The Batman is an exhilarating movie that takes the dark knight back to a noir detective style of storytelling like the comics old and puts it in a modern setting. With breathtaking visuals, it will slowly draw you in and keep you on the edge of your seat. But the film is too long and can’t hold onto the narrative as in previous Batman films, and just doesn’t measure up to previous stories of the iconic superhero”
Batman is such an iconic superhero that it’s hard to make a great movie. We’ve had so many different versions of Batman through movies and even glimpses of him in TV shows that what we consider the “best” Batman will vary. But because DC Comics has multiple universes or different earths, we get to see different versions of Batman and because of that maybe it’s not about finding the best Batman, but more about each audience finding what they like about each version. In the latest Batman movie, starring Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, there is certainly a lot to like about this person, but I won’t go as far as to say that it’s the best for my personal favorite. However, what impressed me about this movie more than anything is that it takes Batman back to his detective roots by giving us an old-school noir theme that we haven’t even seen in the comics for many years. Yes, Batman is a superhero, but at his core, he is the ultimate detective using his superior knowledge and investigative skills to defeat villains and that is what Matt Reeves version of the Batman reminds fans about. That is what I most enjoyed about this film even if it isn’t my favorite version.
What makes this film great is that it doesn’t rely on ridiculous superpowers for Batman to defeat any villain. Much like the Christopher Nolan movies, we see that Batman is still human and it’s his fighting skills and custom weapons that almost make him invincible, but not quite. Like I said, he is at his very core a detective so Batman movies don’t feel so much like a superhero movie as they do feel like a true-crime thriller. That’s the feeling this movie gives us as Batman is trying to figure out who is killing politicians and ultimately meets the Riddler. Robin Pattinson makes a great Batman, he is dark and brooding and full of rage. We see Batman in year two of what he refers to as the Gotham Project. He’s relatively new to being Batman and still doesn’t know if he’s making a difference.
And since it’s basically the beginning of Batman in Gotham City, we also get introduced to some of Batman’s main villains like the Penguin and the main antagonist, The Riddler. For those who were worried about the casting, the casting is one of the strongest points of The Batman. Robert Pattinson is great as Batman. Nobody should judge his performance in the Twilight movies and think that he couldn’t be a good Batman because all of the darkness and the rage that Batman carries with him is there in his performance. Colin Farrell does a pretty good job as the Penguin and he is for the most part unrecognizable. He plays the part as a waddling street thug that serves as the right-hand man to the mob. And I have to give credit where it’s due to Zoe Kravitz, who plays a great Selena Kyle. She is sexy and fierce and also has the vulnerability that comes with the character and makes her likable even though she’s a criminal. But if there is one standout performance in this movie, it is Paul Dano who plays the Riddler. He does not play the character as some criminal buffoon much like Jim Carrey did in Joel Schumacher movies. He is dark and creepy, with a sick sense of humor that’s easily seen in his riddles.
We’ve never really gotten a true adaptation of the Riddler as he is seen in the comics and I think for the first time we’ve gotten that with Paul Dano’s performance. The Riddler is not a cheesy character and shouldn’t be played like that. He’s a psychopath more in line with Hannibal Lecter, who taunts his prey and sends them on a wild goose chase just for sport. And that’s exactly the kind of Riddler you need in this kind of Batman movie where it feels more like an old-school noir detective film. The style of this film is fantastic and it provides the right kind of balance between a good detective story and a true comic book story. If there’s a nexus between Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies and Tim Burton’s vision of Batman then it’s this movie and it works brilliantly. A Batman story should always be dark because that’s the essence of the character. A true Batman story takes place in the scourge or underbelly of society. Also, what really makes this movie stand out is seeing how Batman is introduced to all of these villains without having to do a whole new origin story for Batman which has been done time and time again. I appreciate “Batman Begins”, it probably is the ultimate origin story of Bruce Wayne and Batman, but we don’t need to rehash that. Having a story take place where you’re in year two as Batman protecting Gotham is a perfect place to start and Robin Pattinson pulls it off nicely as a young man full of rage still trying to figure out how to be Batman and be the knight in shining armor that Gotham needs. I loved the style of this film and I love the casting, but even with all that, it still isn’t the best Batman movie in my opinion. It has a lot going for it, but it also isn’t as good as previous Batman films.
Here are the factors that really keeps The Batman from being the best Batman movie ever made. First of all, it’s too long. We don’t need a 3-hour Batman movie. If you wanted to make a series about how Batman was getting started, I’m all for that. A serialized Batman story is always good and the Animated Series back in the early ’90s proves that. I completely understand that if you’re going to have an old-school noir theme for the film that has a slow burn which, slowly brings the audience into the story, it can work, but if it takes you too long to get to the action and your audience gets bored, then you lose them. The action doesn’t really start picking up until about halfway into the movie. We get glimpses of Batman in the first half, but it’s like this slow walk up to the stage where all the action is going to happen. The last half of the movie is great, but it took too long to get to the parts of the movie that made it great. I honestly feel this movie could have been told in 150 minutes.
Secondly, as good as Robert Pattinson is playing Batman, he doesn’t play a good Bruce Wayne. The best thing about the character is the duality of Batman and Bruce Wayne. As the Dark Knight he has to be fearless and full of rage to take on criminals. But when he’s Bruce Wayne he has to be the Playboy Billionaire who doesn’t really understand the company he owns and parties with supermodels. Or he can be a shrewd businessman. But either way Bruce Wayne has to be the opposite of Batman so people can’t figure out his alter ego. Robert Pattinson didn’t display any of that. He played Bruce Wayne as if he was some depressed teenager exploring the goth scene. I’m not saying that Robert Pattinson can’t play the right Bruce Wayne, but I do question the filmmakers if their instinct is to have a brooding and depressed Bruce Wayne that seems devoid of all emotion, you know like a teenager that hates everything in life.
I don’t know if he’s the perfect actor to play Batman and Bruce Wayne, maybe he is, but the filmmakers obviously didn’t allow him to reach his full potential with this character. Another criticism is the fact that Batman seems way too chummy with everybody and doesn’t mind letting people see him. That’s not the character at all, he lives in the shadows. He moves like a bat. He’s not going to show up and knock on the door of a mob-owned club dressed as Batman asking the doormat if he knows who he is. If Batman wants to get into a building, he’s usually breaking into it without people knowing he’s even been there. That was the one thing the Christopher Nolan movies got right and maybe it’s because they explored the backstory of how Bruce was instructed by the League of Shadows. If you’re Batman, the purpose of a true warrior is to not be seen…like a bat, you live in the shadows.
Despite these three main critiques, this version of Batman is good and worth seeing. It’s a version that we have not seen on the big screen and only really read in comics. However, I don’t think this is the best version of Batman. Having the noir feel in the film is great, but the filmmakers don’t truly understand that your lead actor has to not only be good at playing Batman but also a believable Bruce Wayne. Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton both understood that when creating their own version of Batman. As good as Robin Pattinson is as batman, he is outshined by Paul Dano as the Riddler, especially in the end. Paul Dano’s performance as the Riddler is what makes this film better than it should be. He is brilliant. He gives us a version of The Riddler that we have never seen before and makes this iconic villain even scarier than the Joker. I don’t know if I would recommend seeing this movie in the theater, because 3 hours is a long time to watch a Batman movie, but it definitely should be watched more than once when it hits HBO Max. It is worth the price of a movie ticket, but there’s a slow burn to the first half of the movie before the action picks up and this is where you should have a comfortable if you do see it in the theater.
I will say my review is a mixture of praise that Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson craft a great version of The Batman and bring the character back to its detective roots. They make us see that Batman is not so much a superhero compared to the rest of the Justice League, but the world’s greatest detective who uses his intellect to take down villains. But if this film has one more thing going for it, then it’s the action sequences, which are fantastic and as good as any other Batman movie. While the Christopher Nolan Batman movies didn’t feel like comic book movies, Matt Reeves takes a modern version of Batman and makes him a true comic book character in film, much like Tim Burton did in 1989 and that I can definitely get behind, even if this isn’t my favorite Batman film. However, it is a good film and certainly worth seeing even if this wouldn’t be the perfect Batman for the Justice League. I always thought Ben Affleck got a bad rap because he played not only a great Bruce Wayne, but a good Batman that can hold his own with the rest of the Justice League. However, if you want to see Batman as the lone avenger watching over the city that he loves, then this is one of the best Batman films ever made and I will certainly watch it again. You’ll probably do the same.
