Directed By Matt Reeves

Starring – Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano

The Plot – When the Riddler (Dano), a sadistic serial killer, begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman (Pattinson) is forced to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and question his family’s involvement.

Rated PG-13 for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong adult language, and some suggestive material

the batman trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

Almost anyone can make a good Batman film, but what about Reeves vision for this iconic character makes this special? The answer in one word is diversity. It begins creatively with a fresh take in storytelling that brings forth a crime noir detective narrative for the conflict that tonally feels miles from anything previously established in the Burton or Nolan sagas. For once, Batman’s physicality is matched blow for blow with a superior intellect that remains one step ahead of his opposition at all times, giving us a complexity for objective that is made all the more accessible with Bruce’s overhead narration psychologically echoing his every move along the way. Aside from this, while “The Batman” is the first in a new series of films, it is anything other than a typical origins story, instead opening up in the second year of Batman’s stronghold on Gotham, with more than a few endearing qualities to his inexperience. Instead of the perfectionist who never loses his cool in previous films, Bruce here is young and above all else human to the point that his mistakes make for a more compelling character study, giving us a vigilante driven by the rage of revenge without the level of control needed to suppress it into something that could swallow him whole. Bruce is very much a product of his environment, an environment that Reeves takes ample time fleshing out in every scene or sequence moving in and around its airborne toxicity. For the first time, a Batman film isn’t afraid to explore and reside in the shadows where other films have depicted it at a surface level. In fact, it downright embraces it, expanding the lore and characters of this troubled city in ways that not only provides ample amount of depth to the screenplay and run time for this three-hour film, but also setting the stage for future installments without it completely taking over the objective of this pivotal opening chapter. This is also where direction comes into play, as the gritty, crime-riddled streets of this place where the sun or daylight appears to very rarely shine, is very much a character of its own in this film, and one where the law and the good of its people feel suppressed for the overwhelming greed that drive its deadly deals in the dark. The presentation features enough foggy lenses, tight-knit angles, and dark brooding color consistency to really seep into the skin of its audience, prescribing an immersive quality to the unnerving atmospheric range that plagues its citizens like an unshakeable ghost of victims past screaming as loud as composer Michael Giacchino’s riveting score. On such a topic, the themes in the film for various characters and confrontations are some of the bests I’ve heard in a superhero narrative since Hans Zimmer took it to another level in the Nolan trilogy. But the aforementioned diversity inspires Michael to produce these harrowingly haunting numbers that are as thick as the atmospheric dread they’re continuously scoring, with an instrumental range that shape-shifts with the character they’re accommodating. For Batman, Michael uses a lot of organs and soft strumming to channel the loss that have come to define this once aspirational child. For Selina Kyle’s Catwoman, the rhythms are sharp, stinging, and full of sensuality that simultaneously channel the sexiness and ferocity of one of Gotham’s most dangerous vixens. On the subject of those fresh faces, this film’s incredibly deep ensemble is great across the board. Pattinson might just be my favorite live action Batman for grief and responsibility he continuously juggles in a sleepless life. His dominating time to being Batman instead of Bruce lends itself entirely to the film’s title, while conveying the internal struggle from within that has nearly eviscerated his humanity and kept him from a redeeming relationship with anyone he crosses paths with. Kravitz is also a breath of fresh air, triggering a physicality and sensuality that brings to life Selena Kyle, but with the nuance that her predecessors were severely lacking. Her emotional instability and actions feel justified in the integrity of the character, giving Kravitz a mold-breaking performance that will inevitably be the opening of the door that preconceived typecasting nearly slammed shut. Beyond these two, Colin Farrell is unrecognizable both in visual and audible capacities, emulating Oswald Cobblepot with slimy seediness that makes me desperately want more from this wild card of a character, and Paul Dano dominates the third act with long-winded diatribes and a sincerity for the sadistic that captivates the screen with the kind of unfiltered rage that seems impossible to come from such a frail being echoing their prophetic claims. Finally, though the action is minimal in its usage across the three-hour landscape of the film, it’s saved in a way that further enhances the appeal of various set pieces we’re given that ruthlessly thrive. One such car sequence is one of the best I’ve ever seen, complete with shifting angles, immersive weather influence, and razor-sharp editing that seem to trigger echoingly with the level of devastation that they incorporate. For hand to hand combat, the fight choreography and sound design convey a heft in influence that prescribe stakes in every devastating blow, and though the film is supplanted with a consistently dark color pallet for its presentation, the shadows are just accessible enough to keep detection firmly in the grasp of those paying attention, crafting gripping tension with matters that invoke even a sense of uncertainty for the Bat, which include but not limited to the no shortage of devastation that he forcefully receives at the hands of limitless adversaries.

NEGATIVES

The first two acts of this film are near perfection for me, but it’s in that third act where problems begin to surmise, and the film begins to feel the weight of its bloated run time. Most of this problem stems from the delivery of resolutions that surface one after the other during the final forty minutes, hurting the consistency in patience of the previous two hours with blunt, rapid-fire deliveries materializing too quick to properly convey their monumental impacts. This is most especially felt in the film’s ending, which could choose any of the three previous spots to fade to black, but instead picks the fourth one, which by that point drags the closure to tedious levels of metaphorical intention. Besides this, the overwhelming boundaries of convenience were stretched a bit further during this area of the script more than others, particularly with The Riddler’s picture perfect plan, in which he planned even the arrival of characters are conflicts to such god-like accuracy. There’s definitely convenience in other areas of the film that bothered me, mainly Batman’s amazing tolerance for pain during sequences he should be in a wheelchair at the very least, but in the third act it surmises to levels that would make Kevin McAllister jealous with choreographed simulation, feeling all the more mindless the longer I think about the questions of logic that can’t keep springing.

OVERALL

“The Batman” is relentless, dark, and diabolic, giving us the much-needed detective narrative that his character has desperately deserved, all the while maintaining everything about the character that cloaks him in compelling mystery. Reeves manages to craft a Batman film that feels refreshingly diverse to the films of the canon that came before it, but also one that remains loyal to the Gotham lore that comic fans immersed themselves in. It’s an epic in every sense of the word, and one that even after three hours has us begging for more.

My Grade: 9/10 or A-