Serena Dunford

I get that this movie was trying to be stylistically different from Roman Polanski's horror classic, but as it is supposed to be the story that leads up to said classic, I wish the filmmakers tried a little harder to connect the stories. I watched Rosemary's Baby just before watching 7A, and they are just two different beasts (pun intended.) It took me most of the prequel to even fully grasp that the protagonist was in fact the same woman Rosemary befriends in the laundry room. The modern Terry is not like the original at all: not in looks, style, or attitude. How are we to believe these are the same people in any way? That disconnect took me out of the plot. It's clear this is just another unnecessary redux of a better movie.

(Caution: spoilers!) A lot going on with this movie, and not all of it good. It's dark; it's moody; it wants to be a Nolan film. The Batman character arc is very typically in a Dark Knight style. Robert Pattinson is fine, but he's basically "Emo Batman." Catwoman is an underworld club waitress who's out for revenge after her girlfriend gets killed. She's kind of cool, but the only thing that makes her and Batman's relationship stand out from any other version (besides her being bi I suppose) is her mediocre outfit. The Penguin is fine. (really? That's Colin Farrell?!) He's basically a mob boss and that's it. Paul Dano is, well, Paul Dano in a gimp mask and grainy video. What I DID like is how the movie plays more like a crime thriller than a superhero blockbuster. Batman's pursuit of The Riddler is like a disillusioned cop chasing down a serial killer. Even some of Riddler's M.O. reminded me of real serial killers (The Zodiac and Unabomber come to mind.) Maybe it's because I like true crime, but that tipped the scale to positive for me. Overall, it's fine. I didn't really need to see it in theaters, but I just really wanted to see a movie and this seemed to suck the least compared to most choices. Not sure I needed three hours of it, though.