I guess I always felt like Bale was being Batman because it was a phase in his life, and once he could get married he'd be more than happy to relinquish that role, while Pattinson feels like he needs to put on that stupid costume to make sense of his world.
Batman was a āphaseā in that he knew he couldnāt do it forever and TDKās Batman is the only one on screen who had a clear mission with a plan to achieve it. He wasnāt fighting criminals for vengeance he wanted to create lasting change that would eventually be handed over to a legitimate authority like Dent.
He was making Rachel his hope for a normal life after Gotham no longer needed Batman, not because he had given up the mantle, but because it would no longer be necessary.
I personally feel like The Batman is a pretty poor Batman film. I watched it at a DC In Concert event and I left the first half at intermission right after the Batmobile chase thinking, āI misjudged this movie, it slapsā.
Then after intermission I got to watch people say āEl rata aladaā 2740 times, two different 10+ minute long scenes of riddler exposition dumping, Batman never outsmarting the villain once in 3 hours, and a climax that felt completely disconnected from the rest of the film.
Whoās idea was it to have riddler do a giant monologue to Batman in Arkham, then have Batman go to Riddlerās apartment where we get to watch Batman watch a giant monologue from Riddler on a laptop? All within like 30 minutes.
The whole second half needed a rewrite and there were so many obvious narrative choices they missed that itās unforgivable IMO.
If The Batman was going to be good through and through Batman needed to solve one riddle in time to make a difference. If he figured out what ābring him into the lightā meant, saved Falcone (narratively rhyming with Thomas saving him previously), and grappled up to apprehend Riddler just in time to unravel his plan with the sea wall, then you would have had an exciting third act setup directly by Batmanās actions.
Instead we get a side character saying ācarpet tuckerā being the clue Batman needed to find something that should have been pretty obvious, and a TikTok explaining exactly what Batman needed to know just in time.
I think The Batman is still my fourth favorite Batman movie but IMO itās all tone and zero substance.