The Batman Review

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a live-action Batman film, but the Caped Crusader has returned in The Batman. This movie is not quite an origin story, even though it is a standalone reboot of the series. It correctly assumes we already know that Thomas and Martha Wayne are dead and that we don’t need to see them murdered again. The film sees Robert Pattinson in a story set two years after Bruce Wayne first dons the Batsuit in Gotham City. Batman begins to unravel a ring of corruption in the city while teaming up with Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) to take down the maniacal serial killer, The Riddler (Paul Dano).

A Different Type of Batman Film

I didn’t know what to expect going into The Batman. I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy this one, but it blew me away. This isn’t the traditional action movie we’ve come to expect from many superhero movies. Matt Reeves delved into the depths of Bruce Wayne’s story to provide audiences with a comprehensive understanding of all the events unfolding on screen. He ingeniously approached this movie as more of a crime thriller, where we uncover more pieces of the puzzle as new characters are introduced and their true intentions become known. Even the villainous or corrupt characters seemed to have reasons for their actions. There weren’t many wasted scenes. Everything had a purpose.

Characters

Batman

I wasn’t sure how I would like Robert Pattinson’s take on Batman, but I was incredibly impressed by his performance, and he might just be my favorite actor who has played Batman at this point. He’s quiet and reserved for the most part in the movie, allowing his facial expressions to do most of the talking for him. This was especially noticeable during scenes where he was doing detective work, where he would look at something inquisitively, allowing the audience to make their deductions at first. He can never hide his emotions, and He never acts like a billionaire, which ties into the fact that it’s only been a couple of years under the Batsuit. He’s still acclimatizing to this new persona and hasn’t learned to adopt a different public persona. This is referenced in the movie when the mayoral candidate, Bella Réal, speaks to him about the fact that he hasn’t done any philanthropic work. This is a broken Bruce Wayne that hasn’t dealt with the trauma of his past, and it evokes a lot of emotion in the audience.

Catwoman

Zoë Kravitz played the perfect Catwoman opposite Pattinson’s Batman. We receive a substantial amount of backstory on what motivated Selina Kyle to become Catwoman, and those motivations become increasingly personal as the movie progresses. She’s one of the few people who doesn’t seem intimidated or curious about Batman throughout the film. Kravitz has a very layered approach to her character, playing the sly, self-assured Catwoman we’ve come to know while showing a vulnerable and vengeful side to herself as Selina Kyle. She and Robert Pattinson play off each other very well on screen and have you rooting for them to uncover the mysteries, thwart the villains, and sometimes get revenge.

The Riddler

Paul Dano’s Riddler character may be the movie’s highlight for me in a film filled with highlights. This isn’t the same Riddler you’ve seen before, as portrayed by Jim Carrey. This cold, ruthless killer seems to draw inspiration from the Zodiac Killer and the Saw movies. The interesting part about The Riddler is that it’s hard to completely disagree with the reasoning behind his actions because he’s going after corrupt politicians and high-ranking officials who have kept that corruption under wraps for years. Dano brings a crazed brutality to the character that is as unsettling and captivating. There’s a moment in The Batman where Batman and The Riddler have a face-to-face conversation that may have been one of the most intense scenes in the movie, with the way Dano commands the audience’s attention.

Supporting Characters

The minor characters in The Batman were equally important, and I wouldn’t even consider most of them minor in the grand scheme. Colin Farrell plays The Penguin and does a great job playing on the line of trying to keep Batman/Bruce Wayne off his tail. I didn’t even know it was him until the credits rolled! Jeffrey Wright is equally good at playing Detective Gordon, who has a buddy-cop dynamic with Batman, which is sometimes pretty entertaining. John Turturro plays Carmine Falcone, who proves to be an integral part of the entire story for many reasons, and the character that, in my mind, had the most twists and turns along the way before everything was revealed. Honorable mention to Andy Serkis for his incredible portrayal of Alfred Pennyworth. That character did not serve as an afterthought, as it sometimes does, and helped push Bruce Wayne’s story along, giving Bruce a vulnerability we seldom see.

It’s a Long One

The Batman clocks in at 2 hours and 56 minutes, which seems like a considerable amount of time. It legitimately had me checking my watch a couple of times, thinking it had to be over around the 2-hour mark, but it effectively maximizes all that screen time. There was only a tiny portion in the middle of the movie where I didn’t feel wholly invested in what was happening. Even that didn’t last long, as I was right back into it moments later. It’s a testament to how good this movie was. It held my attention nearly the entire time, and I noticed that the whole theater seemed just as invested. When people barely get up to go to the bathroom in a movie that long, you know it’s good.

Saving The Best For Last

The last hour is when the action ramps up with wonderfully choreographed action scenes. You feel every hit of those scenes, and some legitimate moments felt like the hero might meet his demise. I appreciated that these action sequences were reserved for significant moments. They weren’t overdone, as can often be the case in movies like this. The dark, ominous setting accentuates those scenes even more. Gotham feels like Gotham in this movie. It’s primarily rainy and dark for nearly the entire film, as a Batman movie should be. The atmosphere created here was perfect with a fantastic score from Michael Giacchino.

Final Thoughts

The Batman opens the door for a sequel, even though this is a standalone tale. It’s certainly a world I’d like to revisit. Plenty of stories are left to tell, and I think seeing the evolution of Batman/Bruce Wayne into another movie would be great. I don’t have any complaints about this one. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in years, and it managed to stay true to the Gotham lore while being very different from other live-action Batman films in the past.