Arkham Asylum: The Thread for Debating the Insane Topic of Batman Realism

It's enough for me to be able to say Superman can/does exist in this universe, but we won't see him. A concrete "absolutely not" isn't any fun and a straightforward yes/no has no real bearing on the films at the moment so why spoil the fun.
 
The rapidly winching grappling hookthatcan just snag falling people continues to be incredibly unrealistic.

That is all.

Cool, tho.
 
The rapidly winching grappling hookthatcan just snag falling people continues to be incredibly unrealistic.

That is all.

Cool, tho.
Well concerning the stadium scene… the riddler goons were already harnessed into the arenas infrastructure.

I don’t think his grappling gun ever actually “attached around” someone like spidey’s webs, it only pierced kneecaps and ****.
 
Well concerning the stadium scene… the riddler goons were already harnessed into the arenas infrastructure.

I don’t think his grappling gun ever actually “attached around” someone like spidey’s webs, it only pierced kneecaps and ****.

He pretty much
caught What's-His-Name when Selina pushed him over the edge.
 
The rapidly winching grappling hookthatcan just snag falling people continues to be incredibly unrealistic.

That is all.

Cool, tho.

Eh, it's the same movie where Batman does a jump in the Batmobile which A: would've probably cooked him alive from the fire of the explosion and B: would've immediately destroyed the suspension, literally walks through rifle gunfire with the power of Armor and
gets shot point blank with a shotgun and is seemingly fine with no internal injuries after an adrenaline shot

I think the grapnel gun being a bit funky is something I can look past if I can look past the above too lmao
 
it does look like a weapon of sorts though

It's a gadget/tool he can detach from his chest piece. Not sure if it has an actual name. But it's not made out of the gun that killed his parents.
 
It's a gadget/tool he can detach from his chest piece. Not sure if it has an actual name. But it's not made out of the gun that killed his parents.

I believe Reeves called it a Glauca Knife.
 
Since I haven’t yet seen The Batman, I can’t comment on its particulars. But more generally… “Realism” in fiction isn’t binary; it exists on a continuum. ;nd

Take, for example, Batman’s cape — which, in many iterations, can transform (via “tech”) into gliding wings. Now while this is theoretically possible, an aeronautical engineer might complain about the wingspan/surface area needed to sustain a controlled glide for an adult male. I.e., the cape is too small to work as a glider, and therefore fails the “realism test.” Still, the cape at least pays lip service to plausibility. (After all, hang gliders exist.) And we can more confidently state that some version of “gliding wings” is at least more realistic than defying gravity entirely (e.g. Superman) or an armored rocket suit + fuel which can fold up into a brief case (e.g. Iron Man).

And the same notion probably applies to most of Batman’s other fanciful gadgets. Not exactly realistic… but more realistic than (say) Spidey’s web shooters or WW’s magic lasso.
 
It's a gadget/tool he can detach from his chest piece. Not sure if it has an actual name. But it's not made out of the gun that killed his parents.
didn't say it was, but it's a sharp blade and that equates to a weapon.
 
This is the most realistic of all The Batman movies. You have to suspend disbelief at times, but then that's said for a lot of movies - I can much rather handle a bullet proof vest and driving through explosions because the vest and car look like they can handle such things.... but it's about the setting.. the setting was so real, everything worked...

As for superman, can an alien land on earth and integrate with society and be much stronger... and appear to fly... yes.

Do I want to see it in these movies? I feel, in this reality, superman wouldn't be a public figure - an urban legend... news anchors would report it, but call it a hoax and it be tongue in cheek - they wouldn't take it seriously until it's undeniable...
 
You know, this movie was a lot more comic booky than I was expecting. It really felt like the Arkham games come to life at certain points. I don’t think I want to see Superman show up or anything like that and I would prefer avoiding villains with actual super powers (sorry Clayface fans) but like others have said, I could see this Gotham existing in a world where other DC heroes exist. I would prefer that they let it be it’s own thing but I don’t think it completely closes the door on Batman existing in a broader DC universe
 
I think they took the realism elements far too extreme at times, but that's just my opinion. It's not so much about "fun" to me, but still wanting to embrace some more of that comic book style and iconography.
 
I never really have a problem with suspending disbelief in these movies, but I do think this movie sets itself to be picked apart by the "realism police" by commiting so hard to that aesthetic and texture but having stuff like Batman taking all the gunfire he does, being totally fine after that squirrel suit wipeout and bomb explosion, etc. It doesn't bother me at all but I've heard a lot of nitpicking about that stuff and I think it's because so much of the rest of the movie feels super grounded.
 
Last edited:
I never really have a problem with suspending disbelief in these movies, but I do think this movie sets itself to be picked apart by the "realism police" by commiting so hard to that aesthetic and texture but having stuff like Batman taking all the gunfire he does, being totally fine after that squirrel suit wipeout and bomb explosion, etc. It doesn't bother me at all but I've heard a lot of nitpicking about that stuff and I think it's because so much of the rest of the movie feels super grounded.
That bomb part completely took me out of it. He took that sucker point blank, and his face wasn't even at least darken or ashed up, let alone burned.
 
I never really have a problem with suspending disbelief in these movies, but I do think this movie sets itself to be picked apart by the "realism police" by commiting so hard to that aesthetic and texture but having stuff like Batman taking all the gunfire he does, being totally fine after that squirrel suit wipeout and bomb explosion, etc. It doesn't bother me at all but I've heard a lot of nitpicking about that stuff and I think it's because so much of the rest of the movie feels super grounded.

I have a problem with it because it hurts the dramatic stakes. If he can survive a bomb going off right next to him and wiping out in the wingsuit and taking point-blank assault rifle fire all without much consequence, it doesn't work when in the climax the film is expecting you to believe that Batman would be incapacitated after a shotgun blast to the chest. It would be fine if only one of those above moments had happened, but throughout the movie Batman just continues to take a superhuman amount of punishment and it makes the character less vulnerable, less human, less interesting in my opinion.
 
I have a problem with it because it hurts the dramatic stakes. If he can survive a bomb going off right next to him and wiping out in the wingsuit and taking point-blank assault rifle fire all without much consequence, it doesn't work when in the climax the film is expecting you to believe that Batman would be incapacitated after a shotgun blast to the chest. It would be fine if only one of those above moments had happened, but throughout the movie Batman just continues to take a superhuman amount of punishment and it makes the character less vulnerable, less human, less interesting in my opinion.

I do agree with this. It doesn't bother me from a "that could never happen!" standpoint but with regards to the impact on stakes I do see your point completely.
 
For me the wingsuit crash was definitely the most unrealistic moment and I don't know if it should have been a funny moment or show that he is very inexperienced. The rest was fine for me. But I don't really remember if he hit his head or not because if he had he would surely been dead after that crash.

And how the hell did he even get the wingsuit on? Was it stored on the roof?? It looked like it formed out of his suit or something :huh:
 
Last edited:
For me the wingsuit crash was definitely the most unrealistic moment and I don't know if it should have been a funny moment or show that he is very inexperienced. The rest was fine for me. But I don't really remember if he hit his head or not because if he had he would surely been dead after that crash.

And how the hell did he even get the wingsuit on? Was it stored on the roof?? It looked like it formed out of his suit or something :huh:

He pulls something on his suit which causes it to wrap around his body

given his cape also disappears once he lands, I'd assume it's in his cape
 
He pulls something on his suit which causes it to wrap around his body

given his cape also disappears once he lands, I'd assume it's in his cape

Looked like magic trick to be honest haha. I need to watch it frame by frame when the dvd release is out. Maybe the concept/system is explained in an artbook or something since every detail in his suit has a purpose which is cool.
 
He pulls something on his suit which causes it to wrap around his body

given his cape also disappears once he lands, I'd assume it's in his cape

Yep, that's how I understood it too. After Batman pulled a trigger, the cape "inflates", a bit like a life raft, before being closed up like a coat to give it the final shape of the wingsuit.
 
The only unrealistic part of this movie was the car chase scene IMO (primarily the Penguin crashing his car). No way he would have survived that in real life. That kind of took me out of the movie a bit. Other than that, it was pretty realistic (as much as it could be for a superhero movie).
 
honestly I've always had a sorta headcanon thing when it comes to people surviving certain things that absolutely should kill them in Marvel/DC

Humans in Marvel/DC are stronger than normal humans. In the sense that they are more likely to survive blunt force trauma and can withstand more amounts of it

That's how Batman (who in terms of our world is absolutely a meta human) is only the peak of human limits in his universe. Because in DC, humans are more durable than in real life.

That's also how Penguin can survive that crash, for example.

They still die if you shoot them or something, but blunt force doesn't have as much an effect.

Seems it still works for this movie lmao
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top
monitoring_string = "afb8e5d7348ab9e99f73cba908f10802"