The Batman Review

The Batman is a movie that expects more from its average moviegoing audience - and that can be a good or bad thing depending upon how you view it. It is also a difficult movie to ponder upon.

By difficult, we are talking about a series where an unimpressive movie about a villain from the same universe grossed over a billion dollars. Director Matt Reeves' vision for the iconic comic hero is laid out for all to see - Pattinson's Batman is grittier, more dark, and has more shades of grey than either those of Bale or Affleck.

The crusade of the Batman (Robert Pattinson) against Gotham's criminal underbelly is a never-ending one, but it has never felt more personal. Facing serious villainy from every quarter - be it the mysterious Riddler (Paul Dano), the nefarious mob boss Carmine Falcon (John Turturro), the ever-ambitious Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) or even the enigmatic and morally ambiguous Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), whose motivations are her own - Batman must give it his all to save a city that is "beyond saving".

The Batman is perhaps the longest superhero movie we can recall (save the director's cut of the polarising Batman v Superman), at an astonishing running time that almost touches the three-hour mark. Very few movies have justified such long running times, and The Batman is not one of them.

To its credit, it is tightly paced and manages to grab your attention for about a hundred minutes, maybe even for the first couple of hours, but it starts faltering and fails to do justice to the lofty heights it achieves in the build-up. There are several sub-plots in the narrative that don't get tied up cleanly, and the drama starts falling real flat when it comes to Bruce Wayne and his pursuit of the Wayne family secrets.

The film suffers from the same issue that plagues every "serious" superhero movie - the darker the screen gets, and the more the hero in question broods as he speaks in a low growl standing in the stinging rain, the more we need to take it as seriously as it portrays itself to be. It leads to inevitable comparisons with Marvel's free-flowing "fun" movies, and rants from a certain section of society about how the industry shuns "auteurs" over what they feel is an interlinked, formulaic universe. We saw it with Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy (to which The Batman pays ample homage), and we predict that we will see it with this movie (and the sequels it will spawn that are bound to happen) - it will become a cult series that will have legions of fans who will profess this one as the best thing since sliced bread.

Critiques aside, what makes The Batman different from similar dark superhero movies is the fact that it is still (mostly) a solidly entertaining movie. We have plenty to think about - overarching themes (like drawing parallels between not only Dano's Riddler and Heath Ledger's Joker, but also between Riddler and Batman - both being orphans and outsiders that want to view Gotham from outside its reaches), political commentary (references to rich white men controlling the other sections of society, and the emergence of fringe alt right armed militia and white supremacy, and critique of the capitalist establishment by the working person) - with some fantastic (but far-in-between) action sequences thrown into the mix.

Gotham is more believable as a city, with Batman understanding that there needs to be faith in the system to actually deal with law and order, and that he alone cannot physically battle each bad guy out there. Crime and law enforcement are shown as two sides of the same coin (wink, wink!), and we have the protagonists understand that the anti-social elements of the city are only the result of the bleak social conditions and despair. We also have more emphasis on the raw emotions felt by Batman (he isn't new to the role as the bat signal is already a thing, but he isn't a master of his emotions yet as evidenced by the brutality of some of his actions) while not completely portraying the character as someone purely driven by emotion.

Speaking of Batman, Robert Pattinson is fantastic as the masked vigilante. What is extremely polarising, however, is how average his portrayal of Bruce Wayne is - it feels like he is still in his edgy, never-see-the-sun character from Twilight. The script doesn't do service to Bruce Wayne as Batman is the focus of the movie for almost its entirety, but it is a jarring performance nevertheless.

Zoë Kravitz comes and goes as she pleases, not unlike a cat, but brings a certain panache and understated humour (that the movie otherwise sorely lacks) to every scene she is featured in. Paul Dano is quietly intimidating as the Riddler, and his performances, especially towards the end of the movie, are quite chilling. Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro and Colin Farell all perform how you expect them to, with the latter almost unrecognisable as the Penguin. Andy Serkis's portrayal of the Wayne family butler, Alfred Pennyworth, is as disappointing as that of his mentee (sans the superhero mask, obviously). Oh, and Barry Keoghan has a cameo hinting of things to come.

Greig Fraser brings his A-game with the cinematography, which would come as no surprise to people who watched Dune. Dune was gorgeous despite being limited to mostly greys and sepias, and Fraser similarly makes the most out of the dark aesthetic Batman is associated with. With just the whole gamut of blacks at his disposal, interspersed with some white, yellow and red lights, Fraser has managed to make an extremely visually appealing movie - just make sure you catch it in the theatre, or have a really dark room to watch it in at home.

Micheal Giacchino's score is hard-hitting, and perfectly in line with the dark themes on display. Interestingly, Giacchino's usage of Nirvana's "Something In The Way", turning it from an understated song into a booming centerpiece, set the tone for Nirvana influencing the movie. Director Matt Reeves said that his version of Bruce Wayne had Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain as one of its inspirations, while Paul Dano has gone on record to say his Riddler was also influenced by Nirvana.

With all that said and done, comes the ultimate question - should you go and watch The Batman? The answer is, despite the negatives that have been spoken about in length by yours truly, yes.