Bat Take

I recently rewatched Matt Reeves's The Batman. The movie doesn't only work as a Batman film and a celebration of Batman but also as a criticism of The Batman. By now, most of us have heard the saying that Batman is just a rich man beating up the poor. In the first scene with Batman, we see this. Multiple crimes are being committed around the city, and we see those criminals stricken with fear by the bat signal. Yet it doesn't stop the crime. It still happened. When we have are first fight scene I am left questioning what did it solve. Before the fight scene, we see the group of thugs inducting a new member. The kid is clearly hesitant to join. The kid clearly, by the staging of the scene, is not friends with the group. They do not want to be there, so why are they still there? I assume that it is because he doesn't have anyone else to be with. This is a common occurrence: people who don't have a community will latch onto any group. How did Batman beating the ever-loving crap out of those men help this kid? He still has no friends, no group to be with, and those men aren't going to jail. They will just pull him back in. The rest of the film is just more of this. The Batman isn't fixing the problem. He's only treating the symptoms.

His entire conflict with the Riddler has the same message. Not to praise a serial killer, but the Riddler, unlike Batman, has uncovered a conspiracy involving the ruling class and their exploitation of the people of Gotham. Has Batman done anything about this? Did he know? No, he is still fighting mainly petty thugs. I am not saying that Batman or the movie is bad because of this. I am saying that this is a character-growing moment to realize that crime is not a choice for the poor. Selina even brings this to Batman’s attention when she calls him out for victim blaming. And Just to be clear, I do not believe that murder was the right thing to do. However, targeting the poor is not the answer either.

This film has a lot to say about Batman and his growth and self actualization not only as Batman but hopefully also as Bruce way.

This film is just a multitude of themes and ideas is a great start to the series, and I cannot wait to see more from it. I may do more writing about it, particularly about how the male and female gaze is used, which makes me think about the fridging trope and so much more. There is a bit to talk about the way cops are used in the film which I would like to talk about to.