Baby Driver is missing a scene. Don't get me wrong, I liked it a lot. The music is just perfect. The love story is heart warming. And I'm a sucker for driving scenes. But, I didn't think it was perfect.
The part that bothered me about Baby Driver was the conflict of the story. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that thought that Bats - Jamie Foxx's character - was building into a scary villain. There's something terrifying about watching Baby get closer to the tipping point with such a bat-shit crazy character (get it?). Maybe Jamie Foxx did his job too well and stole the show. But I don't think so, I think that it doesn't really make sense from a screenplay perspective to kill off Bats so quickly and un-dramaticlly. Bats should've been the main villian, that scene outside the Post Office where Baby watches Bats murder a security guard and then jumps in the car yelling: "Drive! Drive! DRIVE!" should've been the climax of the film. I would've liked it as a much more dramatic scene. With longer for it so sink into the audience that this is the moment that Baby becomes just like the rest of the criminals. That this is the first time he really has blood on his hands. I wanted time to realize that Baby just murdered Bats. Baby! Murdered Bats! But both times I saw the movie so far, the action moves on quickly, suddenly developing Buddy into the main villian, and setting up that final battle in the car park. Buddy just doesn't do it for me as a villian, not compared to Bats. Maybe he could if he had more screen time, and was developed as a character more. All we know about him is that he's killed people for hurting Darling, well, he's killed people for looking at Darling funny.
Here's what I think the missing scene is: instead of Darling just telling the camera that Buddy has killed for her, it should show us that he has. I want to see a scene of Buddy stabbing someone for wronging his girl. There's so much more power in the camera than there is in that one piece of dialogue.
I mean, if we're talking hypotheticals, it'd be crazy if Buddy goes after Bats, since the movie has already established that Darling wants Buddy to kill at the gas station gum scene. Then, somehow Bats blames Baby for the heat, and comes after him, resulting in a crazy four way battle, with cops, Darling and Buddy, Bats, and Baby and Debora caught in the crossfire.