layer to the film. I mean, could you imagine American Pie (1999) without the scene
where Jason Biggs (Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, Orange is the New Black, Two for One) gets intimate with some
apple filling? Sure, there are more sweet and genuine examples, but my brain
stopped working about forty-five minutes ago.
This film didn’t just use sex to elevate the story, though.
It made sex the core of the story, and, yes, it was graphic. It earned that
NC-17 rating and then some. It was pretty much just an emotional porn… which I feel
cheapened the romance between the two main characters.
That’s what I took away from the film.
Technically speaking, it was a beautiful film. But that’s
technically speaking. We don’t really rely on that here at Trust the Dice. We
don’t write about whether or not a room full of directors and writers would
enjoy the film, we want to know if a room full of general audience members
would. People who’ve never been to film school.
My thought is that, no, a general audience wouldn’t enjoy
this film.
Not only is the movie painfully long, it has very little
substance outside of the stereotypical indie flick base. Nothing really gets
solved in it and there’s a kind of choppy jumping around feeling to it. I know
it was loved at the film festivals, but I can’t connect the movie I just
watched to the amount of love I’ve seen for it on the internet.
If I look past the porny quality to it, I can see aspects of
Blue is the Warmest Color that I did
enjoy. I sound like I’m giving it a hard time, and I am, but I didn’t HATE it.
I wouldn’t watch it again, but I acknowledge that it had some decent aspects.
To be fair, I think a lot of the film was lost on me. Bits
of literature were brought up here and there, but it was always from books I’d
either never heard of or never read. It’s possible that I might have caught
more of the planned nuances if I was familiar with that material.
Aside from that, I found it difficult to watch the main actress,
Adele Exarchopoulos (Down By Love,
Insecure, Voyage vers la mere). She was a beautiful actress and she can
perform a crying scene like no one else… but the way the director had her
constantly eating with her mouth wide open made me a little ill.
Cat’s Point of View:
Oh geez, where do I start. I know that sounds ominous – and
it should.
Before anyone thinks the worst, I don’t think this was a
horrible movie. I just simply didn’t enjoy it.
First of all, the whole thing was way too long. I mean,
really? Nearly 3 hours is a bit much for something like this. There were so
many long and drawn out scenes of practically nothing going on.
Some of the shots that gave you the
characters’ perspectives were interesting – but did we really need all of that?
The movement shots following characters walking weren’t your typical spastic
shaky-cam but it was almost as bad with all the bobbing around.
It’s said that they filmed over 800 hours of footage and
that a significant bit of Adèle Exarchopoulos’ (Pieces of Me, Les Anarchistes, Orphan) were obtained as the cameras
kept rolling on her between scenes as she was walking around or eating, etc.
This, of course, explains much.
The filming is said to have been rather
intense, so her deer-in-headlights zombie vibe at least makes sense now. Did we
have to capture people eating with their mouths open? It is what it is,
however.
For all of the issues I have with this movie, there are
still good points. Exarchopoulos was believable in her expression of emotion
and I absolutely bought in to her connection with Léa Seydoux (Robin Hood, Midnight in Paris, The Grand
Budapest Hotel). The film also manages to be a think-piece without being
horrendously pretentious – but only barely. There’s a lot of philosophy woven
into the tale, but it’s generally legitimately plot driven.
Speaking of plot driven – there’s quite a bit of nudity in
the film. It didn’t feel like it was gratuitous, but that NC-17 rating is
legitimate and mostly stems from explicit scenes.
All in all, I don’t feel that my time was wasted in watching
this movie, and I did find myself grudgingly sucked in to the emotions of the
piece. I just don’t think I’d choose this movie for myself if I were looking
for something to watch – and I don’t intend to watch it again.
