A couple of years ago, Ben Affleck posted a tweet confirming incredible Matt Reeves as the director of his Batman movie called “The Batman”. Ben talked about having difficulty writing, starring in and directing the film so Matt Reeves was going to help with some of that. Unfortunately, Ben would later leave the project and Matt would then start work on directing the film himself with a new actor and set in its own universe. After a while, Robert Pattinson would be chosen to play the dark knight in Reeves film and after long time of split opinions from fans on the casting, we’ve finally arrived at the premiere of the Batman which was initially slated to release last year.
I saw The Batman yesterday with some of the biggest DC fans I know, like me, they’ve been going crazy counting down the release of this film, the hype has been incredible. I read reviews online and the majority called The Batman a masterpiece with some calling it the best superhero film ever and so, I went on a two hour journey to the theatre close to me feeling incredibly hyped up.
If you haven’t seen The Batman, I’d advise you stop reading from this point because I’ll try to articulate my thoughts on the film and that’ll probably include spoilers. You can skip to the ending to see my final verdict if you haven’t seen the film but still want to know my thoughts on it.
So, The Batman takes place two years into the crime fighter’s vigilante life, he’s not even known exactly as The Batman yet. He’s mostly referred to as “Vengance” which is fitting because his brand of justice is bringing the pain to the criminal world of Gotham. The film has Bruce read from his journals which I found really cool and which he uses to write his thoughts as well as take notes for his detective work. Speaking of Detective work, this is easily the most detective inclined Batman film ever made. It feels like a crime noir film with different puzzles, characters and even shocking things, I wouldn’t necessarily call them twists but they’re some interesting places the film decides to go to and for the most part, I loved that they explored these places because they haven’t been touched in Batman cinema before.
The premise of the film is, a new killer is in town and he seems to be going after the corrupt elite in Gotham and he also has an obsession with Batman (yes Batman, not Vengeance) and leaves notes for him at the scene of each crime. This new killer believes he and Batman are one in the same and this brings up a lot of interesting questions and answers as the film progresses.
One of the many highlights of this film is the city of Gotham itself. I think it’s the best live action Gotham we’ve seen and it truly feels disgusting and sinful. They use this to kind of hammer the message of Batman’s fight being a pointless one which he’ll eventually loose and so it makes it feel even more hopeful seeing him try to persevere even though he himself doubts his city.
The GCPD in this feels brilliant, the cops who get time to speak feel like real flawed human beings even Gordon is no exception. Jeffrey Wright is my new favorite Gordon, he’s charming, tired, very trusting of Batman and also a very good detective which is something we never really see in live action asides the Fox show Gotham. His relationship with the very emo recluse Batman is really fun to watch, the both of them have great chemistry and really do trust each other even though on paper they shouldn’t.
More on Gotham, everybody here is just doing their own thing, they’re all living life and it doesn’t feel like the film is trying to do origin stories for the main players. I mean, we do get background info on a lot of them but it feels very natural and not like “oh, the Batman did this and that’s why this person is like this” kind of thing, I don’t know if that makes sense. Essentially what I’m trying to say is, every major character (and even side characters) in this feel like real people.
The film has a lot of strong performances from Robert, Zoëy, Paul, Collin, Jeffrey and Andy. I thought everybody played their parts in the script really well and while this shouldn’t be a big deal, it is, more so in this age of cinema where a lot of actors just phone it in for comic book movies just to get the check. The actors here clearly cared and did their very best. Before I finish, I’ll like to do a quick ranking of my favorite characters from least to best and why I liked them.
6. Andy Serkis as Alfred:
Andy Serkis is one of the greatest acting performers of our generation and he has history in lord of the rings as well as working with director Matt Reeves in the last two apes film but, his Alfred just didn’t do it for me here. He wasn’t bad or anything but, I just felt his relationship with Bruce and their connection wasn’t as good as previous iterations of Bruce and Alfred. I think part of this is due to his limited screen time in the film but then again, I’ve seen films where characters go with all out with less screen time. I still want to see more from him because I know he’s great
5. Paul Dano as The Riddler:
I think it speaks volumes for this movie for me to put him as number five considering how crazy good he was in this movie. He plays the riddler as a recluse psychopath with child like tendencies. There’s so many great things to say about this performance and even though towards the ending it became shaky, it still made sense because, he has a child like mind, he’s been obsessing over getting vengeance since he was little kid and so his outbursts and tantrums makes sense and are genuinely terrifying and tense. Overall, it was a great villainous performance by Paul.
4. Robert Pattinson as The Batman:
Okay, okay, don’t kill me, before I proceed, I freaking love Robert. He’s a great actor and his performance in Good Time is one of the greatest performances I’ve seen in my life. I wasn’t really on the hate train with his casting and I think the only thing I nagged about a bit was his suit when they did the costume reveal but, I was hyped to see what he’d do. I still think he’s an amazing actor and he gives a truly realistic and layered performance and while I do see him becoming THE BATMAN, for now, I don’t think he’s there yet.
There’s a lot I loved about his iteration like him keeping journals to remember stuff from his nights to him just being a real detective but, I don’t know, something was missing, he just didn’t fully feel like The Batman yet and, i think that might be intentional with the way the ending sets up the future movies and boy, what an awesome ending that was! His Bruce Wayne personally wasn’t for me but again, I understand that he hasn’t started becoming the man he’s meant to be. There’s a particular scene where he tries to force a smile but just couldn’t, I thought that was brilliant and showed how he really feels repulsed by pretending during the day. Robert is really great in this though, the shots with his eyes in the mask are just so good and the parallels with him and the mayors son were small but really powerful to me. I think seeing Jeffrey Wright talk about how Robert feels like two different people really set the bar high for me and that’s why I may have felt slightly disappointed. My favorite scene where I thought his acting was incredible was where he talked to the Riddler.
3. Jeffrey Wright as Gordon:
Like I said earlier, this is my new favorite Gordon. I love absolutely everything about him, he feels tired, he wants to the right thing, he struggles but at the same time he always tries to do the right thing even though a part of him knows there might be no point in trying. I also like how he makes Batman know that even though they’re partnering, they clearly have different approach to things like guns for example. I just thought it was a brilliant performance and I truly felt heart warmed by how he and Batman really do feel like friends. I wonder if they’ll explore darker storylines like him cheating on his wife down the line cause I feel that could be something Batman warns him about.
2. Collin Farrell as Penguin/Oz:
I don’t even need to say much, I knew he’d kill it but boy did he kill it. It’s crazy how he’s not even American, the make up department also went crazy with his look, what a total transformation. Penguin is such a freaking cool character in this, he’s sneaky, bad, deadly and also really really smart for a guy who likes to act dumb. I hear he’s getting a miniseries and I truly would like to watch that. He also serves as comic relief in this film and he’s genuinely funny in it, nothing feels forced.
1. Zoëy Kravitz as Catwoman:
I personally think she was the best character in the film, she surprisingly plays a bigger part in this film than I expected and has a pivotal part of Long Halloween adapted here. Her performance was great, she was sexy, bold, intelligent and broken. You get to see her life, what drives her, how she thinks and how she’s different from Bruce. I also did think she and Robert had great chemistry together. Overall, she easily has the best Catwoman performance and actresses like Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry and Michelle Pfeifer have all had a shot at the role.
Honorable mention would be John Turturro as Carmine Falcone,I loved him so freaking much.
Even on a technical level The Batman is awesome, the cinematography is phenomenal and the musical score is just glorious. The costuming and sound design are also so good, especially the sound design, every bullet is heard, every punch is felt, it just feels so so good. Also Director Matt Reeves talked about being inspired by Kurt Cobain and I loved the way Something in the Way was used in this film, I kept on singing it when it came on.
In Summary, The Batman was an absolute blast and while it isn’t without its issue I thought it was a very good film. So good that I wouldn’t be surprised if it got a couple of Oscar nominations. I will say this though, don’t go in with insane expectations, I do still think it’s the best Batman film but I didn’t think it was a masterpiece even though I really wanted it to be. It’s a Solid 8/10 or arguably even 9/10.
Oh I might do a longer discussion on my podcast so look out for that!
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