The Batman

SPOILER FREE “The Batman” gives us such a raw and refreshing take on the titular character in a way we have never seen on the big screen before. Finally, we get to see the detective side of the dark knight and it works so well in the atmosphere of a year 2 setting, as Bruce is still not the gadget master we see in Nolan’s trilogy, giving us a very grounded and inexperienced Batman. The story is very compelling and keeps drawing the viewer back in, making great use of its almost 3 hour runtime so that it doesn’t drain you. The fight scenes were shot very well, without the quick changes in camera angle, letting the viewer see the fight in almost one continuous shot which makes for heavy hitting scenes, it makes it feel like a real fight, huge props to Reeves and the cinematographer to that. Performances from kravitz and dano were standouts, as catwoman’s personal motives and her relationship with the bat adds a nice factor to the story. Dano really feels like a sadistic serial killer, not like any iteration of the riddler we’ve seen. He is brutal, psychotic, and brilliant in his planning, and his plan and motives makes sense which is so important for a villain. That was one of my biggest worries going into the film, that the riddler would be made out to be some one dimensional bad guy with no real story to him but I was thankfully proven wrong. We see a lot more of Jeffrey Wright’s Gordon in the movie than anticipated, which by all means is not a bad thing. His working relationship with Batman as they both try to solve the cases is thrilling to watch for me, as we have never really had a full team up in the movies between the two characters and it was about time we did get to see them being detectives together. I almost forgot, one of the best portrayals in the movie is easily Collin Farrell as Penguin. His transformation to become this character we see on screen is just incredible. If I was not told that that was Collin Farrell, I would have never known. The performance he gave blew me away. The (few) problems I had with the film are mainly just personal gripes. First off, I love Pattinson as Batman. He did a phenomenal job of being this young, gritty, vengeful detective and vigilante. Although, I liked his Bruce Wayne, but didn’t love it. I understand that he’s still a very young Bruce, and as far as we know, he hasn’t trained under Ra’s yet and doesn’t have Lucius building tech for him, but he doesn’t feel the way Bruce should. I can’t use this as too much of a criticism because it’s young and immature Bruce but he doesn’t feel like the billionaire playboy Bruce is supposed to be. We never see a scene where he is cleaned up, looking sharp, or doing anything with Wayne enterprise. I wish we saw a bit more of a dark but cleaner Bruce than the depressed sad one we got, that’s just a personal preference. My next problem is with Alfred. Don’t be mad, I loved Andy Serkis as Pennyworth, but he had very little screen time. Like, veryyyy little and alfred is supposed to be such a viral part to Bruce and Batman. I feel like we needed to see more of him, guiding Bruce to be better more than we did, and helping Batman. My last problem with the movie, and even though I praised the way they did this, is the length. At almost 3 hours, this can pull some people out of the movie and it drains them. There is some filler scenes that could’ve either been cut or replaced with something more vital like alfred scenes or a bit of insight into year 1 maybe. The runtime of the movie can also affect rewatches at home, as it may drag on longer in a setting that isn’t an imax theatre.  An idea I was thinking about because of a plot point that happened involving the Wayne’s, is for the sequel (I believe a sequel is imminent, based on the setup tease scene when the riddler is in jail at the end), I see the best direction to go is to go for a trilogy, with the next movie being adaptation of both the court of owls with some Arkham city thrown in there, and the third movie being a bit of the killing joke and a bit of phantasm or subzero. Overall, “The Batman” in my opinion is the most faithful adaptation of the character ever, the most thrilling set pieces and has some of the most engaging characters. The goods outweigh the very minuscule bads, and the length personally does not bother me as I found the pacing very well done. If you were unsure about this movie and about Pattinson being able to pull it off, I highly suggest you go to see this (in imax if possible) to have your expectations blown away. Final Score: 92/100