'The Batman' Review: The Gritty Detective Story We’ve All Waited For
Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ hits theaters worldwide this Friday, having spent over a year on millions of most-anticipated releases list. To no surprise, Reeves succeeds in creating a fresh and creative take on the character in this neo-noir mystery thriller that lives up to the hype.
‘The Batman’ stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and follows the nocturnal vigilante in his second year of crime-fighting as he tries to put together a series of clues left behind at murder scenes of Gotham elites. Stuck in a cat-and-mouse game with the highly-intelligent and sadistic Riddler (played by Paul Dano), he soon uncovers a vast web of corruption in Gotham City.
The film comes from director Matt Reeves (‘Cloverfield,’ ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,’ and ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’) and a script written by Reeves and Peter Craig (‘The Town’, ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 & Part 2’, and ‘Bad Boys for Life’). It features a stellar ensemble cast including the likes of Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant Jim Gordon, Colin Farrell as Oswald “Oz” Cobbleplot/The Penguin, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, and Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth.
The most striking thing about The Batman is how creatively different it is from any previous iteration of the caped crusader. Matt Reeves took a property that has appeared on the big screen for more than half a century and has gone through half-a-dozen incarnations and rebooted continuities and managed to make it feel wholly original and unique. Everything from the interpretation of the characters to the grimy backdrop of Gotham City to the very plot points that develop the story, while taking inspiration from other films and comic storylines, feels unique to Reeves, who made this film his own through-and-through. Nothing feels derivative or overdone or unoriginal, and from the first few minutes of the film, you immediately realize you’re in for a Batman film like no other. This is something that is so rare, especially in this current Hollywood age of creative bankruptcy and a lack of originality, and impressive for Reeves to have broken such new ground in 2022.
One of the first things one notices while watching this film is how much of a Batman film it actually is, as the vast majority of the screen time features Pattinson in full bat-suit out at night in Gotham City, with only a select minority of scenes focusing on Bruce Wayne, which instantly sets this film apart from its predecessors.
Pattinson brings us a totally new Bruce Wayne, playing the character as a loner recluse who has completely withdrawn himself from society and the world. This Bruce Wayne has fully accepted that the Batman is his identity, and he prefers to spend as much time as he can in that role fighting crime and bringing vengeance and justice to the streets of Gotham City, rather than living a full life in the outside. This creative choice helps flesh out the kind of character Reeves wanted for his titular protagonist, and really capitalizes on the idea that Batman is the alter ego he prefers the world to see and he himself sees the world through, while Bruce Wayne is the mask.
Pattinson’s performance as the world’s greatest detective might just be a career-best, and one of the best comic book movie performances in general. He’s so emotionally compelling and captivating, as he acts out a vicious and violent, yet broken and emotionally-damaged Bruce to the extent we have never seen. An integral part of Batman’s character is the overbearing inner darkness and trauma from experiencing the murder of his parents that drives him to take on the mantle of the Dark Knight and fuels him every night fighting crime at any personal cost. Reeves’ version of the character perfect exemplifies that. This Batman has a personal stake in and impeccable drive towards bringing fear into the heart of criminals and exacting vengeance across the city. In my opinion, no other actor has brought this much emotional weight to the role like Pattinson has here..
Pattinson’s Batman is beyond terrifying and intimidating, putting all rumors that he was too soft and too posh for the role instantly to rest. His costume stands out as one of the best live-action batsuits, and takes a rugged and tactile look that feels very practical and has a home-engineered feel. The inclusion of the armor plating makes for some really interesting usages throughout the action pieces of the film and allows Pattinson to stand atop criminals with an imposing form.
This interpretation of the character is also absolutely fierce and brutal, and the movie puts a proper emphasis on the level of fear he instills in Gotham’s criminal. From his initial introduction and Reeves’ use of lighting and shadow, we very much understand and feel that fear as Batman sneaks his way into view and onscreen from the darkness. The action in this film is equally fierce and brutal and includes the most plentiful action we have seen in a Batman movie to date. It fulfills every satisfying urge we have to see Gotham’s thugs getting beaten to a pulp by the Caped Crusader. The way Reeves shoots the fighting scenes keeps everything steady and in full view for maximum effect too. Combined with the sound effects from the foley artists, the action makes us wince at every punch and bone break.
Matt Reeves decided to tell this story in a very episodic and serialized fashion, even using overarching narration from Batman as book-ends and throughout. Totally shirking another retelling of the classic Batman origin story, Reeves starts the film with the Batman already in full swing, quickly finding his way into the main storyline of the film within the same night. With the inclusion of narration in the form of a diary that Bruce is keeping to document his “experiment” as Batman in Gotham City, this all works together to give the audience the feeling that this is just a typical week for Batman somewhat mirroring “Batman: The Animated Series.”
Part of what makes that approach work here is the universe that Reeves created to place his version of Batman in. The Gotham City we are presented with is a very lived-in universe, that feels in many ways like the most realistic Gotham we have seen yet for the Batman universe to take form. While most comic book movie franchises will introduce an iconic comic villain, have them rise and inevitably fall, and then do the same for the next iconic villain ad nauseam, this universe we are introduced to has lively collection of Batman characters and rogues that are out there at all times, to varying degrees of interaction with Batman. In other words, this feels like a Batman universe that is truly alive and active, and ripped straight from a comic page. We do not just see solely the Penguin or Catwoman rise and fall. Instead, what we see is Batman taking on the Riddler, while the Penguin is out there with potential answers to questions, Catwoman deals with her own agenda with Carmine Falcone and so-on and so-forth.
The key element to the success and uniqueness of The Batman is the genre: Reeves told a Batman story in the form of a neo-noir detective mystery thriller. Citing a key aspect of Batman in the comics (as the “World’s Greatest Detective”) that he felt was lacking from previous incarnations, Reeves wanted to amplify this characteristic and portray a Batman that’s just as much brain as he is brawn. The entire film from start to finish has a dark and gritty noir vibe, and with the central premise revolving around solving a series of clues left behind by a criminal mastermind, Batman has to put in real detective work in a fashion we have yet to see in live-action. Just as Christopher Nolan took inspiration from films such as ‘Heat’ to make ‘The Dark Knight’ a mob crime thriller, Reeves took clear inspiration from other films such as ‘Se7en’ to create a masterful seedy noir thriller. On top of this, several sequences are shot in the vein of a horror film (once again via Reeves’ expert use of lighting and shadow) and take inspiration from serial killer and slasher features to generate effectively startling and uneasy scenes, particularly with Paul Dano’s Riddler.
As the film’s main antagonist, the Riddler is arguably the most creepy and sinister villain we have seen in a Batman movie yet. Paul Dano brought his all to this performance, bringing to life a mentally-disturbed and unhinged, yet incredibly intelligent and calculating serial killer plaguing Gotham City’s elite. So many details about him, from the disturbing homemade costume reminiscent of the Gimp from “Pulp Fiction,” to his unsettling deep, wheezy breathing, to the erratic insanity in his demeanor, all combine to make him a terrifying villain for Batman to take on. This was an interpretation of The Riddler that saved the character from the ridicule of the cartoonish and campy version in “Batman Forever.” The Riddler also has an incredibly-plotted motive that is compelling, and also heartbreaking, as Reeves explores this parallelism he created between Riddler and Batman as two people who experienced the same traumas but ended up on two totally different sides of life only to come full circle and became their own versions of “vengeance” in Gotham. The clues Riddler leaves behind are clever, and the story is plotted in such a masterful way due to Reeves and Craig’s tightly-written script that is filled with foreshadowing and hints to the grander puzzle being pieced together by Batman. Everything falls into the Riddler’s plan without coming across as overly-convoluted and complicated.
The film could not be complete without Pattinson and Dano’s co-stars, who each bring in a fresh and expert take on their characters. For example, Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman is street-smart, a great fighter, sexy, seductive, but also emotionally compelling. Her character has her own agenda in the mix of all of this that intertwines with Batman, but the two share an incredible chemistry onscreen, giving us the most charged synergy between Batman and a love interest. Jeffrey Wright’s Lieutenant Gordon is full of heart and morale as one of the only remaining good cops in the GCPD. Their interactions are some of the best we have seen onscreen, as they feel like old friends who have an unexplainable yet deep-rooted trust in one another. Colin Farrell totally disappeared in his role as the Penguin; not only did he commit to the expert makeup and prosthetics to transform him into Oz, but everything from his accent to his line delivery to his demeanor is something lifted directly from a real-life mafioso and mobster. One cannot talk about bringing a real-life mobster to life without mentioning John Turturro as Carmine Falcone; here, we see an eerily-accurate and chilling portrayal of a cold-blooded lifelong mob man who has the entire city, politicians and police and all, in his pocket. As the “true mayor of Gotham City,” Turturro’s Falcone is an imposing crime boss whose gravity appears every time he is onscreen.
Even the little details strewn throughout the film help make it even greater. The score by Michael Giacchino is a top-tier movie score; it is sweeping and epic when it needs to be, and has a continual presence in the background of most scenes that sticks in your head throughout and helps bolster the events that are appearing onscreen. The film also has a lot more humor injected into it than expected that was surprisingly welcome. Not a goofy, juvenile sort of humor, but a subtle, dry humor that landed every time.
Now, after all of those things that make this film an amazing and inspired adaptation of Batman on the big screen, the movie is not totally without flaws.
For a film that was so strengthened by its supporting cast of characters, the character of Alfred as played by Andy Serkis felt really underutilized and underdeveloped. Alfred is such a key component to Batman as a character and his development acting as a balance of adopted father, best friend, mentor, and helper in his journey both as Bruce Wayne and as Batman. In this movie, Alfred has only a small handful of scenes at best, most of which are throwaways where his presence is not fully felt in the story. He delivers one or two condensed monologues to Bruce about going too far as the Batman and not looking out enough for himself in all of this, but none of this felt very original for Alfred and in a way almost felt a little forced like the obligatory Alfred lines. His character is also hospitalized at a point in the film and is reduced to just delivering exposition to Bruce about his father and his past, but none of the information is actually helpful with moving the story from thereon forward. This event also occurs with still over an hour of runtime left in the film, and Alfred does not appear again, not even in the end. He effectively disappears from the story midway through which in a weird way almost works for the story since we never saw him have that close of a relationship and attachment with Bruce Wayne as a character. While so much about this film is original, I felt that the Alfred interpretation here was the only real stereotype.
It is no secret that the original cut of this film as was screened for some critics was nearing four hours long, a whole hour longer than the runtime of this theatrical cut. In many ways an extended cut can add nil to the actual story substance of a film and feels like extra fodder material, but in this case, it actually feels like there were moments in the movie that felt like there were some missing pieces that might have been overlooked or removed altogether from the cutting room floor that were actually crucial in developing the story. From some lines early on that seem like obvious foreshadowing due to their odd specificity that do not go anywhere, to (as previously mentioned) a lack of Alfred’s involvement in the story to any capacity that makes it feel like a lot of his scenes got cut, to a narratively abrupt ending that does not feel as satisfying in bringing it all together from the Bruce Wayne side of things, it feels like there was some story that should not have been cut that had a place in creating a fuller narrative. Overall, the Riddler could have played a more active role in the story for the first two acts of the film; while one can respect that he is the mastermind orchestrating a plan behind-the-scenes by pulling the strings, it seems to remove him too much from the main plot of the story sometimes.
While Reeves’ approach to make this film episodic was innovative and inventive, it does create some narrative and story structure problems. By totally skipping over an origin and kicking off right with Batman getting involved in the main action of the film, the movie feels serialized to a fault as it does not feel like we get a proper beginning, rising action, climax, and aftermath since it starts and ends at similar points developmentally. Contrary to this, however, the movie does give us some crucial character development to Bruce where he progresses beyond his self-centered, vindictive and angry approach to Batman as a symbol of vengeance, realizing he can use Batman as a symbol of hope and being in it not just for himself and avenging his own wrongdoings, but out of caring for the people of his city. But overall, while we might not need to see the pearls fling in the alley and Batman’s parents’ death for the umpteenth time, there is something to be said about incorporating that more into his origin to give a reference point for your character that is missing and lacking in this version. More than anything with this criticism, the movie could have just used a much clearer starting point other than just being a visit into Batman’s week like Reeves made.
Lastly, while Pattinson’s performance was absolutely incredible as Bruce Wayne and as Batman, there is something that leaves us wanting more out of his Bruce Wayne. As previously stated, this film is very heavily slanted towards the Batman side of him rather than the Bruce side of him, but the Bruce as depicted in the movie has a rather odd characterization. This new and original take on Bruce Wayne by Reeves is one instance where going the more conventional route may have fared better. While not inherently bad, portraying Bruce Wayne as a depressed loner and a recluse who acts and dresses borderline emo as opposed to propping himself up to the public as the trust-fund kid and womanizing billionaire playboy orphan and running Wayne Enterprises, was an odd choice. That side of Bruce Wayne in keeping the public persona and running his father’s company is iconic and an important part of the character, and is something that is ignored and sometimes outright rejected in this version, and not all for the better.
All in all, Matt Reeves’ The Batman is an incredible, creatively-unique Batman film that gets so much of the character perfectly right, and masterfully succeeds in creating a lived-in universe filled with an amazing cast of side characters and rogues, and has all the brutal action, raw emotion, and neo-noir detective thriller vibes that are worth all of the hype.