Dr Paul Allen

The definite article (“the”) is a bold choice for the title of Matt Reeves’s new film about Gotham’s fabled caped crusader. A more appropriate title for The Batman would perhaps be A Batman because this latest reboot of the lucrative franchise is just one of many iterations of the comic book world. To declare Robert Pattinson’s version the Batman is to boldly go all-in on this rendering of the familiar story, pitting it against other renderings—Christopher Nolan’s so-serious Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012), Tim Burton’s and Joel Schumacher’s campy versions in the 80s and 90s, and Ben Affleck’s Batman in the DC Extended Universe films (2016–2021)—to vie for supremacy in cinema lore. Yet this boldness is what I loved most about The Batman. By going all-in on reenvisioning the world of Gotham—and its many colorful characters, textures, and subplots—Reeves captures why franchise reboots are attractive. Even if our memories of previous Gothams are still fresh, there are something captivatin...

The Dark Knight Rises (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The shooting at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises will be blamed on many things. One reporter blamed it on violence in movies. Certainly, violence in movies, television, and video games has had a tremendous impact on society. More than 500,000 studies, capped by the latest Dartmouth University study, show that violence in the media influences susceptible youths to commit violence. That said, most people are not susceptible. Most are just desensitized or scared. Another reporter blamed it specifically on the Batman movies . Yet, The Dark Knight Rises is nowhere near as violent as the last Batman movie, and Batman himself tells Catwoman not to shoot to kill in The Dark Knight Rises. The message of The Dark Knight Rises is justice and self-sacrifice. The villains and the killers in the movie are the 'socialist left-wing Occupy Wall Street power to the people' villain Bane and his compatriots, who are clearly sh...