The Batman
I saw The Batman opening night and my rating out of 10 was 5.5. Seeing it a second time my score is still 5.5 out of 10. The director / writer / producer Matt Reeves’ stylistic influences for the film are Kurt Cobain / Nirvana’s song “Something in the Way”, Taxi Driver, The French Connection, Klute, and the comic Batman: Year One. Based on the trailer and these aesthetic influences I expected to see a transgressive, gritty Batman film for the first time. Unfortunately, I was deflated, after all the buildup for The Batman, it ended up just being another bloated commercial studio film.
In this iteration, Batman / Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) is in his second year as the masked vigilante. Gotham is a cesspool of drugs, violence, and corruption. Addicted to vengeance over the murder of his parents he has become a creature of the night hunting criminals. His whole life and purpose have become taken over to fighting crime. As a Zodiac type serial killer, the Riddler, (Paul Dano) begins murdering various city officials and leaving cryptic riddles for Batman, forces him into a dangerous game to solve the case with Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright). Evidence leads Batman into the underworld of Gotham’s most notorious mobsters’ operations, Oz / The Penguin (Colin Farrell) and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) where he meets Selina Kyle / Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), and the two team up together to uncover the truth that will make Batman confront the reality of his family’s legacy.
Robert Pattinson delivered as the masked crusader in both his acting and physicality. But the dialogue and situations he was in were too cliché emo at times – like the hair in his face with black eye makeup smeared all over, and him arguing with Alfred that he isn’t his father.
Yes, there were aspects I loved and impressed by such as the Riddler, the badass bat-mobile and updated cave. The production design and Greig Fraser’s cinematography blew me away. Forget listing produced by in the marketing on trailers, I don’t care the genre or plot I am seeing the next movie he DP’s.
The Batman did an amazing job at modernizing the Riddler by making him realistic in the costume design, the sadistic nature of the murders, and also the motive that echoes an anger across the US, of people feeling like government programs have left them behind. Along with the financial disparities in our culture right now. Despite the relatability, it didn’t make sense that the Riddler’s chaotic upbringing at an orphanage would serve as the sole motivator for his heinous crimes. It didn’t feel personal enough either.
A major problem in the film is the Riddler is a realistic sadistic serial killer, and then we are intermittently cutting to the mob side of the story that was cliché and cheesy. If you’re going to do a hard transgressive aesthetic with the Riddler then you have to do it with every villain. John Turturro was wrong casting for Carmine Falcone. He was constantly out of place and a safe casting choice. Oz / The Penguin is ridiculous with the comedy within his scenes that added an additional layer to the cheesiness.
Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman wasn’t consistent in her performance. I believed her in some moments and her fight scenes were great. But when her character switches to a more sexual motivation towards Batman it fell apart. There wasn’t any chemistry between Zoe and Robert which made scenes at times underwhelming.
It is worth seeing once in the theaters for the production value. Hopefully the next installment is tighter in story, casting, and length.
The Batman is still playing in theaters.