Review: The Batman
Is yet another Batman movie necessary?
Batman has perhaps been America’s most iconic superhero for a long-time. Superman certainly battles for that spot, but no other hero has gone through as many incarnations, actors, and reboots as Batman. The Caped Crusader had multiple multi-million movies long before the MCU ever came about. While the dynamic has certainly shifted in the last 15 years, Batman still remains a premier hero.
It’s hard to believe that it has been ten years since the last solo Batman film, when Christopher Nolan concluded his trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises. Throughout Ben Affleck‘s tenure as the Dark Knight, we were never treated to any solo outings, with his involvement as Batman purely occurring in group films as a cameo or part of an ensemble. Indeed, The Batman was originally intended to serve as Affleck’s first solo film, with the actor tagged to both star and direct.
Yet, the DC Extended Universe hit various snags, coupled with COVID, that resulted in this film being delayed and major creative changes occurring. It was decided to disconnect it from the DCEU and hand the reins to Matt Reeves to direct his take on Batman. But with so many decades of Batman stories in cinema, is Reeves able to add anything that audiences haven’t seen before?
However one resolves that question, The Batman is strong enough to justify its existence. Freed from connecting to any overarching franchise (for now), The Batman embraces a largely self-contained detective story that feels the first big-screen showing to pay true homage to Batman’s nickname as the World’s Greatest Detective. While Batman’s intellect is still somewhat downplayed, The Batman trades in firm neo-noir tropes to deliver a hard-boiled crime thriller story.
Though its nearly three-hour runtime could have been shaved down a bit, The Batman rarely drags, utilizing almost every minute to craft an interlacing story of corruption and crime. The film wrestles with Batman as a truly effective force and asks if he is actually a hero. This may sound familiar to questions raised in Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, but The Batman certainly feels like a film made 14 years after 08’s The Dark Knight. The implications of how to tackle crime in the here and now, and the economic causes of crime form, a subtle background to the film that distinguish it from the war on terror questions from Nolan’s earlier film.
The role of Batman himself is examined via the question of whether it’s enough that the Dark Knight be a weapon of vengeance on crime. Robert Pattinson delivers an excellent performance, giving us a Bruce Wayne who is young and naïve to some extent, trying to deal with the legacy of his family and the loss he has endured. The film perhaps leaves him too often in one tone of acting, with maybe one too many shots of Batman walking slowly and forebodingly up to someone to try to inject fear. Pattinson typically just makes the acting choice of standing still and staring, with little emoting. Perhaps this can be read as this younger Batman still acclimating to how to truly cause others fear. Still, Pattinson’s take on the character should quell any fears of his capabilities. Though the film doesn’t quite build up the arc of Batman being more than someone who strikes fear into criminals as much as it needs to. By the time the ending conclusion of the film comes, it doesn’t quite feel like the arc got developed fully, as it is lost among the various other subplots of the film.
The film uses touches of voice-over from Pattinson here and there, as an homage to noir. While the ending voice-over painstakingly spells out the message of the film, as mentioned above, it largely helps convey the noir tone the film is aiming for. Matt Reeves delivers a bevy of visuals, playing with light and color to generate that noir tone as well. Batman emerges from shadows, feeling like a beast of the night. Throbbing, flashing lights in nightclubs emphasize the chaotic atmosphere of those grimy parts of Gotham. While this is certainly different from Tim Burton’s more comic-book style Gotham, the film still gives the city a grimy tone and character.
At its best, The Batman often feels like a live-action episode of the great Batman: The Animated Series show from the 90’s. Batman feels like a true unyielding force. The introduction of his Batmobile is one of the more thrilling moments in the film. Colin Farrell is unrecognizable as The Penguin, feeling like a caricature of a human being, and yet rooted in the tone of this take on the Batman mythos. Zoe Kravitz is charming and sexy as Catwoman, managing to feel like one of the most accurate takes on the sometimes hero/sometimes villain yet. Paul Dano is suitably creepy and over-the-top as The Riddler as well, influenced by Se7en and Zodiac as he seems to be. Dano still makes sure he feels like a crazy comic book character, avoiding grounding him too much and making him dull as a result.
The film’s weakest point is its ending. It takes a turn that ties the Riddler a little too closely to real-world events, which feels cheap and lazy and takes away from the uniqueness of him as a comic book villain. And after nearly 150 minutes of gritty noir, it’s turn towards a slightly more traditional comic book ending feels a little overstuffed. Luckily, when Batman lights a flare, the film’s quality is restored in one of the film’s best shots. But this fluff does unfortunately leave one with a slightly sour taste after all the film’s good will.
Much of The Batman feels familiar. In the ever-increasing trend to keep making each new incarnation of Batman even grittier, the films still can’t keep touching on the same story arcs we’ve seen. Gotham’s social elite and their corruption, Bruce Wayne’s trauma from losing his parents, Alfred mentoring him in dialogue highly similar to that of Nolan’s trilogy (Andy Serkis gives a good performance though), and bombastic themes for the Caped Crusader.
Yet, Michael Giacchino’s score is of great quality, as is most of The Batman. And the push for a more noir-like investigative approach does help delineate The Batman in the face of all other Batman adaptations. The film teases sequels, and they won’t be unwelcomed. Despite the familiarity, The Batman is undoubtedly an excellently crafted work and doesn’t feel like a cash grab. It may be one, but Matt Reeves’s concerns are not there, but instead on delivering his vision of a familiar sight.
