Review of The Batman (2022) by Moviepetepod — 09 Mar 2022

The Batman is a movie that claims to revolutionize big-screen adaptations of the classic character, but fails in almost every way.

The cinematography and music/score are amazing, but every other aspect of this movie left me wanting.

Batman is a moody like a teenager, and clearly is supposed to learn a lesson about what he represents to the city of Gotham. But that lesson is completely unearned by the end of the film, and in fact his character is almost superfluous to the heroic climax.

Zoe Kravitz tries to deliver an intriguing Catwoman, but the writing leaves her as a damsel in distress multiple times, and the super-flawed Batman is constantly taking the moral high ground with her and talking down to her.

Colin Ferrell's Penguin was a high point for his performance and humor, but underused as just a secondary villain.

The plot is plodding and overly-long. Upon my second watch of the movie, I found myself drifting off to sleep often in the first half. Knowing what happens next, I lost all interest in the mystery because it is delivered in an unexciting manner. The Riddler is the main antagonist for awhile, but then disappears from the movie and is replaced with a string of other threats before becoming just another item to be checked off the list by the end.

The action is well choreographed, but just like other DCEU films, there is a swath of collateral damage that is far too apparent to be ignored as it is. Batman is just as destructive at the end of the film as he is at the beginning, leaving one to wonder what the lesson is to be learned here.

On a related note, the movie does touch upon current issues such as corruption and greed in politics and government, but then has a very regressive take on the mentally ill and the drug epidemic. The themes presented here are muddled and presented in a slap-dash manner that makes little sense.

Overall, I found the movie boring, regressive, and without meaningful themes.