The Batman (2022)

[cinemabon]

Ok... shots.... shots... shots... of course the most dramatic of all, Batman - who'd been the object of ridicule - elevates his character by leading the crowd out of the flooded Madison Square Garden, the crowd trailing behind grows exponentially with an orchestral queue... I'm ashamed to admit, I wept. The symbolism, fantastic. And the scene where he exits the elevator in the dark, punctuated by only blasts of machine gun fire... the climax of the Penguin chase scene on the bridge, where the tanker flips and Penguin grunts, "I got you! I got you!" only to have Batman's car (more car than stylistic vehicle in the past) bursts out through the fireball... Catwoman slipping into her costume for the first time, sliding it on as if she were donning a bathrobe, it goes over her frame so fast; almost in voyeuristic fashion... I leave the fight scenes to those who like martial arts; I just love how Fraser shot the sky with Catwoman and Batman in their parting... his use of lighting throughout is fantastic, but some of those shots stayed in my mind...

[Chris Knipp]

You're talking about striking or significant shots; I'm talking about beautiful ones. My appreciation - anyone's - of handsome cinematography is a bit detached and abstracted from symbolism or message, though not totally, as I said, because if the action had had no significance to me I'd be bored. Eventually maybe I was. I acknowledge the significance and power of the leading-he-crowd out of Madison Square Garden shot, which you don't have to apologize for weeping at: this is a film appreciation website and what better appreciation is there than tears?