What did you like about Nolan's Batman?

[Edd Grayson]

Generally, I liked Gary Oldman as Gordon and Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.

Batman Begins:I liked that we got an origin story for Batman, even though the film itself isn't one of my favorites, I appreciate what Nolan did. I liked how Gotham looked. I liked that Ra's al Ghul was the main villain.

The Dark Knight: I liked Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart as the Joker and Two-Face, I thought they were portrayed well for the most part, I liked that we got a more gripping story and an ending that left the audience wanting more.

The Dark Knight Rises: I like that it gave us a more serious version of Bane, I liked the small reference to Blake being Nolan's version of Robin, I liked that it brought back Ra's, that Catwoman helped Batman in the end and that he was redeemed.

[The Laughing Fish]

BB: I liked Gary Oldman and Michael Caine as Gordon and Alfred.

TDK: Some action sequences including the bank heist and the car chase.

TDKR: The film itself is unintentional comedy gold, especially Tom Hardy as Bane. "So came back to die in your citeee!" "No...I came back to stop you." 

[BatmanFanatic93]

"So came back to die in your citeee!" "No...I came back to stop you."

Good lord that is cheesy.

[thecolorsblend]

The cast was pretty good. Bale is a good actor and a very good Bruce. Really, I'd like him more as Batman if not for his Cookie Monster voice. But he's big, imposing and just has a very Bruce Wayne look about him. Plus he's obviously good at playing obsessive, driven loners. Batman plays to a lot of Bale's strengths as a performer.

I think Gordon's characterization in the Burtonmacherverse is incredibly underrated. It's very 1950's and 1960's to me. But what fans these days are more familiar with is a real partnership between Batman and Gordon a la Frank Miller. And we get a pretty good dose of that in the Nolan films. Gordon's a man of principle trapped in a city without hope. It's completely logical that he'd ally himself with a criminal like Batman in order to bring justice. Sometimes you have to put aside principle and fight fire with fire. In a perfect world, it wouldn't be necessary. But unfortunately Gotham City's in Nolan's trilogy is no perfect world. Not even close.

I like the fights from the Burtonmacherverse, they're awesome. But Nolan used a very different type of approach to the fights in his films. It would've been easy and tempting to use a sort of minimalist Bourne-style approach to the fights. Wire-fu was another option. But Nolan used KFM, which is a visually powerful form of combat. Tastes these days tend toward stuff like Brazilian jiujitsu and I'm sure we'll see something like that in BvS. But KFM was a handy way of distinguishing this Batman's fighting style from everything that came before and all that will come after. It stands alone in Batman's cinematic history.

Speaking of, Nolan's philosophy in Begins seemed to be "whatever Burton/Schumacher did, I'm doing something different". So you get more of a cave for the Batcave and a Batmobile along the lines of TDKR. I loved the Batcave from TDKRises. It felt functional on the one hand but still high tech enough to be a recognizable Batcave.

One traditional part of the comics is seeing Batman swoop through the city on a swing line. How do you portray that in film though? In Nolan's estimation you can't. But you can't have Batman fly either. So Nolan devised a middle ground that allowed Batman to be airborne in a cinema-friendly way without breaking the rules and giving Batman a superpower. The memory cloth allowed Batman to glide through the city. Apart from satisfying the visual of Batman doing such a thing, it lends a sort of predatory aspect to Batman's character that was arguably missing from his predecessors. They drove the Batmobile or other vehicles. But Nolan's Batman could swoop bodily through the air in search of his quarry. It's just a more hands-on way of carrying out his mission. Plus? It just looks awesome onscreen.

One could nitpick the two Nolan batsuits. But, again, Nolan had to distinguish himself from the Burtonmacherverse while still creating something that was recognizably BATMAN. On top of all that, it had to fit inside his ground, realistic, form follows function approach to the material. On that basis, I'd say both suits do a good job of fitting in with the world Nolan created. They're not meant to be "sexy" as such (even though one dopey costume designer used that word in reference to those suits). They're meant to protect whoever's wearing it from a lot of different types of physical trauma in extreme combat situations. Nolan's universe isn't a stylized fantasy where people can wear completely impractical one-piece rubber outfits with bat motifs and get by. Nolan's world is a harsh, brutal place of extreme violence. This Batman has to be able to withstand real violence in order to get the job done. His rubber outfits look less like rubber outfits and more like urban assault armor designed to protect the wearer and stylized in a way to scare the holy you-know-what out of his targets. Mission accomplished!

No, Nolan's Batman isn't my favorite version. But there's a lot to like about his take on the character if you keep an open mind.

[BatmAngelus]

One traditional part of the comics is seeing Batman swoop through the city on a swing line. How do you portray that in film though? In Nolan's estimation you can't. But you can't have Batman fly either. So Nolan devised a middle ground that allowed Batman to be airborne in a cinema-friendly way without breaking the rules and giving Batman a superpower. The memory cloth allowed Batman to glide through the city. Apart from satisfying the visual of Batman doing such a thing, it lends a sort of predatory aspect to Batman's character that was arguably missing from his predecessors. They drove the Batmobile or other vehicles. But Nolan's Batman could swoop bodily through the air in search of his quarry. It's just a more hands-on way of carrying out his mission. Plus? It just looks awesome onscreen.

While I would've preferred seeing Batman swinging on the line, I agree with this a lot. The memory cloth/Batman gliding image was cool.

Others:
- Bale's portrayal of playboy Bruce Wayne is underrated, in my opinion, and allowed him to flex some comedic muscles that most people don't give him credit for.

- Having Bruce drive a Lamborghini Murcielago was perfect.

- Heath Ledger's performance lives up to the hype.

- The origin of the Bat-Signal in Batman Begins was probably my favorite reimagining of the origin

- Loved the idea of Gordon being the one to comfort young Bruce after his parents died. This may not have been completely original (Steve Englehart and Sam Hamm had this in their previous versions of Batman 1989 and The Batman cartoon kind of implied it), but I honestly prefer it over Gordon being a Chicago transplant right when Bruce returns, like in Year One.

- The scores were generally great and got better as the films went along, in my opinion. Tracks like Like A Dog Chasing Cars and Why Do We Fall are my favorites.

- While it may have been over the top for that world, I'm a fan of how Eckhart's Two-Face looked. My favorite of the villain designs.

- Bruce's climb out of The Pit has got to be one of my favorite Bruce Wayne scenes ever.

Nolan, in general, covered a lot of ground that the previous live action films hadn't:
- Previously unadapted villains like Scarecrow, Ra's Al Ghul, and Talia as well as lesser known comic book characters: Lucius Fox, Ducard, Joe Chill, Carmine Falcone, Flass, Commissioner Loeb, etc.

- Bruce's relationship with his father (and Alfred) before the Wayne murders, as well as the aftermath

- The close Post-Crisis type partnership between Gordon and Batman

- The Batcave tunnels coming from Wayne ancestry/the Underground Railroad.

- Bruce Wayne's training and the development of his tech

- The reasons behind Bruce choosing the bat as his symbol

- Batman and Gordon's partnership with Harvey Dent before he became Two-Face

- The Long Halloween-type evolution from mobster crime to "freak villains"

- Batman's return from retirement

- Alfred leaving Wayne Manor

- Batman's crippling at the hands of Bane and subsequent comeback

- The No Man's Land-type occupation of Gotham

- Batman passing on the mantle to his Robin-type successor

[The Laughing Fish]

No, Nolan's Batman isn't my favorite version. But there's a lot to like about his take on the character if you keep an open mind.

This is the sort of defence I've seen fans of other franchises use to deflect any criticism, and lately it's been used a lot by Disney Star Wars fans who dismiss other people's grievances for the recent movies, particularly TLJ. What's worse is this line of thinking is used as weaponised propaganda by the press and social media to dismiss all the fans who didn't like what Disney are doing as "angry bigoted white males". To me, this is just as egocentric as claiming those who don't like Nolan's stuff as die-hard Burtonites. These claims are so simplistic, it's insulting. Yeah, I like the Burton movies the most, but they're by no means definitive, and it doesn't mean I don't enjoy other content like DCEU Batman, BTAS and other animated features etc. And it's not a question of favouritism either. I didn't ask for perfection from Nolan, I just needed the movies to be passable. I didn't get that.

If you enjoy Nolan's stuff, good on you. But just because you're a fan of something, it doesn't mean you have to like every adaptation that comes out. I'd be doing myself a huge disservice to feel compelled to like something if I know deep down it's not very good. Blind brand loyalty isn't good for anyone. A bad movie can have some good things going for it, but it doesn't make up if the whole storytelling is poor. One thing doesn't invalidate the other.

[thecolorsblend]

Generally, I liked Gary Oldman as Gordon and Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.

Batman Begins:I liked that we got an origin story for Batman, even though the film itself isn't one of my favorites, I appreciate what Nolan did. I liked how Gotham looked. I liked that Ra's al Ghul was the main villain.

The Dark Knight: I liked Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart as the Joker and Two-Face, I thought they were portrayed well for the most part, I liked that we got a more gripping story and an ending that left the audience wanting more.

The Dark Knight Rises: I like that it gave us a more serious version of Bane, I liked the small reference to Blake being Nolan's version of Robin, I liked that it brought back Ra's, that Catwoman helped Batman in the end and that he was redeemed.

As a more general note, these days I enjoy the trilogy's nods toward the Bronze Age comics, Year One/The Long Halloween and that stuff. There's some Miller influence going on with Nolan's work, obviously, but his version isn't as Miller-reliant as, say, Snyder's. I love Snyder's Batman but, boy oh boy, that's more or less Miller's Batman directly. The broader range of influences is more enjoyable as a comics fan.

Plus, Nolan had the paired reproductive organs to give Batman a REAL ENDING (probably). In my book, Bale's Batman died in that nuclear blast. No running away to Europe with Selina, no surprise visits to Alfred in Florence, no nuthin. Dead. Nolan left that interpretation deliberately open. And that's a brave creative decision, let's be real.

[The Dark Knight]

I like that it gave us a more serious version of Bane

A lot of films don't give their villains enough development or simply aren't memorable. I think it's safe to say Nolan passed that test.

For me, Bane is the best of the trilogy and gets more right than wrong. Nolan said he believes Hardy's performance has not yet been "fully appreciated". I agree with him, and that's coming from someone who was started out mocking it.

I haven't calculated character runtime, he seems to get a very healthy portion. That's really important and Burton also understood it. We need to make a connection of some kind with the villain as much as the hero, otherwise there's no investment to care. Bane really makes Bruce suffer in TDK Rises, and the plan in Gotham is large scale and debilitating. I respect that ambition.