I was a bit hesitant to post what I'm about to say, as it will probably be a bit unpopular, but keep in mind that it's just my opinion and I'm not trying to start a debate...
Despite my immense love for the atmosphere, the visuals, the overall direction and pretty much everything about
The Batman (I've seen it 4 times in theaters and been singing its praises here for months...), I hope Reeves finds a new partner to write the sequel.
While I really like all the story ideas of the first film, in details, I still have some reservations about the way everything was put together. Mostly the end of act 2, the
"Wayne subplot".
That part always seemed a bit static to me. I'm not talking about a lack of action, I can watch Batman looking for evidence with a flashlight for two hours
. But this succession of scenes, back to back, even though excellent in themselves thanks to Turturro and Serkis' acting, were still our main character getting some pretty heavy expositions through monologues. And to me, that makes the film lose some of its momentum. Also, the fact that, right after, the
big mystery was revealed, once again, through a monologue from Kenzie, a very secondary character, also felt a bit anticlimatic. As if the film suddenly needed to move forward without the intervention of its main protagonists.
When I later saw several interviews where Reeves was hinting about trouble with the script, it kind of confirmed that feeling I had when watching that part of the film, where I felt like I could taste the
blood, sweat and tears of the writing... It certainly wasn't enough for me to dislike the movie
(obviously), and there are always things to nitpick about in every movie
(or almost), but if there's one thing I want to see improved in the next one, it's this. I think it would be better for Reeves to find someone with a fresh perspective to spot this kind of thing and and help him offer us his vision in its best form.
In any case, a decade after Nolan's trilogy, I'm still over the moon to know my favortite character is in the hand of people with a solid ambition for him, and I'm damn looking forward to what's next !