Messages

"I believe the word you're looking for is AAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"
"No, it's a lot!"
Visiting and bowing/collapsing at his parents' grave.
"You don't really think you'll win, do you?"
"Damn, picked the cute one."

Well I think Moore himself has said he shouldn't have gone as far with the violence and sexualized-violence in a Batman story, the editors should have stopped him from crippling Barbara, at least they shouldn't have been so indifferent. That could just be the editors being cavalier about supporting characters rather than female characters but it's unclear.

I like that the comic is very irreverent to taboos and conventions but that understandably makes it controversial.

if the Dent Act was still active by the end of the film, and it continued to keep scumbags off the streets, then why would Blake take the mantle as Batman?

Possibly Blake would only fight, rarely, against supervillains rather than ordinary criminals or (a) Batman continuing to fight against crime would continue to be a positive symbol, making the police and civilians better. The endings to both BB and TDK have the idea that like it or not Batman probably will have to do what he does forever and yet Bruce himself doesn't.

Seriously, this ending is far more cynical than people care to admit. But hey, let's not think about it too much because we're just glad that Bruce got a happy ending.

It does seem pretty cynical and should-be-more-controversial for the hero to fake his death and retire from his task. But maybe the films argue that it's not possible for someone to do Batman's tasks for long, especially given what he gives up and loses.

Though she couldn't do much to improve the script she was given, I think I still might have preferred Rachel Weisz as Catwoman.

That Alfred's vision of Bruce and Selina at the end was as ambiguous as it was (even if that wasn't the filmmakers' intentions)? I think the scene can come off as a hallucination by wishful thinking and also as something really seen and it's nice that it isn't totally clear which it is.

I think the only elements that seem particularly like parody/deliberate parody are Batman saying "Good night" to a thug after punching him through something, having his credit card and Robin being frozen in place after having a kiss blown and Batman carrying him off. Maybe Batman and Robin using doors as air-gliders and having skates on their boots (and how matter-of-factly they activate them) and Poison Ivy coming out of a gorilla. But the rest seems pretty much like trying to be a relatively to-be-taken serious action-adventure blockbuster, to follow and pretty much fit in with the predecessors, just very light and with more comic relief.

Another thought occurred to me if this movie came out today. Would the progressive media dared to have supported this film because of the director's sexual orientation?

I think it's interesting that bad guy Edward Nygma and his obsession with Wayne come off as at least vaguely homoerotic but the film was made by a gay director, I don't usually take into account personal characteristics of a filmmaker but that does make that possible subtext giving feel more playful or just neutral rather than mean-spirited. Nygma/the Riddler generally is a villain and yet doesn't come off as that evil, he's supposed to be entertaining and even in some ways likeable (especially considering that Jim Carrey had soon before and somewhat similarly played superhero the Mask).

Commentators today, if they thought there was a homoerotic subtext to Nygma, would probably be a little puzzled but also perceive it as just playful rather than trying to send an anti-gay or pro-gay message.

If he had been trying to steal/extort money rather than be indifferent to and even burn money.

It would be pretty big but probably amusing hypocrisy if he had been very hostile to society and its rules but also wanted to be rich.

Graham Nolan certainly appreciates Tom Hardy's performance as Bane, but he otherwise went on to voice his disappointment in ALL of the Batman movies:

They've never made a Batman movie. The Christopher Nolan movies, it's James Bond movies. If you substitute Batman for James Bond and Q for Morgan Freeman's character, it's the same story. We never see Batman as the world's greatest detective. He always solves everything with technology, and it's not even technology he created. It's given to him by some other guy. And that's the biggest beef I have with these Batman movies.

Source: http://www.cbr.com/sdcc-oneil-dixon-jones-celebrate-batman-in-the-80s-and-90s/

I wonder if he thinks TAS had enough detective work vs. just action.

There's a general feeling that women in BR can only chose between conforming to a system that humiliates and objectifies them (the Ice Princess, Oswald's volunteers) and becoming sexually charged avengers (Catwoman) or mobsters (the Poodle Lady, the Knivesthrower Dame).

I think Bruce Wayne presents a nice, I guess, third alternative though-he's both respectful and friendly to Selina when he meets her at the office even though she acts provocatively and feigns amnesia. He does probably like that Selina is irreverent to her crooked boss Max.