I felt bad for not going to see The Batman in the theater. My main reasons for not doing so we’re that it is too damn long, and hell is (being around) other people (when trying to enjoy art). Well, glad to say, having seen the film now, I do not regret the decision.

The Batman is a beautiful movie (if, perhaps, far too dark) with some great performances, great set pieces, okay music, and an awful, poorly paced, terrible, no good, very bad screenplay. In a way it feels like someone tried to take a stereotypical terrible Marvel movie and dress it up to appeal to film buffs. Well, I’m sorry, I didn’t fall for it.

The movie really starts to take a dive around the time Catwoman kisses Batman for no apparent reason whatsoever. After that moment, the clumsiness of the movie is on full display. I can’t really remember all the moments that made go “this makes no sense”, but there were several, and the movie did not land it’s finale in any way.

There’s a lot of stuff to like about the movie compared to other Batman films. (Like: a true detective Batman, and a Batman with a decent character arc.) I think it was a lot better than the Nolan movies. But I still think, in the end, it was just another dumb superhero movie. Matt Reeves and Warner Bros really wanted to make us think this was some sort of high art take on Batman, but it really wasn’t.