It's safe to say Zack Snyder's biggest mistake was turning the so-called DC Extended Universe into a violent playground. Man of Steel had Henry Cavill's Superman showing a flagrant disregard for human life. Granted, he was inexperienced and tried his best to fend off Zod's Kryptonian army. Still, the casualty list was long, which is why Ben Affleck's Dark Knight began to hunt him in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Thankfully, in that film's battle with Doomsday, as well as Steppenwolf's invasion in Justice League, Warner Bros. dialed the aggression back and got the heroes to minimize collateral damage. However, director Matt Reeves' The Batman just repeated this mistake and made it even worse by how the heroes ignored utter disaster.
Debate on this topic stems back to 2012's The Avengers, where Earth's Mightiest Heroes saved many lives when the Chitauri invasion occurred. Protecting the people as New York fell became a priority, which would extend to Sokovia in the follow-up, too. All this put into perspective how terrible it was seeing Superman bringing down buildings in Smallville and Metropolis, rather than flying off to an abandoned area to brawl.
Snyder eventually course-corrected to add warmth and inspiration, but this point is something many fans and critics analyze in superhero films. As such, The Batman should have known better than having a reckless, irresponsible Bruce Wayne causing mass chaos on a highway midway through the movie.
It's understandable there would always be loss of life amid all the gunfire and explosions, but the Dark Knight just cannot be the catalyst for it. In The Batman, the disaster occurred when the Bat, Jim Gordon and Catwoman attacked Penguin's warehouse, with Selina robbing him of money she felt was owed to her by Carmine Falcone. As the firefight broke out, Bruce used his muscle-car version of the Batmobile and sped off after Penguin, intent on capturing and interrogating him to discern clues about Riddler's terrorist crusade. However, this led to Penguin driving against oncoming traffic, smashing up cars and hitting trucks. Bruce tried to swerve and reduce damage, but his driving also caused accidents, which created one big mess with a fuel truck tipping over and exploding. Batman didn't care to stop, though, speeding through the flames and ramming Penguin.
The highway carnage was a major incident, yet neither Batman nor Gordon ever acknowledged the chase. It wasn't on the news and was forgotten for the rest of the film. Judging from the visuals, many civilians were likely injured or killed, yet the Caped Crusader showed no compassion. At least the Snyder movies called out Superman for endangering the public and got him to turn his ways around.
But The Batman made Bruce tunnel-visioned when he should have stopped pursuit and opted to hunt Penguin at the many locations Bruce knew his target would go to hide. It painted the impression this Bat wasn't merciful because while he made it clear he had a no-gun and no-kill policy, he put Gordon in a spot to shoot up perps at the warehouse and also used an electric gauntlet against The Joker gang earlier in the movie that could have killed people.
Reeves' Batman is just as rough as Batfleck, who was unhinged in BvS's warehouse scene and was known to permanently brand criminals. The new Batman's actions confirmed the Dark Knight had a hypocritical moral compass as he tried to stop Gotham from breaking.
See how the new Dark Knight ignores his own chaos in The Batman, now on HBO Max.