The Batman

With the announcements of the castings for Part II, and A levels currently making me lose my sanity like Edward in Arkham, I thought now would be a good time to revisit this on my new sexy 4k disc (note: as I’m writing this review I’m listening to Prince’s ‘89 Batman album, as god intended) To keep a very long story short, and because I’ve said this on just about every other review platform I post on, I adore Batman. He's been my favourite fictional character for as long as I can remember. He was very formative and important to me. He was the reason I got into movies, comics, shows, video games, and stories in general. His stories are continually moving and fascinating examinations of grief, responsibility, rehabilitation, empathy, family, and so much more. For a long time, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight was my favourite movie. It wasn’t until I got older and became more familiar with the character that I started to see its flaws as an adaptation specifically. Then there was Zach Snyder and Joss Whedon, who we don’t need to talk about. Even stretching back to the Burton films, it felt like we never got a proper, faithful adaptation of the character and the world of Batman comics. The only reason I don't mention the Adam West 60’s movie and show is because that was from a very different time for Batman comics. Then came along Matt Reeves. I remember counting down the days til DC Fandome for the first official teaser. I remember seeing the teaser for the first time, losing my mind. I joined a comics socials app right after, just so I could talk about it. I showed it to all my family and friends that I could. And I rewatched that teaser pretty much religiously. The hype going into it was astronomical for me; it looked like my perfect Batman, everything. The music, the costumes, the production design, the dialogue. That grit, that neon-noir. Batman being an actual detective. Finally! And the Batmobile. Forget it. And that first watch in the cinema, blagging my way in because I wasn’t 15 yet at the time, was easily the best cinema experience I’ve ever had, and will probably ever have in my life. Transcendental. Absolutely blown away, transfixed, in awe, the entire three hours. Everything I had obsessed over in the promotional was there, and even more. And still, every time I watch it, my appreciation for it grows. I almost cannot believe this exists. This is easily the most knowledgeable, loving, and embracing adaptation of the source material that we have ever gotten, outside of the 90s animated series. And so self-aware. It’s dark, and it’s mature, having much more in common with Fincher crime dramas than Marvel movies. But it’s also campy, and it knows it. The repeated use of “vengeance”, the jokes, the twins gag, Batman running down the scaffolding near the end, referencing the Adam West 60s series, using the grapple hook to walk up buildings. People calling this just another overly grounded and realistic portrayal of Batman are just incorrect, I’m sorry. The city of Gotham doesn’t feel like any real-life US city; it’s exaggerated, it’s stylised. It feels like a fantastical, living and breathing place, as it should. Not just Chicago, like in the Nolan movies. And they really do know their shit here. I am still so stunned, especially with Pattinson, how much they reference in terms of the books. There are the obvious ones like Year One and Long Halloween. But there’s also Shaman, Gothic, Dark Victory, Zero Year, Ego, Arkham Asylum, Catwoman: When In Rome, Catwoman of East End, and more. These guys know their shit, they care, and they actually understand these stories. Why they’re important. Why they resonate. Why they’re so effective. And you can see it in just about every element of the film, as I mentioned before, the cinematography, the production design, the costumes, the performances, the music, all show such a deep care and love that is so rare and amazing to see. This movie is made by artists, creative voices, who are obsessed with Batman. Now this is kind of a tangent, but this is something I keep seeing people say, and it infuriates me every time, so here we go. Batman in this movie is not the world’s greatest detective. But he doesn’t need to be, and to me, the title of “world’s greatest detective” is something I never really liked that much. It’s kind of a fun title, but I only ever actually like it in practice when he’s in team scenarios like the Justice League. Batman being this almost omniscient, super genius, who can solve any issue with prep time, is not very interesting to me (the prep time argument being another thing that annoys me beyond belief). If you read just about any of the best Batman stories that focus on him being a detective, you’ll know he fucks up all the time. In The Long Halloween, one of his most iconic and beloved stories, and probably the most famous detective-centric Batman story, he never catches or figures out who the primary antagonist (the Holiday Killer) is. In this film, he is especially flawed with his detective work as the film progresses, but I think beyond it, keeping the story engaging and tense, emphasising just how much of a threat Riddler is, it also makes a lot of sense. He is only two years into his career as Batman. Through many of the scenes, both in and out of the costume, we can see he’s not really doing the crime-fighting thing right, not like we’ve seen in prior iterations. He’s naive, he’s misguided, he’s arrogant, and he doesn’t fully understand Gotham like he thinks he does. And something that I came across that I never thought about is how his background and class influences his observations. Unlike Edward, who obviously comes from a very poor, deprived background, Bruce comes from privilege and riches. And so in the scene where Bruce finally realises that the tool he found can be used to pull up the carpet to reveal the final clue, it’s because he’s not used to using manual tools such as that, because of his privilege. Now I could go into exhaustive detail about every single thing in this film; if I wanted to, I could probably analyse every shot and line of dialogue. But this review is already so long. So I’m just going to give a bunch of my other favourite details and aspects of the film in short(ish) little bits: -We don’t retread his origin because we don’t need to. Instead, Reeves tells you all you need to know in one glance, as Bruce looks at the mayor’s son. That one moment so simply and effectively summarises the tragedy of his character. I get teary-eyed every time I see it. -Adore the lack of distinction between Bruce and Batman for this early year story. Here, Bruce seems more like a shadow of his Batman persona, a quivering and weak reflection without the comfort and safety of his costume. He’s an addict. A shell of a human being. With an aversion to sunlight, to human interaction, and to washing his hair by the looks of it. Still hot as fuck though (and Pattinson’s physique is perfect for the character, not too bulky, just perfect). -Pattinson does so much with his eyes, acting as windows into his soul, prevents him from constantly having to narrate to the audience or exposit how he’s feeling. -Love the adaptation of Year One as Bruce takes on an undercover role, roaming the streets, acting as a watcher. -The few bits of narration in the film are incredible, give me goosebumps every time, must have watched the opening like a million times, feels ripped directly from the page. -Batman gets to be a legitimately eerie and intimidating presence. -Music is so perfect, my definitive theme for the character, as well as just about every other character in the film, encapsulates everyone and all their tiny little facets so well. It’s the score I listen to most often when reading Batman. There are analyses online that will tell you better than I can. -Kravitz’s Catwoman blows Hathaway’s out of the water, and is (surprise) perfect. -Dano’s Riddler is still all kinds of terrifying, a very different take on the character, and despite Riddler being amongst my favourite Batman rogues, I love this take a lot. -The way Bruce is shown to be using what seem like the same binoculars as Edward in the opening scene is a great detail to show how similar the two are. -Love the design of the tech, very simple again, but effective -The detail of the unnamed man at the funeral, possibly Joe Chill, dope as hell, another one that gives me goosebumps. -The shot perched on the back of the Batmobile in the chase scene gets me so fucking pumped (also applies to that entire scene, generational) -The action is legitimately amazing; anyone arguing about whether this is better than the Nolan movies has to at least concede on that. -(Deleted scene, but whatever) Really like the Joker’s positioning as Batman’s Hannibal Lecter, or like LH’s Calendar Man. Someone who clearly has a history with Batman, but is never explicitly stated. Someone who is intelligent, who offers insights into the criminal element that Batman struggles to understand himself at this point in his career. Also implies Batman’s compassion for his rogues, a key tenet of his character. It expands on Bruce’s character and what he’s been up to the last two years as Batman, expands on the world, and makes the ending scene better and make more sense. Still a pretty bad ending scene though. Again, there is so much more I could talk about here. I do have a few issues with it, but they are so minor it doesn’t detract from my score, and it doesn’t harm the character representations for me. A well-earned three-hour epic that flies by every time. One I’ll revisit probably another hundred times. Easily one of the best comic adaptations ever, one that somehow makes me love the character and world of Batman even more. And to briefly touch on the trajectory of this franchise. I have mixed views on including Robin in this franchise, just because I think it’s a more difficult thing to do than people realise. And this is coming from someone who loves what Robin represents in the mythos, and adores Dick Grayson and Tim Drake Robin, and holds B&R:Year One as one of my favourites. But if you’re going to do it, put him in the third one, not the second. I’d follow the same structure as Loeb and Sale did, introducing Dick halfway through the latter part of the story (Dark Victory, in this case the third film). I need more time with Pattinson in his solo era. Start to introduce more of the duality between Bruce and Batman, don’t have it be immediate because that would be jarring and dissatisfying, but it needs to happen. Have Alfred be more prevalent in the story, especially if you’re going to focus on Bruce coming out of his shell. Maintain the horror aspects, in some form. Don’t have Joker as your villain, in any of them. That’s about it. I mostly do trust this team. And I think with what Part II is looking like, it has a lot of potential. A story about Bruce opening up, forming new relationships in Harvey Dent, only for it to sour and blow up in his face (possibly quite literally), is brilliant. And set around Winter, the holiday season, maybe? A time of connection, of family. It’s perfect. Also, Matt Reeves, please bring back the cancelled Arkham show. A psychological, horror, mystery show, inspired by A Serious House on Serious Earth. And you could have Gordon be the main character, maybe having to recruit the help of Edward or some of the other prisoners. The potential is off the scales. I neeeeeeeeeeeed!