Like i said, the third nolan movie was easily the worst. you're right joseph gordon levitt was never robin. and i also agree that the tone of batman is great in BvS, a la The Dark Knight Returns and such. (minor point DKR isnt technically canon...) Like i said too though, (canon) batman doesnt kill, even when he is grizzled and worn down, which makes this feel like fan fiction to me.
You are forgetting the totally avoidable death of what people are calling KGBeast (though i doubt it really is him). He could have neutralized him without killing him. That whole scene started out GREAT, until Bats started using their machine guns against them.
The pointless sniper rifle with the tracker was unacceptable for a different reason; he followed the damn truck he was tracking. Either you follow or you track, why do both?
And i actually like your theory on the dream. It cuts out some of what took me out of the movie. If that was a view of how this path is leading him to horrible places as a means to stop that path, i will buy that. That gives more credence to what some other people are saying about Bats needing to be "snapped out of it", which is apparently what the whole "Martha" thing was supposed to be (even though he still kills after that happens). And honestly "Martha"? The "snap out of it" thing is super thin there. That whole bit was laughable. But i digress.
Yes i liked the call outs to the larger universe, with the Riddler question marks, the joker spray paint, and the robin uniform. If the solo Bats movie(s) fall back in line i could see myself appreciating this one more, for the "pushed too far" theory. But seeing Batman with a gun that shoots actual bullets in his hand just strikes me as lazy writing by someone who can't make Batman interesting without shock value. (Come on, the psychosis involved with him keeping the joker alive is so incredibly interesting that his 2 rules never have to be broken based on that alone.)
And yes even the Nolan-mobile had machine guns and caused explosions, but they were never fired at people. A little loophole in the "don't kill" rule for sure, but it still counts... kinda.
(side note: thank you for the discussion, i am really enjoying this)
Honestly, I thought The Dark Knight Rises was as good, if not better, than The Dark Knight. He was Robin in a Christopher Nolan way. Which works.
But there's not much more to say about the kills. If you're going to have people die in Batman situations, I wouldn't want it done any other way than how it was handled in Batman v Superman.
About KGBeast, there's rumors that he isn't dead and that he would return looking like the traditional KGBeast. That's just theories. Its plausible since he seems to have a decent fanbase. I'm not too sure how that avoidable that could of been though. He had a flamethrower to someone's head and a second to react. Another situation I am ok with. If he's dead, he brought it on himself.
I don't think Batman was shooting those henchmen with their own machine guns. I believe what you actually saw (and I've seen it twice now) that he dispersed devices on all the guns that exploded and dismantled the machine guns.
Yeah, the tracker and the chase. Well, its a good thing he had that tracker because he ended up losing the truck anyways. So that wasn't such a stupid thing to do both after all.
I don't see how people miss the point of the "Martha" thing. The coincidense of the name reminds him of his tragic past of losing his mother and father. He finally realizes that they've been played and compels him to save her life.
I think you're forgetting how Batman killed Harvey at the end of The Dark Knight. It wasn't entirely intentional but it saved a life. Interesting.
Again, I don't think this Batman wants to be a killer but I find it interesting, and
somewhat realistic that it happens in those intense situations. Now we all know these movies are far from reality but I think it adds a slight edge of realism that people would die in these situations. A real life Batman would never be able to operate without someone dying in the process of what he does. That's going a bit beyond the point because they simply could of done without this fiction. But there's the wreckless/no more chances taken element in this point of the saga. For me, its an easy thing to get past for an otherwise awesome start of a series.
The storm of negative reviews really poison people's perception of this film. I think it boils down to people expecting something they're more familiar with from a Batman/Superman movie. We got something different with depth that makes you think more about the subjects.