Review of The Batman (2022) by Xaliber — 20 Mar 2022

A potentially great film being held hostage by its PG-13 rating and its messy, all over the places screenwriting. By PG-13 I don't simply mean its visuals/goriness, but most importantly its dialogues, themes, and storytelling it tries to raise.

First, the dialogues. We get a glimpse of noir, but it soon falls flat due to a very uninteresting, plain, forgettable choice of words Batman used in his narration. Mind you, this is not a jab at Pattinson. But there is no emotion in his line of words. Batman in this film mutters words that are always very safe, very carefully chosen, which strikes as an odd contrast to Pattinson's tortured portrayal of Batman as someone with a seemingly pent up anger. His choice of words is very PG-13 so that the kids can understand what Batman is trying to convey.

Second, the storytelling. Despite being a film about vengeance-fueled Batman, we don't get to see him actually being in full "vengeance" mode. Batman's actions look very much apprehensive and controlled. Nothing too outrageous. Again, at odds with Pattinson's portrayal that seem to be full of anger; he's supposed to be really angry but somehow he still does not let his anger take the best of him.

Last, the depiction/visuals. I'm not speaking about cinematography (which is great), but how the scenes are depicted. The film sets this up as a film about hunting down a serial killer. But the film barely shows how cruel The Riddler can be to his victims. I'm not saying this film is terrible. The acting, given the limited script they had, is excellent. Pattinson did his best, so did Paul Dano (always likes him as a villain), Zoe Kravitz, and the rest. Cinematography is fantastic; the lighting, angle, everything here is very great that makes a couple of very good trailers - perhaps one could even say that the whole film trades off coherency for making the scenes "trailer-able". The music is iconic, although with an almost decent music directing. And I guess this detective Batman is a fresh breath of air.

But all that does not make the movie good as in the end it's still all over the places and very PG-13. Especially not with the 3 hours runtime where many scenes feel like a The Walking Dead filler episode.

If you're expecting a Batman film with similar gritty, tone to The Dark Knight trilogy or Joker, this film is not for you. But if you only want a live-action cartoon, I guess you can be satisfied with this one.