The Batman

From punching thugs under the Gotham rain to rifling through cabinet files, Matt Reeves' The Batman is the most authentic live-action adaptation to date. It’s 2 hour and 55 minute runtime is packed with great fight sequences, a nail biting atmosphere, and a cleverly-modernized villain. The entire cast is great, especially Robert Pattinson in his stifled rage under the vigilante’s cowl.

With Pattinson being one out of the four actors to play Batman in the past ten years, a new-comer reboot can seem daunting or even pointless. After watching his rendition, though, I can confidently say that his version is my Batman. The story is not focused on Bruce Wayne like Christian Bale in The Dark Knight trilogy, nor is it jumping the gun in twisting the Batman character with an old, broken veteran like Ben Affleck. Pattinson’s Batman is only two years into his crusade of vengeance. Fear reigns down from the sky wherever the bat signal shines. Thugs look behind their backs into the shadows, imagining their judgment with raw terror.

But the bat is not infallible; he’s already tired from the endless nights. Bruised from the fights and blinded from his past, he misses the big picture. Pattinson gives a very quiet performance. Standing at the edge of the frame, the myth of the Bat takes over as cops and crooks cower under his glare. His version of Bruce Wayne is equally as quiet, as if he has yet to learn what Christian Bale’s Bruce perfected: the real mask is his human face. The linear story stands out through Pattinson’s crashing sanity. Batman's evolution is more of a corruption the darker the nights get, until he finally realizes who he is supposed to be just as the dawn rises.

I cannot recommend this film enough, but it comes with a warning. You can only experience it fully by seeing it in theaters. Matt Reeves has a unique look to his films that can only be witnessed on the big screen. He plays with darkness and texture to create the most tangible image. The result is breathtaking in its reality, but it can be hard to see outside of the movie theater. Entire shots are lit only on the side jaw of Batman over a sea of black. Small glints that reflect off goggles in the shadows would be entirely missed in the compression on a laptop. The detail Reeves and cinematographer Greig Fraser spent so much time crafting is best realized on the biggest screen you can find. Yes, this does sound like those cringey “come back to the cinema, come back to us” ads, but for this film, it’s beyond worth it.

Now comes the strange part of my watching experience.

The incredible imagery is supported by poetic themes and romantic character growth, yet it never reaches that emotional peak for me. The more I think about it, the more I realize that goosebump-shortcoming is not the film’s fault. It’s mine. The only way I can explain it is that this adaptation is so familiar that my brain replaced all Batman stories it knew with this one.

You read that correctly. Matt Reeves’ The Batman is my new origin when it comes to Batman. The only reason I felt more in the climactic peaks of Chris Nolan’s trilogy was because it was my first experience with the character and themes. Now that I’m familiar with how Gotham and its ensemble of the good, the bad, and the ugly tick, every plot point and reveal feels ‘part of the mold’ to my eyes, as if I have already watched it ten times before. Some scenes tricked me into thinking this was a cinematic for Arkham City, while others resembled a remastered cut of Tim Burton’s Batman in the architecture of Batman: The Animated Series (without the blimps, sadly). Even outside of the source material, Matt Reeves' detective-genre inspirations are loud and proud. Imagery from Zodiac, Se7en, Taxi Driver, and even Saw are the true visual darlings of this spectacle, paired with an edgy voice over similar to Watchmen’s Warshak matching the Nirvana needle-drop, “Something in the Way.” This ratio of superhero/detective genre play is perfectly mixed for a flavorful watch, even if my brain can’t compute if it’s original or not.

Barely any moments in this breeze-through watch felt awkward. Some dialogue responses between Gordon and Batman when solving clues feel too heavy handed to help the audience follow, even though the riddles are not that difficult. I like the idea of easy riddles, since the Riddler wants them to play his game, but the awkward deliveries of the immensely talented Jeffrey Wright were kind of disappointing. Besides the clue-solving, I think the score is a little too simplified. It serves as an underlying tone setter rather than an overture, but it repeats the same five notes so much, it sometimes breaks the mood. The actual chords are strong enough to get you humming them out of the theater, but I think it was overused in multiple scenes — especially the car chase. Besides those two tiny nit picks, I had a blast watching this film. The 2 hours and 55 minutes went by so quickly that I wanted more.

Overall, this film is a must see for any Batman or comic book fan. You can tell by my needless poetics that I really enjoyed it. The wait since its pre-Covid leaks was definitely worth it. If DC commits to this alongside its laughable DCEU, I might consider myself a DC fan once again. They have no chance competing with the massive scale of the MCU. There’s no time for that anymore. But if they continue these small scale character films — and NO CROSSOVERS — Warner Brothers has a chance for a collection of films that will stand on their own for a longer half-life than any MCU episode. Seriously, with the success of Joker and the polish of The Batman, I can’t wait to see what’s announced next.

Story Rating: 8/10

Character Rating: 7/10

Entertainment Rating: 9/10