Review of The Batman (2022) by Dawsonvanb1028 — 04 Mar 2022

It’s been a while since I’ve had this level of anticipation for a movie, and The Batman delivered. I’m actually surprised with how dark this movie is. I knew it would definitely be more serious going in.

But at times this feels like a horror film. It’s a gritty detective noir thriller that feels like it takes elements of Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, and Zodiac, and mixes them with the world of Gotham, and character of Batman.

This is definitely the most “detective” focused the character has felt. A lot of the movie is him working to crack riddles and uncover the truth about Gotham, all while trying to put an end to the Riddler.

Robert Pattinson does a great job here. I would’ve liked to have seen more of his Bruce Wayne, as there’s only a few scenes of him as the character. But he gives us a super intimidating Batman. I love the design of the suit, and his calm, quiet voice may be my favourite the character has had in live action.

Paul Dano kills it as the riddler. He is genuinely the most terrifying villain I’ve seen in a comic book movie. His first scene tells you all you need to know. While his role may be more of a behind the scenes one, with most of his appearances being audio, or video calls, his kills it with the voice and eyes.

His performance definitely stole the show for me. Zoe Kravitz does a solid job as Selina Kyle here. They didn’t focus on the romance as much as I thought, and I didn’t entirely feel the chemistry between them, which is odd considering how they seem to get along in interviews.

But off all the versions we’ve had of the character on screen, hers is by far the deepest. With quite an interesting backstory to tell. Penguin is pretty great in the movie. The makeup on him is insane, and he definitely feels like a different person entirely.

The film has next to no humour, or joyful moments. But any of the ones there come from him. Gordon is played very well here. I really liked his dynamic with Batman. And he has a great amount of screen time.

Alfred is the only character I was a little disappointed with. He’s hardly in the movie, and I felt like he should’ve had an extra scene at the end. He sort of just leaves the film. But I did like where him and Bruce’s relationship went.

Back to the story, I really liked the way they tackled everything here. It’s an intriguing plot, with a lot of mystery, and while there’s not necessarily any massive reveals that blew my mind, I thought it was told very well.

Riddler is just so damn intimidating in this. His traps felt like they were from saw, and some scenes definitely had me on edge and honestly creeped out. There’s not a ton of action, but when it’s there, it’s really well handled.

The hand to hand fights are quick and precise. Their well shot and edited, so it’s never messy, but Batman is just fast at taking down criminals which I really liked. The batmobile chase in this is definitely the highlight, the sound shook the whole room and I was smiling the whole time.

I’ve heard some complaints about the final act. But none of the reviews really pinpointed their issue with it. It’s definitely more action oriented than the first two, but in no way did it feel out of place for me.

I thought it deserved and well executed. There was a few times where the movie feels like it’s gonna end, but it doesn’t. Not really a big problem though, just something that I felt. Overall it’s great.

I can’t wait to rewatch it. I actually had a kind of **** experience for the first 30 or so minutes. The people in front of me were laughing and talking the second the film started, but they quickly shut up.

The people behind me though were so goddamn loud with their food, it annoyed the absolute **** out of me. EDIT: Saw it a second time, loved it even more.