Warner Bros and DC have been for the longest time trying to make their version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it just has not worked out for them. The success that they have had on television through their CW shows they have just not been able to translate to the bigger screen. The whole mess with Zack Snyder and his version of the DCEU (which is mostly Warner Bros fault because of them getting cold feet) has led to this kinda of soft reboot of sorts for the cinematic franchises with some characters continuing and others not. Even though I was interested to see where the “Snyderverse” was heading, if all of that had to be traded away to get what might be the best Batman movie of all time, then it is a worthy sacrifice. Enter Matt Reeves’ The Batman
The first thing that is noticeable about The Batman is how it does not feel like what we would consider a traditional superhero/comic book movie. It is a slow burn of a movie, coming in at just below a three hour runtime with it building up a mystery pretty much from the jump. It follows what people who keep up with Batman comics as “Year Two” of Bruce Wayne being Batman, so we end up with a younger, darker version of Bruce Wayne and Batman played by Robert Pattinson. This version of Batman is someone who is still hung up on exacting revenge in the name of his parents (who are the most interesting they have ever been in a movie) and strikes fear into his opponents by being “vengeance”. Pattinson does a fantastic job of being Batman, while is portrayal of Bruce Wayne is not the best one in the franchise, it fits into what this universe is and who Wayne is at this point: a young, rich person, who has let his grief overtake him into being dark and reclusive.
With Pattinson leading the charge, where The Batman really shines are the performances. Paul Dano as The Riddler is not the goofy, cartoon caricature that he was when played by Jim Carey in Batman Forever. He is psychotic and unhinged, where he has crafted this holy crusade against the corruption that has poisoned the city of Gotham. The scariest part of this Riddler is how easy someone like him could gather a following. In the world we live in now, we have seen people with bad intentions take half truths, lies, and omission of facts and cultivate a following online and while this character is that dial turned up to 10, it still closely resembles some of the cultish followings we see in the real world.
Jeffery Wright, Zoë Kravitz, Collin Farrell all do such a great job of with their performances as well. Wright feels like such a believable Jim Gordon, who at this point is pretty trustworthy of Batman. Kravitz is the best Catwoman that has ever been on a cinematic screen and it is not even close. The relationship that Kravitz’s Catwoman and Pattinson’s Batman have feels dark and moody like it could twist either of them in the right or wrong direction if they got together. It is a dynamic that really has not been explored too deep in movies, but has been tackled in comics/animated shows. With the help of amazing makeup and prosthetics, Farrell blends right into being the Penguin, whose character follows a similar trajectory to The Riddler, less cartoon and grounded. He is not in the movie as much as the trailers would make you believe, but anytime he is on screen Farrell completely steals it. If the scenes with the Penguin were to get you hyped for the Penguin-spinoff happening on HBO Max, then they 100% accomplished that goal.
Settings can be just, if not more important to a movie than the characters. It provides a chance to accomplish world building and make you care about the universe that is created, and Matt Reeves does that with the city of Gotham. Hands down this is my favorite interpretation of Gotham. It is dark and dirty city with old subway cars, street lamps that flicker on and off with dark alleyways that you don’t want to go down.
It looks like a dump and I love it for that. It provides the perfect backdrop for the neo-noir tale that Reeves has spun with The Batman. There are a lot of movies that you can tell had some influence on this movie, but the two that really stand out to me are Chinatown (1974) and Se7en (1995). Both of those movies deal with psychological drama and in the case of Se7en, it follows a killer set on dealing with people who have sinned.
One of the best things that Reeves did was use color to communicate a character’s feelings. Vengeance was illuminated by a bright and angry red, Riddler was unsettling white, Bruce Wayne was also portrayed by pale and washed out indigo. Those are just a few of the examples but it shows how three-dimensional Reeves’ world and storytelling really is. I also love the technology and costumes in this universe. Batman design is not overly bulky like Nolan’s version of the costume, here you get a slimmer design with functionality being the driver behind the look. Having a pair of knifes make up the batman logo on his chest, with the right one being more worn because he is right handed is just incredible. Catwoman’s costume is very subtle, with the traditional leather cat burglar look and just a normal ski-mask. Also they did a great job of making her look “sexy” without having to overly sexualize her costume, there was no having to have a zipped down front just so you could see Catwoman’s cleavage, it is a nice change of pace from pervious attempts. I also want to shout out the digital camera contacts, which are the perfect example of tech that is believable, but still futuristic.
The Batman is not a perfect movie, there are some small things that I could nitpick about like the possible umpteenth time a certain DC villain makes an appearance in a Batman movie. Those small things do not distract from the experience that this movie successfully created. Matt Reeves was finally able to accomplish what Zack Snyder and Warner Bros were trying to do years earlier: a movie that is a tonal alternative to what Marvel and Disney are doing with the MCU that is more grounded in reality. The difference is Snyder was just doing a darker comic book movie, whereas Reeves decided to take these comic book ideas and transplant them into an American Neo-Noir film, turning it into something that stands out from the MCU monolithic giant. Do yourself a favor and go see this movie.