The Batman
Batman might be the most popular movie figure of my lifetime. We saw Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and even a lego version with Will Arnett. Now we have Robert Pattinson. It’s hard not to compare all the different variations– and while The Batman comes nowhere near The Dark Knight, it is a solid rendition of Gotham’s favorite hero.
First off, the star of the movie is the cinematography. There are no shots without intention, no camera angle set on accident, no lighting uncalculated. Every frame of The Batman could be used as an example or summary of the tone of the rest of the film. This is an impressive accomplishment, and combined with an incredibly moving score, you get to experience a complete movie. Just for the artistry, this movie is worth a trip to the theater.
Unfortunately, this brings me to the main flaw of the film: it’s three hours of one really dark note. No matter how incredible that note is, the movie is still three hours of one feeling, three hours requiring an audience to pay excruciating attention to every detail, three hours of a grim, shadowy mystery– you leave the theater worn out. The one funny line in the entire movie is when Batman says, “You have a lot of cats,” to Catwoman, and I’m not even sure that part was supposed to be funny. My point isn’t that the movie needs to change. I just think one ray of sunlight, one moment of brevity or lightheartedness from Pattinson, or maybe thirty less minutes (was the car chase necessary?) could have allowed me to enjoy the experience a bit more.
Other than that, I really only had a few minor criticisms. I thought Pattinson could have played Bruce Wayne with a little more nuance– loved his Batman, but I wasn’t thrilled that Wayne was the same morose character as his masked counterpart. I wish Jeffrey Wright (a fantastic actor) was given some better lines– I often felt like he was stuck with the plot advancers, the lines where he just shouted “oh no, there’s a murder.” It was a bit too on the nose. I wish Zoe Kravitz had more room to expand Catwoman, and Colin Farrell’s Penguin faced real consequences. Lastly, I think it was odd that so much of the plot rested on Spanish grammar. Nothing else to say on it, just a bit odd.
This review has gotten a bit negative– was the movie as great as the hype? No, but it was still good! It was less a superhero flick than a detective, film noir type (complete with the main character voice over), and that kinda worked for me. Is it a movie I’ll watch again? Probably not. But just as Batman Begins was a not-as-good first edition of The Dark Knight, I can see the next installment of The Batman being something special. The time and energy commitment is real, but The Batman is worth a watch.
