Oof...idk guys... I've been so anxious to get our first real look at Keaton in this movie and I'm really not sure how I feel about it now that I've seen it. Of course hearing him say "Yeah... I'm Batman" brings a smile to my face but with him looking straight into the camera in closeup it just felt weird and goofy. Reminded me more or Kilmer's smile than anything from the Burton films. The mystique of the Burtonverse is just nowhere to be found so far in any of the scenes with Batman. And CGI Keaton will take some getting used to.
I guess I was really just hoping his moments were going to be handled with a bit more care to not make it feel like we just dropped Keaton's Batman into a schlocky modern blockbuster but so far that's exactly what it feels like. I hope I'll just get used to it and enjoy but something about it just felt kinda hollow in the trailer and it pains me to admit it.
Yeah, Keaton's Batman actually smiles quite often, but in an intimidating way. In this shot, while he looks really good, there's a bit of awkwardness and it feels more like Keaton making a
meta statement than Batman actually introducing himself. I knew this sort of thing would be inevitable, so... I just have to accept it.
I also completely agree with the rest of your post. As I said in another post, it looks like Muschietti wasn't interested in the challenge of mixing universes, and it doesn't seem like anything is left of the
expressionist vibe of Burton's film, which I think was a fundamental part of it. Everything is bathed in this very artificial modern digital look. And without talking about CGI quality, those big comic-booky jump for Keaton just feels wrong...
Again, they made those choices and it is what it is...
But what would be really unforgivable to me, is that even eventually accepting that modern look direction
(and its excesses), right now, it's still looks very poor in some areo even by those standards. They have no excuses on this. I really hope these last few months clean up some of these visuals...
Maybe it's just me, but this shot really sums up fan service in all its shallowness.