The Batman Review: 7 Ups & 2 Downs

Downs...

2. Batman: The Emo Years?

Let's get these nasty negatives out of the way ASAP.

Bruce Wayne and the Batman franchise in general has always worn tragedy well. Unhappiness kinda comes with the territory, especially when one considers what a young Brucey went through as a child; nobody has ever hidden this depressed side to him in comics, cartoons, video games, TV or film.

However, the opening 30 minutes or so of The Batman could be jarring for some. There's a distinct lack of "F*CK YEAH" action and more emphasis on Wayne moping around speaking to his private journal. If he could star in a My Chemical Romance video, he would. This is as emo as the Bat gets.

Granted, these scenes act as a clear nod to some of the classic graphic novels that shaped Gotham, but things will develop a little too slowly for those craving action movie thrills and spills. There's no real opening salvo to get pulses racing. This is introspective, and definitely emo-tinged.

It's nowhere near as cringeworthy as the emo splashes found in Spider-Man 3 (which was mentioned during the intro), to be fair.