The Batman opens with Bruce Wayne’s voice-over as the audience is introduced to the streets of Gotham City. Two crimes are starting to unfold: an armed robbery and a gang jumping a man in the subway. The armed robber sees the Bat-signal in the sky and gets worried. He looks around, becomes jumpy at the city noises. He looks down a dark alleyway and backs up into oncoming traffic and then flees on foot. The gang of men surround the terrified man and noise from a dark corridor gets everyone’s attention. From the darkness, a man wearing custom armor walks into the scene like a shadow in a dream. The criminals and the audience now know, That’s Batman.
The Batman, at almost 3 hours long, feels a lot like reading a very good 8-10 issue Batman comic book story arc. It has a clear stance from the opening, the world is built out in front of you as new characters are introduced, and a brooding mystery starts to unfurl with Batman at the center of it. I also appreciate the effort in making Gotham City look like a unique city, unlike Christopher Nolan’s “yeah we shot this in Chicago” Gotham City.
The Riddler (Paul Dano) is the main antagonist and the movie wastes no time in getting his scheme going. The plot to kill prominent political figures gets Bruce Wayne to re-evaluate his goals and techniques for bringing justice to Gotham City.
Batman is played by Robert Pattinson, who is a hell of an actor. I never doubted his casting in this and the final product proves why he was chosen. I’ll say his Bruce Wayne is very limited in his emotional range but that’s due to where we are in his life. For example, he doesn’t put on the mask of a playboy in public. He hasn’t come to the realization of needing that cover yet.
The movie is largely a new Batman Begins that cuts out a lot of set up time in favor of diving headfirst into a brilliant film noir approach for this Batman tale. Where Christopher Nolan decided to have 20 minutes of Batman in his first movie, director and co-writer Matt Reeves went with 20 minutes of Bruce Wayne. Batman is all up, in, and over this picture and I love it.
I could gush about this movie for ages but I’ll sum most of my love like this. The Batman is the take on Batman I’ve waited more than 20 years to see. It pulls from some of the best parts of the character and shapes them into the launching pad for the greater things to come.
With the decision to start at year 2 of Batman’s career, we watch a Bruce Wayne who is still figuring out what he’s doing. His idea of justice is strictly vengeance at this point. He is incredibly angry because of the murder of his parents when he was a child and he’s more or less looking for reasons to live. He wants to scare the evil of the city with his image and bust the skulls of anyone who dares harm another. He is a new force of the city. His only ally is Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and the rest of the police force wants to arrest the vigilante they don’t trust. Gordon has to vouch and protect Batman a few times. While we don’t see how their relationship started, we get to see how they are learning to trust and work together through the entire movie.
Alfred (Andy Serkis) has a small part in this movie as Bruce’s anchor. He’s incredibly worried about where it looks like Bruce is headed and does what he can to temper his “son” with advice. When Riddler unearths dirt on Bruce’s parents, it makes Bruce question everything he knows–and what he’s fighting for–including what Alfred means to him.
After the Riddler kills for the first time, we watch Batman and Alfred piece the clues together that Riddler left behind. One possibility leads to a bread crumb, which leads to another, which leads to meaty leads. It’s a ton of fun to watch this unfold (Detective Batman has been underserved in the movies far too much) and it leads him to Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) a.k.a Catwoman who works at Oswald Cobblepot’s (Colin Farrell) a.ka. The Penguin’s nightclub. It’s a fantastic introduction and watching them get involved is a lot of fun. Their ideas and methods clash, coming from very different sides of the city they see and go after things differently. There’s a lot of friction between them but just like with Gordon, we get to see their relationship grow and change. The seeds for what they become in the comic books are planted here.
The other main players, Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard) are also perfectly cast and given the time to make their mark. Penguin is fantastic despite not getting a lot of screen time. If I hadn’t known it was Farrell in that role, I never would have guessed it. The prosthetic makeup is phenomenal and his voice and body movement are completely different from Farrell’s. He gets some of the best moments in the film and the possibilities of where they can go with his character are fantastic.
I really like how we get to watch Bruce figure things out as he goes. He’s far from the World’s Greatest Detective that he becomes. He’s very observant but doesn’t figure out everything on his own. He puts things together with Gordon, Alfred, and Selina by talking it out with them. He gets clues wrong which puts him on his back foot. He’s an amazing fighter, but he gets hit because he’s taking on groups of maniacs at a time. He knows that he has to drop every target as fast as he can in order to survive and the fights are brutal. He’s got his basic gadgets like the grappling hook, but he’s still building them out and figuring out what he needs.
A great example of all of this is when he has to flee a building. He makes it up to the roof and stands on the ledge. When realizing how high up he is, his eyes bug out as even he can’t believe what he’s about to do. He pops a squirrel suit enhancement out of his armor to give himself the ability to glide. About to be overtaken, he makes the leap of faith in spectacular fashion but it doesn’t go smoothly.
Production wise, The Batman is nuts. Matt Reeves directed the ever loving stuffing out of this. There are some stunning visuals from start to finish. Beautiful framing and exquisite lighting make specific moments pop just right. The Riddler’s introduction is a perfect example. The movie is so dark (just about all of it takes place at night) that if the cinematography wasn’t on point, it’d collapse under its own weight. Direction, movement, and purpose would have been lost. And the soundtrack! Simply perfect. And the sound design? The best Batmobile scene ever filmed.
I really love this movie. It felt more like 2 hours than 3 to me. Every scene brings something to the table. There’s some goofy and head-scratching stuff here and there, but nothing I can’t go with the flow with. Minor complaints (the cops would not have waited that long to try and take off Batman’s cowl to see who he is) that don’t ruin anything for me. The motivation for Riddler felt believable and works with what’s happening in the world today. I’ve seen some people complain that the final action scene is too much but it worked for me. It does lean the farthest into comic book action where the bulk of the movie works to ground this world in realism, but if I’m watching Batman, hook me up with that. I’m here for mayhem. And guess what? The scary part is that radicalizing people online for a crazy case is happening. It’s been happening for years.
All of this bodes well for a sequel. Bruce Wayne and Batman will be different and stronger. What he goes through with Riddler changes him. I can’t wait to see where this goes, the sky is the limit. Until the Justice League space station is made anyway.