After Christopher Nolan’s fabulous trilogy of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises, I was sure we wouldn’t see The Caped Crusader in a standalone film for a long time. Nolan’s series was pure perfection. Whichever director attempted to bring, arguably, the most storied superhero in comic book history was already behind the eight-ball before a script was even imagined. With its 29% Rotten Tomatoes score, 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was far from what we all hoped it would be. 2017’s Justice League (39%, 68%) didn’t help much. However, However, Zach Snyder’s 2001 director’s cut, while chalking in at over four hours, faired much better (71%, 94%). Matt Reeves’s (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Cloverfield) The Batman is a darker, more mysterious take and is the perfect movie to bring the iconic superhero back to the big screen in his own story.
Reeves’s movie feels more like Se7en, Zodiac, or The Bone Collector than it does Nolan’s character, which was as much a character study as a vigilante. The plot of The Batman revolves around Riddler (Paul Dano – The Fabelmans, Love & Mercy), a serial killer targeting Gotham City officials, including Mayor Don Mitchell Jr (Rupert Penry-Jones – Hilary and Jackie, Match Point), Commissioner Pete Savage (Alex Ferns), and District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard – An Education, Blue Jasmine). Riddler’s motives are distinct. They begin with Mayor Mitchell, whom Riddler chose to expose the cover-up behind a drug bust and arrest of mafia leader Salvatore Maroni, one which Mitchell helped steer. It was one of Mitchell’s unethical agreements that helped him become mayor.
Mitchell’s killings begin a series of murders, each with a riddle that will help a recruited Batman (Robert Pattinson – The Lost City of Z, The Lighthouse)and Commissioner Gordon (Jeffrey Wright – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, The Ides of March) to Riddler’s next target and watching, with great pleasure, as the pair decipher the clues too late. Along the way, Batman and Gordon track down potential assailants, including /Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin, The Lobster), who denies any wrongdoing but whose introduction, if nothing else, sets us up for the next part of this new franchise.
Both the tone and the mood of The Batman are done in a way that we haven’t seen before in a film of this caliber. Of course, we’ve seen darker, more mysterious themes in films of lesser-known superhero movies. But for a DC Universe or Marvell Universe movie, this is new. For a filmgoer who is tired of cookie-cutter Marvell Universe films. While I love the Iron Man franchise, a considerable part of this was because it was the first of its kind. Since then, we’ve had origin films on Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and more. While most of these films are good as standalone films, if you’ve seen one of these, you’ve seen them alone.
Meanwhile, films of the DC Universe (Venom, Black Adam, Man of Steel, Green Lantern, Suicide Squad, Justice League, etc.) are nearly unwatchable. Even the better films, such as Wonder Woman or Aquaman, offer nothing that truly feels original. Batman movies have traditionally been the bread and butter of the DC Universe, with The Batman being the eighth movie since 1989 that revolves solely around this character. While not Nolan’s version of Batman, Reeves’s darker version of the superhero genre feels like a breath of fresh air when compared to anything other than Nolan’s trilogy.
Plot 9/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 7/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 8.5/10
85%
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