Review of The Batman (2022) by Jluis_001 — 04 Mar 2022

The hype is huge. On the one hand this is due to the ambition of what Matt Reeves has shown so far of his vision, and on the other it's due to those looking to judge Robert Pattinson and his interpretation of such an iconic character. And did The Batman deliver?

I believe it did. Starting with the dark and noir tone and also its touch of Zodiac and Se7en, The Batman makes its identity clear.

This is a Gotham rotting in its own decay of police and political corruption, while the gangsters control everything under the shadows.

It has been mentioned countless times that we're seeing a young and still naive Batman, and while that is integral to the plot, the overall approach is to show the character as the detective, not the superhero. Something that not even Christopher Nolan himself knew how to explore. Robert Pattinson in my opinion does the job and presents a more than solid Batman. His Bruce Wayne appears very little and that one is nothing special. Zoë Kravitz was good, but she doesn't do anything special. At least she takes a more active role than Anne Hathaway did.

Paul Dano perhaps plays too much the prototypical psycho villain that's smarter than the hero, but Dano is too good an actor to fall into that hole and manages to make a notable impression as the Riddler. Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Andy Serkis and Colin Farrell make up the rest of the characters who have more weight on screen and all of them do a fine job, with a special mention for Farrell who's completely unrecognizable behind that makeup and who can become an excellent villain in the planned sequels if given more to do. I don't know what plans DC and Warner have for their future cinematic universe, and with this film, they'll be under even more pressure because even though the events of The Batman are set in another universe, its style, tone, atmosphere and above all quality, completely set it apart from anything the studio has been doing since Man of Steel. Many may be fooled, but Batman is the flagship of both companies and is the one who has kept them in the game.

So much so that even The Flash will have two Batmans present, and DC Comics has the market saturated with comics of the character and his allies. Here they are starting over with him and I was very happy with what I saw, and I'm more than excited to see what's next with Reeves and this cast at the helm. And as a small recommendation, if you can see it in IMAX, do it.

The sound and images there are mind-blowing.