Batman. Pause and think about that character for a minute. "The Batman" is a guy in a spandex bat suit going around fighting crime, a superhero character from a comic book from the 1940's for young children looking for a bit of fun and a place for their juvenile imaginations to run free. His sworn enemy is "the Joker", a clown with clown tricks up his sleeve who's a villain.

Where the earlier Tim Burton adaptations were fun and tongue in cheek, this here takes the Batman, the guy running around in spandex in a bat suit fighting off the bad guys... and makes an attempt at a disconcertingly, utterly serious film noir with an atmosphere about as dense as a horror movie, exceeding the 2hr30 mark. It's... like a joke, it's something akin to the concept for a comedy sketch one would have. To take something a bit ridiculous and light, and reverse its momentum in making it into this piece that takes itself completely, utterly seriously. It's a very common premise for many comedy sketches or concepts.

The fact it was received so absurdly well by the greater public is, sadly, testament to how empty and strayed our current times are, that the common individual looks for a hero and ideals of greatness, epic drama, and meaning, in something like a 3 hour long horror movie/thriller version of Batman directed by Christopher Nolan. And this review doesn't even take into account the film from a technical perspective: too many characters, cringy silly scenes, way too long... etc