For me, the only time Batman's no killing ideology has worked was in the Animated series cartoon and the 60s-70s with those comics and the Adam West Batman. Any other time it makes Batman either look like a hypocrite (he has the rule, but kills anyway) or a buffoon. The Arkham games for example are obnoxious with this. You beat guys to a pulp, probably crippling them. You drive the Batmobile at high speeds with the intention of running one of the bad guys over and, last minute, an electrical charge pops out of no where to "safely" move them out of harms way. It's silly.
Batman is already a vigilante and a wanted man in most incarnations. He works outside the law. I dig the whole "my parents were killed, so I value you every life and refuse to kill", but only to a point. It's a pretty messed up code when you think of the types of people like Zsaz and the Joker that Batman has run ins with. You're really going to drop off a guy at the police station for the 100th time when they'll just be back on the streets after they've racked up a body count that includes your friends and family? That's just ******** and not very proactive.
Anyway, while this Affleck Batman might not be "muh Batman", I really dig him. He's a burnout that sees how futile his mission is but is still obsessed with carrying it out. He's lost his way from all the stuff he's seen and doesn't care anymore. People joke about him being the Punisher, just like they've done with Keaton, but he's not. This is a justifiably fed up Batman I've said it before and I'll say it again, that horror movie vibe I got when those two cops come across the human trafficking basement where the girls want to stay in the cage as they hear Batman torturing the **** is fantastic. Then when they come across the branded criminal and you get that weird "Jeepers Creepers" image where Batman is shimmying on the ceiling like the Alien or some kind of animal, it's just perfect. We haven't gotten spooky imagery of Batman since the Burton movies where he's unfurl his cape like a real bat and Begins where he's hanging like a bat at the docks. The fact that this Batman brands and kills means he's a force to be reckoned with. He's really the only Batman that good really get anything done. There's only so much this type of character can do if he struts around like a superhero with his cape behind his shoulders and his fists at his waist. He comes off as a joke. Like a lot of people in here have stated, if Batman is just running around in a leotard, jump scaring criminals in an alley and the only consequence is a broken nose and some jail time, well as a vigilante, Batman isn't very effective. Unless you want that Adam West or Joel Schumacher Batman where he vows not to kill and can be see out in the open rubbing elbows with GCPD and attending charities out in the open as a deputized hero. While that's fine, it makes Batman even more goofy than he already is.
I'm not a sadist, but I got a kick out of seeing a Batman that just didn't give a **** anymore. His expression as he calmly mows down all the machine gun thugs in the trucks before the "save Martha" warehouse scene was priceless. He looks down at them, almost like telling the audience, "yeah, I did it, so what". The only thing I didn't like and thought was needless was how he tow cables the car that was flipped over and drags those poor guys into the chase. It seemed unnecessary and messed up, even for this Batman. I mean, those guys are already taken out, why do you have to pull them into this mess?
