The sequence towards the end where we saw the characters from the different Multiverses I agree with. The rest of the bad CG I dunno so much.

I really enjoyed it but agree that Keaton as a hermit was goofy and the roommates were unfunny other than the Back to the Future chatter. That said, I did love seeing Keaton back along with the Elfman Batman music. And his new Batwing was great. They totally got me with the Clooney cameo (I expected to find out that Keaton was now Batman in that universe). There were some pretty big reactions in the theater I was in to that scene.

Keaton having a Batman kite was some (unintentionally?) funny stuff, unless it was meant as some kind of tribute to Adam West's Batman having Bat-everything.

Cage Superman fighting spiders--nice touch.

I liked the baby scene as I am a sucker for scenes where superheroes actually help normal folks and not just do "save the world" type things.

Kind of sad to see the movie flopping in a way, but not sure it really matters either way as this "universe" is dead regardless. Wonder if Aquaman 2 will also flop?

Then again, maybe I would turn into a hermit myself if I chased off both Basinger and Pfeiffer.

Do you think that Ezra Miller’s offscreen behavior turned off moviegoers from watching the film?

Yes, 100%. I'll watch this when it hits Max... but I'm not paying outside of that service and supporting Miller. Dude got a free pass for all the horrible things he's done with kids because, well, money.

I wouldn't go so far as to say this movie was good, but it was far better than I ever imagined it would be. That might say more about my basement level expectations, but I didn't hate myself for watching it. The middle section with Bruce, Barry and Barry on the mission to find Supergirl was actually pretty fun comic book stuff. I could take or leave the stuff before or after, but like I said, that's better than I could have expected.

​​​​​​Here are my main gripes in order from smallest to largest:

1. I know there have certainly been longer franchise movies recently, but it was still too darn long. 15 minutes easily could have been cut from this.

2. The time travel sequences were garbage. It's not just the quality of the cgi, it wasn't the least bit visually engaging and it wasn't clear from a storytelling perspective. It was just ugly gobbledygook. And for a movie that had reasonably clear and coherent action scenes, to have the big final showdown be in a cg vomit junkyard, was disappointing.

3. Ezra Miller just didn't work for me. The double role thing was pretty seamless. I can't think of too many other movies that accomplished it as well on a technical and performance level, but the character himself was completely insufferable. I thought Barry was maybe 20% funny and 80% I want to punch this dude in the face. Repeatedly. Tonally it just didn't work. Completely ill conceived and I'm stunned so many here liked it.

4. By far the biggest issue with the movie (and it's not even close) is the fact that they have Michael Keaton in a beard. A BEARD! I have never seen anything more disrespectful in a popular franchise movies. I mean at least when Luke drank the milk from that space cow, you could justify it as him needing sustenance to survive. But why would Bruce Wayne have a beard? What, he can't afford razors anymore? Sell some furniture or something if you need to. It just didn't make any sense. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the second thing James Gunn did after firing Henry Cavill was order reshoots for Michael Keaton and put him in that beard. There's no way that was in the original script. Gunn just hates the fans that much. Screw that guy. I've waited 32 years to see Keaton play Batman again and now it's been ruined.

I think it's a very small part. I think the biggest issue is that it is sandwiched between Spidey and Indy and released alongside a PIxar film. While Elemental didn't exactly burn up the box office, when you have Spidey, Transformers, Flash and Elemental all at once in theaters you can't expect to "win big". Of course, it also doesn't help when you already know that this movie and its characters are all "dead" because of another universe reboot.

Not sure you can blame Gunn for hermit Bruce Wayne, an article someone posted above said that the only reshoot they did with Miller since Gunn was brought on was the new ending with Clooney. Miller was all over the Keaton scenes so I suppose you can only blame Gunn for not doing reshoots to remove the bearded scenes, which seems prohibitive since they were apparently grateful they got through the brief Clooney shoot with Miller.

Clooney's Bruce Wayne also had a beard. Does that mean he couldn't afford razors? I imagine he can't be an active Batman any longer since his beard would show through the cowl and villains would mock him for having a beard.

After all those years of fighting crime at night and working out during the day, while also keeping his fighting skills honed and working on all of his toys, not to mention trying to find the time to actually sleep I can totally see Bruce becoming a lazy mofo after hanging up the cowl.

I just don't think Ezra Miller had that much of an impact. Maybe in the Hollywood and/or New York circuit but outside of that, do you really think people gave a shit?

People still want to listen to R.Kelly's music because they don't give a crap. Same with The Cosby Show, That 70's Show and on and on. The industry and the 24 hour news media put up a front acting like they care but they need content. Even entertainment providers may act like they care by pulling the artist's work, but in the end, I believe the general public just wants to be entertained. They don't tend to care who it is by anymore as long as it is entertaining. They don't want the artist's stuff pulled off their channel.

I think word of mouth, DC's poor prior films, critics, content overload, knowing you can stream it at home in 3 months and the most obvious....Super-Hero Movie fatigue plagued this movie more than anything. Plus, it isn't that great of a film. It is enjoyable for most nerds out there but it not as publicly pleasing as so many past movies that stuck around longer than expected and surprised people.

And for god's sake...make these goddamn comic book movies shorter. They should be 90 minutes. An hour and 45 minutes tops. People don't want to have to spend the entire afternoon going to see one movie, especially if it has the strong chance of sucking. These aren't epics like The Godfather or even Braveheart. I am not saying that there cannot be a 3-hour epic super-hero film like Avengers: Endgame or Infinity War but every one of them doesn't have to be over 2 hours with the majority running around 2.25 to 2.5 hours. This bloat just creates boredom, exposes poor scripts and encourages the lack of the general public wanting to sit through another "epic."

Put in the time to drive to your local theater, time to get any snacks if there is a line, watch forced commercials, see the previews, sit through the credits to watch the obligatory tag and then drive home; it can seriously be over a 4-hour investment depending on your drive and how long the commercials and previews are. My AMC theaters almost always make you watch 30 minutes of commercials and previews before every movie no matter the length. Granted you can plan to get there later but then you have to worry about possibly missing anything, what the line may be to get in or get snacks, etc.

It shouldn't and doesn't have to be like this.

Sorry for the rant.

This is just more evidence that James Gunn is pro-beard, since he was the one who arranged for the cameo. I can't believe they gave the franchise over to this guy. He obviously isn't a true fan. At least Clooney wasn't wearing flip flops. Although it's probably his subtle way of saying Batman & Robin > Batman '89. Typical.

I think had Keaton shown up with just a beard that he had actually grown rather than a fake one he would have looked better.

Also to call back to his classic look I would have had him wearing jeans and maybe a black long sleeve shirt (rather than his turtleneck from the late 80s/90s).

Not sure why they had to have him look how he did or who thought that was a good idea.

This was my outfit to my showing, as a subtle nod to that film. I had to change after the gym ayway, so I figured "why not?' when I picked the clothes for my bag.

So was that supposed to be the actual 89 universe they went to in this movie? Or was it supposed to be some other variation of that universe? Previously, it was accepted that 89/Returns/Forever/Robin were all supposed to be the same universe, just with a different actor playing Batman (and Harvey Dent). Now though, since Barry doesn't recognize the Clooney Bruce Wayne as looking the same as the Keaton Bruce Wayne, it seems that Batman Forever and Batman & Robin were actually slightly different realities from 89 and Returns but not completely different.

Nice! I actually got a shirt for the movie itself and wore that.

It’s not directly stated but I like IBJoel’s suggestion that this is a possible version of the Burton/Keaton universe. I didn’t have too much of a problem with the portrayal of Keaton’s Batman (aside from when he first shows up) but I don’t know if I want to think of the version in this film as the prime one from the other films.

Also I never really knew if the Schumacher films were supposed to be set in the same universe as the Burton films. They always came across like soft reboots to me. I know some of the same actors (Michael Gough and Pat Hingle) showed up again but the versions of Gotham and the tone of both movies seemed so different from that of the Burton films.

Yeah I get that Batman/Bruce has never had a beard in the comics. But, I wouldn't go so far as to take it so personal. I mean weren't we suppose to assume that Bruce was long retired as Batman in that universe that the 2 Barry's traveled to. I mean the Bat Cave was filled with cobwebs and dust. Sure, they could have made him cleaned up and retired, but they didn't. He became a recluse.

And in Justice League Bruce had a beard for who knows how long when he went searching for Arthur to join the Justice League. Could be that he wasn't working as the caped crusader for XX months and the beard grew? He eventually shaved when he went back to the suit.

Before this goes any further, I don't actually care about the beard. I was just being a dick.

I guess my absurd take wasn't as absurd as I thought.

Oh Jeez. I did think it was an over the top take, but you never know how personal some take their comic book fandom.

Sure he has - it's even a TV Trope (the Beard of Sorrow).

So is Batman going to be completely cut from Aquaman 2 then? Because I know originally the scenes were filmed with Keaton, when the movie was supposed to come out after the Flash, and then re-shot with Affleck when it was moved to coming out before Flash, but now that it's after Flash again, and Keaton is not in the the series going forward, do we need Clooney in the movie canonically? Do they cut the scenes completely (no idea how important they were)? Or do they just say fuck it and release it with Affleck because the DCEU as we know it is done and who cares?

Affleck filmed a scene for Aquaman apparently. Momoa posted a picture and video with him at the WB lot last year. But, apparently it won’t make the cut as it happened before Gunn took over.

And Gal Gadot also allegedly filmed a scene on Aquaman as well. She was in London shooting on Aquaman and then filmed her cameo for Shazam 2.

I think Clooney appearing was more of a wink wink joke.

I totally get that, I was just saying that if Batman was to appear again before the end times for the DCEU as we know it, it would probably have to be him, canonically speaking.

But yeah, they can probably just cut Batman entirely.

If there is one character I don’t need to see again for years, it’s Batman

He already was before this film was even released.

I hadn't heard that, which is why I asked the question. Thanks.