| Batman: the King of Crooks | |
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Directed by |
Bryan Singer |
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Produced by |
Steven Spielberg |
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Screenplay by |
Christopher Nolan |
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Based on |
Characters by Bob Kane |
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Narrated by |
Patrick Stewart |
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Starring |
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Music by |
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Cinematography |
Eduardo Serra |
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Studio |
Universal |
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Release date(s) |
21st December 2017 |
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Running time |
170 |
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Country |
USA |
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Language |
English |
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Budget |
$180,000,000 |
| [Source] | |
- "Gotham city is a chessboard. And the pieces...are moving."
- ―James Earl Jones in the trailer
Batman: the King of Crooks is a 2017 American comic-book action superhero movie directed by Bryan Singer, produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Julian McMahon, James Earl Jones, Eddie Redmayne, Patrick Stewart and Rosamund Pike, among others. It tells the story of Batman, long after his battle with the Joker, coming face to face with the mob bosses of Gotham City, including the unscrupulous Black Mask, only to be faced with the lethal and dangerous Red Hood.
It was released two years after the release of Batman: the Price of Victory. The role of writing the film was afforded to Christopher Nolan, who had also done the same for the prequel. Nolan agreed, surprised at the notion of a sequel to the film being made so early after the first one. The film, again, went through several script changes, before being released in 2017 after two years of script-writing and confirming locations for filming.
Upon release, Batman: the King of Crooks received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences. It was praised for its action sequences, plot, character development and the performances of McMahon, Redmayne and Jones. It was, though, criticized for its duration, and its probably excessive bloody action. Nevertheless, it was a box-office success, grossing $1, 700, 000, 000 worldwide, which seconded only to its own predecessor. Awards that were won included Best Director (Singer), Best Cinematography, Best Score, Choice Movie Actress (Pike) and Best Action Movie of the Year.
Plot[]
Two groups of gangs meet at a harbour in Gotham City. They are differentiated because one of the gangs are wearing black masks that conceal their faces. They individually claim that one owes the other money, and they surround the harbour secretly with marksman who - unknown to them - are being incapacitated one-by-one by an unseen attacker. The apparent leaders of the gangs are only just arguing over who the territories they are warring over belongs to, when the leader of the black-masked gang is gunned down by the attacker. The leader of the other gang reacts by ordering his men to open fire on the attacker, but Batman appears and overpowers them, before confronting the leader. The leader tries to shoot him, but the bullets bounce off. Batman questions the leader, demanding the identity of the man who sent him, when the leader is shot in the head by the attacker. Batman glimpses the attacker - a lithe, athletic man wearing a red metal mask, before the attacker escapes in one of the gang's vans.
The next day, in a luxurious hotel owned by powerful mob boss Salvatore Maroni, the mobs of Gotham City meet and dine together. They are joined by Black Mask, the leader of the second most powerful mob in the city and Maroni's business rival. Black Mask explains that this is the seventh attack by the masked figure, whom he names the Red Hood, and that soon they must react with such aggression as they have been struck with by Red Hood. Maroni takes charge of such an idea, to which Black Mask relents. On their way out, Black Mask unmasks and reveals himself to be Roman Sionis, a very wealthy cosmetics tycoon and a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Roman are business allies, for all purposes unaware of each other's true identity.
At Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne visits the grave of Dick Grayson, who was killed by the Joker three years earlier. Since then, Bruce has promised himself never to take another child as his sidekick, so as to spare himself the agony of Dick Grayson's death a second time. He is approached by Alfred, and reveals that he has been having nightmares of the night that he was unable to save Grayson's predecessor, Jason Todd, who was beaten and then murdered by the Joker. It is revealed, through flashbacks, that Jason was adopted by Bruce and trained to be the first Robin the same way Dick Grayson was, but Bruce refused to continue training him when he exhibited abnormal and uncontrollable aggression.
Alfred comforts him, and Bruce then tells him about Red Hood and the skirmish the night before. As Alfred researches the Red Hood, Bruce dresses for a date with Vicki Vale. Vicki is convinced that he will propose to her. During their date, Bruce starts nicely but, during the main course, he admits that he cannot marry her because it would bee too dangerous, since she is connected to him and knows he is the Batman. Vicki tearfully leaves, telling him that if he draws away the people who can keep his secrets, then he will only bring himself down in the process. Moments after she leaves, Bruce gets a call from Alfred, who reveals that Black Mask's men are moving base to the north of Gotham.
Bruce calls for Gordon's aid in investigating Black Mask, and is introduced to Gotham's District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Dent appears to intrigue Bruce with his idealistic ideas and unrelenting devotion to the people of Gotham, and asks Harvey to investigate personally into Black Mask's crime ring. Gordon protests to this, but Dent agrees to this passionately, sarcastically tossing his father's two-headed coin to decide whether or not he goes through with it. Black Mask learns about this intrusion by the District Attorney, and orchestrates a trail of evidence that leads to Maroni instead, in the hopes that it will destroy Maroni's reputation and power in Gotham. The evidence leads Dent to Maroni's appartment, where Maroni is waiting for him. The two men struggle and Maroni wins after his men arrive and subdue Dent. Tying him to a table, the thugs beat him, before Maroni uses a solution of sulphuric acid to smear on Dent's face, hurting him for his own entertainment. Maroni drops the unconscious Dent at Black Mask's door, with a note tied to his wrist reading 'Try that again. I dare you!'. Gordon finds Harvey and is committed to hospital, where Bruce leaves him his father's coin, which had been marred on one side by the sulphuric acid.
He hunts after Black Mask's gang as they rush to meet Maroni, but is faced with the Red Hood. The Red Hood uses plastic explosives that he had placed on the tires to destroy Maroni's gang's transportation and kill the occupants, whilst simultaneously using road spikes to disable the tires of Black Mask's gang, drawing them out and framing them for the destruction they had caused without the agreement with Maroni that there would be conflict. The Red Hood then turns on Batman with dual machine-guns, and Batman returns fire with a Batarang that rebounds off the mask. Batman chases Red Hood, who escapes by diving into a nearby river and disappearing. Meanwhile, Maroni, furiously, declares war on Black Mask, believing that simply imprisoning the gangsters will not balance the justice that must be done between them.
Batman confides in Commissioner Gordon about the gang war, and Gordon tries to reason with Maroni. The mob boss refuses and sends men to kidnap Gordon's family, but Batman appears and disables the gangsters before they can reach the house. Red Hood, meanwhile, makes an attempt on Black Mask's life by placing a miniature hydrogen bomb under Black Mask's car. Black Mask escapes with seconds to spare, and Red Hood stands over him. Red Hood insists that Black Mask hand over his territory, or he will deeply regret it. As Sionis, he confides in Bruce and asks if he could become a significantly stronger benefactor in Sionis's business, in fear that his company is going downhill due to budget defects. Bruce accepts, but later on reveals that he has become suspicious of Sionis's behaviour. He deduces, from Sionis's mannerisms and tone, that he was in an attack, and makes inquiries into his business.
His inquiries lead him into discovering that he has connections with Maroni. That night, while he is investigating Maroni's cartels, Red Hood arrives on the scene and ambushes Maroni's smuggling establishments. However, Batman ignites an EMP device that disarms Red Hood of all of his weapons and allows Maroni's men to surround him. Unarmed, Red Hood kills all of Maroni's men with his bare hands, which alarms Batman as to the brutality and bloodthirst that the vigilante possesses. After killing his opponents, Red Hood turns a second time on Batman and attempts to shoot him with a grenade-launcher, but suddenly a muted voice in his earpiece commands him not to. Red Hood instead flees, leaving Batman to be blamed for the massacre of Maroni's thugs. Batman returns, and learns from Alfred that the Red Hood is a terrorist who has been making connections with the homeless of Gotham, moving from hideout to hideout and doing occasional jobs for recently-dissolved gangs, who apparently have been destroyed personally by Red Hood himself.
Maroni and Black Mask meet near the city hall where they argue, suspecting one another of hiring Red Hood to destroy one another's operations. Their argument is interrupted when a doctor at Arkham, Dr. Crane, calls them to his office at the Asylum. He claims that he has succeeded in creating a chemical compound that will induce extreme terror in a victim by showing them physical personifications of their very worst fears. Crane claims that he has put the compound, which he dubs Fear Gas, on the black market for Maroni and Black Mask to fight over, so as to end this quarrel between them quickly. Immediately, a bidding war erupts between the two gangs which sucks substantial funds out of both Wayne Enterprises and Sionis Corporations. Bruce becomes suspicious of the sudden decrease in funds, and tries to investigate Sionis further. His search leads him to an intensely logical Arkham patient named Edward Nygma, who calls himself the Riddler. Nygma claims that he knows how to find out a man's identity, by investigating several locations specific to Sionis's past. Batman does this, and finds that Nygma has left a series of elaborate puzzles for him, solving each of which will lead him to an individual aspect of Roman Sionis's secrecy. He solves the riddles, to Nygma's chagrin, and learns that Sionis is in fact Black Mask. Bruce, as Batman, raids Sionis's base of operations at his family manor, but is subdued when Red Hood appears out of nowhere and knocks him out by pinching a nerve in his neck.
Subdued, Batman is elaborately tied to a wall, where Black Mask confronts him. Black Mask recalls how his parents neglected him as a child, more focused on business than on him. As such, they did not react empathetically when he was dropped on his head as a child, or when a rabid raccoon sneaked into his room and mauled him. He killed his parents and took over the company, but also increasing the company's finance by posing as Black Mask. He then reveals that all of the chaos - the attacks, the Fear Gas, asking Bruce Wayne to increase his support - was part of a complex plan to discredit Cobblepot. Red Hood appears, revealed to be working with Black Mask because of an unexplained hatred of Batman - Red Hood told Black Mask that he was Bruce Wayne a long time ago. Red Hood has been an asset of Black Mask from the very beginning, operating his attacks to ensure that Black Mask wasn't a suspect in any investigation. He leaves him with Dr. Crane, who plans to experiment his Fear Gas further on Batman. Meanwhile, Maroni climactically loses the bidding war and Crane has prematurely supplied the Fear Gas to Black Mask.
Batman, before the mad doctor can use the Fear Gas on him, escapes and knocks Crane unconscious. He goes after Black Mask as the latter goes to confront Maroni and flaunt his success. Batman manages to upturn Black Mask's car, but Red Hood repels him with rocket-propelled grenades. Batman realizes that Red Hood will go after Vicki next, considering he hates him so much. He rushes to Vicki's house to protect her, but Maroni has already arrived and is holding her at gunpoint. Batman overcomes Maroni's men and throws him off a rooftop, crippling him by breaking his legs. Maroni orders his men to open fire on Vicki, but Batman attacks nerve endings in his broken legs until he orders them otherwise. Red Hood reappears and fires at Vicki, but Batman tackles her out of a window, out of Red Hood's line of fire. They survive the fall when Batman grapples to a nearby rooftop, out of the kill zone. There, Vicki goes into shock and Batman commits her to hospital.
Meaanwhile, Harvey Dent has been released from hospital, with the left side of his face horrifically disfigured and concealed underneath bandages. Gordon personally drives him from the building, and tries frequently during the journey to make conversation with the District Attorney. Dent stays silent throughout the journey, until they get to his home. When Dent enters, he finds his wife and children to be dead, their throats cut and their faces painted black. Harvey, seeing this, suffers a breakdown and faints, and Gordon nurses himm until he awakes. When he does, Gordon quietly asks if he will help them bring down Black Mask and end this madness, but Dent turns to him coldly and refuses, saying he wants nothing more to do with them. Gordon, not wanting to argue with the man in this state, leaves. Dent's family is carried away by ambulance, and Harvey is left alone, and he finds himself a bottle of wine, which he hysterically starts drinking, nearly drowning himself, but self-preservation stops him. As a reaction to this, Harvey finds another bottle and starts drinking that as well.
Maroni, from his hospital bed, orders that his men go after Black Mask, torture him and kill him for ever standing in his way. Black Mask is on his way to visit Maroni, when the mob boss's men attack him. Red Hood effortlessly guns down the attackers and accompanies Black Mask to the hospital. Whilst there, Batman ambushes them and Red Hood orders Black Mask to carry on going. Red Hood and Batman engage in a brutal fist fight through the hospital, in which they are evenly matched in every way. None of their weaponry has any effect on the other, until they reach the magnetom room and Batman uses the magnetic devices in the room to unveil Red Hood and leave him vulnerable. In a maddened rage, Jason unmasks Batman's cowl, leaving him unmasked also. Bruce prepares for another attack, but stops when he sees that Red Hood is in fact Jason Todd, Batman's first Robin. Red Hood reveals that he was tortured with the experimental Fear Gas by the Joker, and that it maddened him into thinking Batman had abandoned him. He was then murdered by the Joker, but inexplicably resurrected with an unquenchable hatred of Batman.
Jason has now developed the epiphany that Bruce's rules of not killing is weak and ineffective, and the only way to achieve anything was through direct and remorseless brutality. He and Bruce continue to fight, and Bruce tries to reason with Jason, insisting that his ruling through intimidation, violence and murder made him little more than another criminal. Meanwhile, Black Mask faces Maroni, revealing that all of the chaos that had happened was his doing. Maroni tries to go for the gun he hid under his pillow, but Black Mask grabs his morphine drip and threatens to insert a solution of cyanide into his medication. He demands that Maroni sign a contract that transfers all authority over Gotham's underworld to him. Maroni refuses, so Black Mask attempts to inject the cyanide. The brawl between Bruce and Jason smashes into the room, and Jason instinctively dodges a clutch of Batarangs, one of which catches Black Mask on the hand and makes him drop the cyanide. The others slam into the wall and spray white smoke. In the commotion, Jason escapes and Black Mask tries to shoot Maroni with his own pistol, only for Bruce to incapacitate him by knocking him out.
Jason journeys to Wayne Manor with intent to destroy the Batcave and ruin Batman. He is faced with Alfred, who immediately recognizes him before even seeing him. Alfred, in Wayne Manor, is standing between Jason and the Batcave, but Jason cannot bring himself to kill the butler. Bruce arrives on the scene and faces Jason. Jason screams at him, accusing him of abandoning him to the mercy of the Joker. Bruce apologizes, but Jason is beyond reasoning. Jason shoots at Alfred, but Bruce tackles him to the ground, and the two of them fight through the Batcave, which ends when Gordon arrives and shoots Jason in the back. Jason falls into the nearby lake, and Gordon leaves with his men. Bruce, out of sight, dives into the water and searches for Jason's body. He recovers Jason before the boy drowns and brings him to the riverside. Jason, barely conscious, begs for Bruce to kill him. Bruce calmly refuses, and Jason succumbs to his wounds.
Bruce sends Jason to the hospital, where he is kept in a comatose state. When he awakes, he finds Batman standing over his bed. Batman softly tells him that he could never replace Jason, but adopting Dick Grayson was an attempt to redeem himself for his mistake. Jason, rendered mute due to medication, snarls at him, then falls asleep. Batman leaves. Meanwhile, Roman Sionis limps into his cell, only to realize that Deathstroke is his cellmate. Deathstroke malevolently approaches, and then grabs Sionis and starts furiously attacking him, vowing that 'he would make Sionis regret ever hiring him. However, before Slade can kill him, the cell explodes, tearing a fiery hole in that part of Blackgate Prison.
Slade survives the explosion, and looks through the resulting hole, where Sionis's charred remains are spread across the floor. Slade tries to escape through the hole, but the prison guards that arrive on the scene bring him down with tasers. From his apartment not far from the prison, Maroni watches the explosion, turning to a shadowed figure in the corner of the room - a bearded figure in Japanese robes. Maroni asks if he has done his part, and the man nods, before turning and leaving, claiming 'You've lit the match. Now, I shall light the fuse'.
Bruce is next seen looking at the Batsuit solemnly. He is met by Vicki, who comforts him when he tells her about Jason's plight. She tells him that there was nothing he could have done. Bruce walks her away from the Batcave and up to the doorsteps of Wayne Manor. In front of them, Roman Sionis's company is being disbanded, and its headquarters are being torn down. It is heard on the news that Maroni has recovered and is now walking with the aid of a cane, voicing his opinion that Batman saved his life to the press. Bruce arranges a date with Vicki, and she walks away. Alfred meets Bruce by the front door, and assures him that Vicki was right about Jason. Bruce optimistically replies by telling him that it didn't change anything, what Jason became. He is last seen donning the Batsuit again, looking through his shadowy cowl at himself in the mirror.
In an end-credits scene, Harvey Dent is sitting in an armchair in his house, clinging on to a bottle of wine and critically drunk, with half of his face bandaged over to hide the damage done by the sulphuric acid. Heavily depressed, Dent pulls out his father's coin, and stares at it for a few seconds (The camera blurs whilst Dent looks at the coin). Two voices are just about heard in his head, one insisting that Batman was to blame for his injuries, the other retorting that the Batman was innocent. Driven mad by the voices, Dent flips the coin in one hand, but the screen turns black just as Dent's fist closes around it.
Cast[]
- Julian McMahon as Bruce Wayne/Batman, the titular protagonist. The eccentric billionaire turned masked vigilante who lurks in the streets of Gotham City and battles criminals. He is the Dark Knight, a master of the shadows, who inspires the people of Gotham into standing up against the mechanisms of crime. McMahon complained that the stunts had become increasingly difficult for him, but stated that playing the Caped Crusader was still immense fun.
- James Earl Jones as Roman Sionis/Black Mask, the main antagonist. Black Mask is a greedy, powerful and subtly barbaric crime lord who is determined to become the most powerful mob leader in all of Gotham City, which brings him into conflict with the other gang leaders and, eventually, the Batman. He is secretly in league with the Red Hood, using him as an asset to gain power in Gotham through terror. Black Mask is remembered for being hideously deformed as a child, for which reason he wears the mask. Jones expressed that playing Black Mask was like playing Darth Vader in a white suit.
- Patrick Stewart as Alfred Pennyworth, the deuteragonist. Alfred is Bruce Wayne's intelligent and resourceful butler and the only person he truly trusts in the world. Stewart voiced his joy for reprising the role, and his satisfaction that his character played a much bigger role in the film than its predecessor.
- Eddie Redmayne as Jason Todd/Red Hood, the secondary antagonist. Jason Todd was, in actuality, the first Robin who set out on his own after a vicious argument with Bruce. He was eventually captured, torture and murdered by the Joker before the events of the first film, but was mysteriously resurrected. He is now the Red Hood, a ruthless and pitiless gun-for-hire who is obsessed with bringing down Bruce Wayne for arguing with him and leaving him for dead. Redmayne said he enjoyed the role of such a villain, in that it gave him more depth and complexity than his previous roles in other films.
- Rosamund Pike as Vicki Vale, the female deuteragonist. Bruce Wayne's girlfriend and an ever-ambitious reporter for the Gotham newspaper. She proposes to him, but quickly breaks up with him after he rejects her.
- Jim Parsons as Edward Nygma, an eccentric and autistic Arkham patient
- Robbie Coltrane as Salvatore Maroni. Maroni is a powerful crime lord and Black Mask's full-time business rival.
- Viggo Mortenstein as Harvey Dent. Dent is a dedicated and selfless District Attorney who is critically marred by Maroni in a fit of madness. Soon to become the insane and delusional Two-Face.
- Kiefer Sutherland as Police Commissioner James Gordon, the tritagonist. Gordon is an inspirationally determined police officer who is secretly a confidante of the Batman.
- Mark Strong as Dr Crane, a sadistic doctor at the reopened Arkham Asylum
- Josh Brolin as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke, an imprisoned ex-mercenary who becomes Black Mask's cellmate after his defeat
- Liam Cunningham as Oswald Cobblepot, a crime lord in the war for Gotham's underworld
- Jason Isaacs as the silhouetted man who visits Cobblepot in the end-credits scene
Production[]
Release and Reception[]
Box Office[]
The film opened in the USA and the United Kingdom with seven days between them in December 2017 and was ranked at the top of the Box Office list for five weeks. It cost $180, 000, 000 to accomplish the film's creation, but when it opened it gained $1, 700, 000, 000, seconding its predecessor but still a supreme Box-Office success.
Critical Reception[]
Batman: the King of Crooks opened in cinemas and almost immediately received widespread critical acclaim from critics and audiences, with praise going for its gripping action sequences, story, score and acting performances. In the Daily Mail, one critic remarked 'This film is a really strange turn on the Red Hood story, but it incorporates a lot of the awesome elements that people loved from the comics. Julian McMahon rocks it as the caped anti-hero, paired with the acting geniuses of Pike, Stewart and Sutherland, and the unexpected surprise that is Eddie Redmayne'. People were hugely impressed with its emotional depths, especially the chemistry between McMahon and Pike, and the subtle humour that occurred between McMahon and Stewart. The film has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
When it came to parents and young children, the film received increasingly mixed reviews - parents criticized the adherence to drugs, vice and brutality that became elements of the film's gang-war themes. They also complained that the action sequences, particularly that between Batman and Red Hood, were gratuitously extreme when it came to brutality and bloody elements. They also said it was too dark and complicated for some children to understand, though they still enjoyed the film's other themes. All of these elements were seen as being unusual to find in a Batman film. Fans of the comics also criticized the film for introducing Jason Todd without giving him basic development in the previous film.
That being said, the acting performances received universal acclaim from critics. Julian McMahon as Batman was described to be 'original, charismatic and deliciously aloof', commenting on his depiction of the emotional extremes that Batman possesses. His scenes with Redmayne and Stewart were widely praised, for their emotional depth (With Redmayne) and their humour loyal to the original characters (Stewart). Eddie Redmayne's performance as Jason Todd was acclaimed, with Singer believing that 'Jason Todd did for Eddie what Spock did for Leonard Nimoy'. Redmayne himself openly admitted that he tremendously enjoyed playing the role, thinking it was exhilarating and as epic for him being the Red Hood, as it was for the viewers watching him play it. Jensen Ackles, who played Red Hood in the animated film Under the Red Hood, commented Redmayne's performance brought more emotion to the character than he ever could have achieved. James Earl Jones's portrayal of Black Mask was also praised, but fans felt that such a brilliant actor was more suited to a greater character than he was given.
Viewers were left speechless by the fast-paced, viciously thrilling stuntwork and action sequences, thinking them as almost as exciting as that which was seen in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The scenes where McMahon has to perform particularly difficult stunts for someone of his age - i.e. swimming through a river to save Jason Todd in under a minute, and saving Vicki Vale by propelling them through a window. Eddie Redmayne commented 'After leaving the stunt gear in a pile on the floor, Julian would pitch against a wall and fight for breath. We'd always have a cup of cold water handy when he took off the harness and crash helmet' Fans also said that the musical score was 'terrifying and magnificent at the same time'.
Accolades[]
The film received a large number of accolades: Bryan Singer received an award for Best Action-Movie Director of the Year, a nomination for Director of the Decade and an award for Best Director. the film also received awards for Best Musical Score, Best Superhero Movie of the Year, Next-Must-See-Movie, Best Special Effects, Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture, Best Action Movie, Best Thriller and was nominated for Best Cinematography. Julian McMahon received an Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Hero, Choice Movie Anti-Hero and was nominated for Best Lead Role in an Action Movie. Eddie Redmayne was also blessed with awards such as MTV Award for Best Villain, Best Supporting Actor, Teens Choice for Favourite Actor, Best Hissy Fit, Best Breakdown and Award for Greatest Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Patrick Stewart and James Earl Jones were both nominated for Best Supporting Actor. McMahon and Pike received an Academy Award for Best On-Screen Couple. Pike herself was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress. Finally, the film received an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight (McMahon and Redmayne).
Sequel[]
A third instalment, titled Batman: the Duel of Darkness which is set to be released in November 2020. McMahon, Stewart, Pike, and Sutherland are set to reprise their roles, and Singer has agreed to direct it also.