The Enormous Frustration of THE BATMAN

Spoilers for The Batman (2022) follow.

Good Batman stories have competing theories of justice. The villains have their theories of justice that put Batman's idea of justice to the test. In The Dark Knight (2008) this is explicitly stated: the Joker thinks justice is chaos, Two-Face thinks justice is chance. Everything they do is driven by these view points and it makes for a very compelling story.

In the The Batman (2022) at the start of the film the Riddler and Batman basically have the same point of view on justice: it's vengeance. What separates hero from villain is not Batman's no-kill rule, it's willingness to adapt. Batman, like most heroes of any type of film, has a character arc based on needs and wants. What he wants is vengeance, what he needs is to help others. Then the plot is him trying to get what he wants and learning what he needs. The Riddler, like most villains of any type of film, does not have an arc. He wants vengeance from beginning to end, he never adapts. That's why he's the villain.

This is the making of a good story. Except, Riddler's schemes become detached from any theory of justice at the end. He spends 90% of the film exposing and punishing corrupt public officials who've been destroying Gotham. However, his final move is to just try to kill everyone in the city. It doesn't make any sense. Why bother with targeted assignations when you're end game is to kill everyone? Where is the vengeance in drowning children? Riddler's motivations are lost so Batman can have a big final showdown.

Have you ever thought that Batman Begins (2005) was a good film and that The Dark Knight Rises (2012) was a bad film but couldn't quite put your finger on why? In both films the villains end goal is to destroy Gotham, but in one the motivation makes sense and in the other it doesn't. In Begins Ra's al Ghul believes justice is balance and that Gotham is so out of balance it must be destroyed. In Rises Bane pontificates about revolution and puts in all this effort to make his version of a utopia but at the end he's planning to nuke Gotham regardless. Ra's al Ghul motivations maybe wicked, but they track, while Bane's are nonsense.

Getting back to The Batman, the other villains aren't terribly satisfying either. The Penguin is reduced to a mob henchman. He and Batman have a big car chase that feels fairly pointless. Catwoman is a character that film makers have always struggled with: Is she a hero, a villain, a rival or a love interest?

The other thing is about The Batman is a lot of conservative crap is included. At the start of the film some thugs are playing the knockout game, something that mostly exists in the minds of Fox News viewers.

At the end Batman laments that there will be looting because of the flood. The real concern after a flood is not looting but that people just trying to survive will be shot by police hunting for looters. Considering police incompetence/corruption is a big part of the justification for Batman's existence, this is particularly insulting.

The most cringing conservative point though is how the movie twists itself into knots giving the Riddler a reason to hate the Wayne family, but also show that Bruce Wayne and his father were both really good dudes actually. To hell with that.

Have Thomas Wayne be a monster that murders journalists. Have Bruce Wayne not just neglecting his family charity, Renewal, but actively stealing from it to buy bat-themed weapons. It would be a better for the story if Bruce has to realize that he is actually part of the problem.

I have a bias, I think movies are better when they have a left wing point of view. But come on, The Batman played Something in the Way, a song about being homeless, while showing a montage of a billionaire. Twice. Try harder man.