WARNING: Major SPOILERS for The Batman are discussed in this article.
From dopey henchmen to evil geniuses, The Batman is full of classic Batman character types. One of the new movie's biggest appeals is the depictions of the beloved characters, and it even introduces some totally original characters that fit perfectly this dark, brooding, new world of Batman.
But it seems like everybody in Gotham is fairly unintelligent, whether it's dirty cops being so cavalier about their activities or corrupt politicians letting their guards down. And with the rankings of the criminal underworld being clearly laid out in the movie, it often looks like it's the blind leading the blind. Even more unsettlingly, many of the smartest characters are also the most dangerous.
Kenzie
Seemingly every vigilante and antihero in Gotham has had Kenzie bouncing off walls, as even Catwoman kidnapped him. Kenzie is one of many corrupt cops in The Batman, and he's also the dumbest. The character moonlights at The Iceberg Lounge and actively gets into it with Batman, knowing full well that the caped crusader is close with Gordon, his colleague.
What's worse is that Kenzie was walking around the Gotham City Police Department offices so flagrantly, knowing full well that Batman was there. And he must have surely known that Batman would have recognized the man he beat to a pulp in the club, especially considering that Kenzie's face was all battered and bruised.
The Twins
It's almost as if the Twins don't have a brain cell to rub between them, as neither one of them can take control of the situations they're in or think logically. The twins' behavior is a classic example of "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," as Batman/Bruce Wayne manages to get into The Iceberg Lounge despite the two of them acting as gatekeepers.
They surely can't have many strangers knocking on the back door of the seedy club, especially not Batman or billionaire Bruce Wayne, and when the vigilante does come knocking, they handle the situation terribly. It results in them either getting the beat downs of their lives or straight-up getting locked out.
Gil Colson
Gil Colson's whole walking existence is a mistake, and he idiotically fumbles through each day and night, which is inevitably what got him killed. For starters, he's the District Attorney of Gotham, a very powerful and recognizable figure, but he hangs out in 44 Below, the seediest club in Gotham, and he thinks he can glide by under the radar.
What's worse is that he's caught "dropping," which is a verb used when somebody is using the fictional drug, drops. And when he did finally end up locked in the Saw-like neck bomb, he didn't know a single answer to any of the Riddler's riddles. Colson was lucky he lasted as long in the role of D.A. as he did.
Alfred Pennyworth
While Alfred is the most important family member of the Wayne family, he didn't exactly prove that in The Batman. For the man who taught Batman everything he knows, be it fighting or puzzle-solving, and for a man who was an ex-Special Ops operative, he makes some dumb mistakes.
Alfred did help decipher the Riddler's first clue, but after that, he made one error after the next, with it culminating in him opening the Riddler's package that was sent to Bruce Wayne. Naturally, that very package ended up being a bomb. The Butler surely has more intuition than that, and he should have known that something wasn't right when he picked up the box.
James Gordon
For a character who will soon be the Gotham City Police Department's commissioner, James Gordon is far from the most intelligent character in the movie. There's no doubt that the character has always been aided by Batman and his superior detective work, but Gordon has never been this reliant on the caped crusader before.
It may have made for a great buddy-cop-like movie, but it made Gordon look terrible at his job. And it's almost humorous as he slowly finds out that all of his colleagues are corrupt because he comes off so naive. However, he's still one of the best characters in the Batman universe, especially considering this new depiction and the way he ends every sentence with "man."
Selina Kyle
Selina Kyle has a very opportunistic thought process, as she robs corrupt politicians and thugs who visit 44 Below.
However, Catwoman's skill set isn't just limited to petty theft, as she can crack safes, and she's even something of a detective herself. And an argument could be made that she was the smarter one of the two between her and Batman, as she was the one who decided to leave Gotham and take a duffle bag full of cash with her. Why anybody would want to stay in the crime-ridden Gotham is an unanswerable question, and Kyle had the right idea to get out of there as soon as she could.
Oswald Cobblepot
The Penguin has never struck fans as a particularly intelligent villain, and he acts on instinct and lets his anger guide him instead of meticulously planning schemes like most of Batman's rivals. However, he came across as surprisingly well-mannered and clever, whenever he wasn't being chased down a highway, that is.
Though they might have had the last laugh when they left him tied up under a bridge and he was literally waddling like a penguin, he totally embarrassed both Batman and Jim Gordon in that scene. The Bat and the commissioner had been on a wild goose chase after mistranslating a Spanish clue, and Cobblepot, of all people, corrected them.
The Riddler
Interestingly, Pattinson didn't know Batman was a detective before he began the audition process for the role. So the screenplay might have been a little jarring considering that Batman is sitting in rooms looking at files for half of the movie. But that led to one of the most interesting hero and villain dynamics in a Batman film.
The Riddler set up clues to stump Batman, and he sent the masked vigilante through hell and back, going into the depths of Gotham's criminal underworld to find answers. However, while there was a lot of clever planning around the clues, they didn't seem to stump Batman all that much. And outside of the Joker's schemes, he is so misguided, and as audiences saw from the short scene of him in Arkham Asylum with the Joker, he's naive and easily influenced.
Carmine Falcone
Falcone might be the most sadistic and sinister villain in any Batman movie ever, as he killed his ex-lover by choking her and almost did the same thing to his daughter. However, he's also one of the cleverest, as he singlehandedly managed to have the entire police department and a handful of politicians in his back pocket, including Thomas Wayne.
And while Batman Begins is one of the best Batman movies, the Falcone in the 2005 origins movie looks like an idiot compared to The Batman's Falcone. And in a movie where every death seems to be the victims' own doing, Falcone's death was far from his fault.
Bruce Wayne
The Batman is the first time the caped crusader has actually been depicted as the world's greatest detective. And while the darker approach to the character has been done before, it's the mystery thriller narrative that makes the movie so refreshing. In the new movie, Batman is literally doing detective work by digging through old files, questioning multiple suspects, and trying to uncover one of Gotham's biggest secrets.
And for the most part, he solves Riddler's puzzles, surprisingly quickly too. However, he wouldn't have gotten as far as he did without help. It was Alfred who deciphered the first code, it's Gordon who gives him entry to crime scenes, and it's Catwoman who gets all of the information out of Colson.
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