The DC Extended Universe didn't pan out quite the way that Warner Bros. or franchise creator Zack Snyder had envisioned. One area that was widely criticised was the series’ interpretation of Batman (portrayed by Ben Affleck), with some adoring his performance but most utterly loathing it. As such, the planned Affleck Batman solo film ultimately never came to pass, mostly because Affleck (who was also set to direct the film) encountered creative differences with WB, who following the underwhelming response to 2017's Justice League got cold feet with the DCEU in general. The Batman would linger in development limbo for some time until Cloverfield and Dawn/War For The Planet of the Apes reboot director Matt Reeves came into the picture, but rather than wanting to take on Affleck’s script, he wanted to do his own thing with the property. With the DCEU fading in public interest DC were willing to let Reeves do just that, the result of which was considerably darker in tone than any prior Batman film…now it’s here, was The Batman worth the wait?
Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has been protector of Gotham City for almost two years using his signature brand of fear to keep Gotham’s many criminals under control. When a string of Gotham’s elite begin turning up dead, killed by a crazed serial killer who refers to himself as The Riddler (Paul Dano). Batman must follow Riddler’s clues and with the help of GCPD Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and burglar Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) piece together a conspiracy that will expose just how poisoned and beyond saving Gotham truly is.
Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has been protector of Gotham City for almost two years using his signature brand of fear to keep Gotham’s many criminals under control. When a string of Gotham’s elite begin turning up dead, killed by a crazed serial killer who refers to himself as The Riddler (Paul Dano). Batman must follow Riddler’s clues and with the help of GCPD Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and burglar Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) piece together a conspiracy that will expose just how poisoned and beyond saving Gotham truly is.
If I needed to sum The Batman up in a single word, it would be ‘intense’. Honestly, from the moment the opening titles appeared until the moment the credits rolled; I was gripped with a kind of exhilarated terror that I have never experienced from a comic book film before. I found it extremely reminiscent of the David Fincher film Seven (which I do believe is the kind of tone Reeves was going for), which for those of you unfamiliar with the film, it’s incredibly dark, extremely sinister, and has so much tension all the time that you’re exhausted once it’s over. By the time I walked out of The Batman I was drained, and that’s not a reflection on the runtime of the film, but it just took everything from me and I loved that.
This version of the character of Bruce Wayne is completely unlike any we’ve seen on the big screen before, and whilst comparisons have certainly been made to the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy in the lead up to The Batman releasing, this version of Bruce Wayne is absolutely nothing like Christian Bale’s portrayal of the character. Pattinson’s Bruce is extremely depressive and gloomy, despite his parents dying the best part of twenty years ago he still mourns them like they were only just taken from him, and his entire reason for being The Batman is to exact vengeance on behalf of his father whom he idolises as an infallible beacon of all that is good in the world. Where Bale’s Bruce was out at parties socialising with Gotham’s rich and famous to keep up appearances, nobody has seen Pattinson’s Bruce in a very long time and the few moments he does make public appearances in this film it’s a major deal for the people of Gotham who see him as some terrifying recluse.
His Batman is also still new to this whole crime fighting thing. Whilst this is no origin story, there’s this conflict inside his head where he recognises that what he’s doing isn’t actually helping Gotham and that if he continues down this dark path he will be no better than those he is fighting against, but he doesn’t know how to distinguish the difference between being the hero Gotham needs, and the one he thinks they need.
He's also a proper detective in this film. Something a lot of adaptations of the character, live action or otherwise, often seem to forget that Batman’s whole shtick in the comics is that he’s a detective. I loved the way he investigates crime scenes, almost like a Sherlock Holmes that’s listened to one too many My Chemical Romance albums.
Pattinson is excellent in the role too. For a long time he’s been on a career correction trajectory following the Twilight Saga to prove that he’s not only a very good actor, but that he can do any kind of role thrown at him. Batman is arguably the closest he has gone back in the direction of Twilight, and I feel he absolutely recognises that and uses it to make a point. To quote Mark Kermode, this iteration of Batman is basically a vampire; he only goes out at night, he’s incredibly violent and physically powerful, he’s extremely gothic in his appearance, and his entire being is generally stoic. Pattinson doesn’t actually have an awful lot of lines in the film considering he is the leading actor, but the way he says so much with his face and how he moves through the environment, just like he did in Twilight...but this time he's considerably more experienced and it's being directed by someone who cares about that kind of minutiae. There’s a particular scene that takes place at a funeral where he doesn’t say a word but his performance is just so incredibly poetic, and it was at that exact moment that I knew Pattinson is potentially the best live-action Batman we’ve ever seen.
This version of the character of Bruce Wayne is completely unlike any we’ve seen on the big screen before, and whilst comparisons have certainly been made to the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy in the lead up to The Batman releasing, this version of Bruce Wayne is absolutely nothing like Christian Bale’s portrayal of the character. Pattinson’s Bruce is extremely depressive and gloomy, despite his parents dying the best part of twenty years ago he still mourns them like they were only just taken from him, and his entire reason for being The Batman is to exact vengeance on behalf of his father whom he idolises as an infallible beacon of all that is good in the world. Where Bale’s Bruce was out at parties socialising with Gotham’s rich and famous to keep up appearances, nobody has seen Pattinson’s Bruce in a very long time and the few moments he does make public appearances in this film it’s a major deal for the people of Gotham who see him as some terrifying recluse.
His Batman is also still new to this whole crime fighting thing. Whilst this is no origin story, there’s this conflict inside his head where he recognises that what he’s doing isn’t actually helping Gotham and that if he continues down this dark path he will be no better than those he is fighting against, but he doesn’t know how to distinguish the difference between being the hero Gotham needs, and the one he thinks they need.
He's also a proper detective in this film. Something a lot of adaptations of the character, live action or otherwise, often seem to forget that Batman’s whole shtick in the comics is that he’s a detective. I loved the way he investigates crime scenes, almost like a Sherlock Holmes that’s listened to one too many My Chemical Romance albums.
Pattinson is excellent in the role too. For a long time he’s been on a career correction trajectory following the Twilight Saga to prove that he’s not only a very good actor, but that he can do any kind of role thrown at him. Batman is arguably the closest he has gone back in the direction of Twilight, and I feel he absolutely recognises that and uses it to make a point. To quote Mark Kermode, this iteration of Batman is basically a vampire; he only goes out at night, he’s incredibly violent and physically powerful, he’s extremely gothic in his appearance, and his entire being is generally stoic. Pattinson doesn’t actually have an awful lot of lines in the film considering he is the leading actor, but the way he says so much with his face and how he moves through the environment, just like he did in Twilight...but this time he's considerably more experienced and it's being directed by someone who cares about that kind of minutiae. There’s a particular scene that takes place at a funeral where he doesn’t say a word but his performance is just so incredibly poetic, and it was at that exact moment that I knew Pattinson is potentially the best live-action Batman we’ve ever seen.
Of course, he’s not the only great performer in the film, as basically the entire cast delivers a stellar performance. Zoe Kravitz is by far my favourite iteration of Catwoman that I’ve seen in a live action Batman film. She’s not just sexy, she’s not just a love interest for Bruce, and she’s not campy or cartoony. Her personal connection to the proceedings gives you the emotional hook you need and so you actually connect with her on a much deeper level than you do Bruce, and as her and Bruce grow closer as the story goes on Bruce begins to realise that people like Selina are who he needs to repair Gotham for, and that the longer it remains broken the more it will break them.
Colin Farrell plays one of Batman’s nemesis’ The Penguin, and he also delivers one of the more memorable performances of the film. The makeup and prosthetics used to warp Farrell’s appearance are in need of considerable praise as if you didn’t already know it was him then you wouldn’t be able to tell. But the key thing is that his performance doesn’t get lost behind all that makeup, if anything it elevates it to another level. He also gets to have the best action sequence in the film involving a car chase with the Batmobile, and it was so great that I actually got a bit giddy watching it.
One supporting actor I would have liked to have seen more from though is Andy Serkis as Alfred, Bruce's butler. Alfred has always been Bruce's man in the chair and his conscience, but I was surprised to see that he doesn't actually get an awful lot to do in this film, even more surprising when you have someone with the pedigree of Serkis in the role.
I can’t not talk about Paul Dano either. This incarnation of The Riddler is absolutely terrifying. Taking the form of a warped extremist keyboard warrior, this version of The Riddler is probably the best interpretation of the character I’ve ever seen. Dano’s performance is so good that it’s easy to believe that he isn’t acting and he genuinely is just a madman, which is incredibly reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Whilst the film never shows any blood or gore, Dano’s extremely unsettling performance instils so much terror that The Batman fully deserves its 15 rating.
Colin Farrell plays one of Batman’s nemesis’ The Penguin, and he also delivers one of the more memorable performances of the film. The makeup and prosthetics used to warp Farrell’s appearance are in need of considerable praise as if you didn’t already know it was him then you wouldn’t be able to tell. But the key thing is that his performance doesn’t get lost behind all that makeup, if anything it elevates it to another level. He also gets to have the best action sequence in the film involving a car chase with the Batmobile, and it was so great that I actually got a bit giddy watching it.
One supporting actor I would have liked to have seen more from though is Andy Serkis as Alfred, Bruce's butler. Alfred has always been Bruce's man in the chair and his conscience, but I was surprised to see that he doesn't actually get an awful lot to do in this film, even more surprising when you have someone with the pedigree of Serkis in the role.
I can’t not talk about Paul Dano either. This incarnation of The Riddler is absolutely terrifying. Taking the form of a warped extremist keyboard warrior, this version of The Riddler is probably the best interpretation of the character I’ve ever seen. Dano’s performance is so good that it’s easy to believe that he isn’t acting and he genuinely is just a madman, which is incredibly reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Whilst the film never shows any blood or gore, Dano’s extremely unsettling performance instils so much terror that The Batman fully deserves its 15 rating.
That brings me onto the extremely oppressive and claustrophobic tone of the film. I’ve seen The Batman generating a bit of controversy over the ratings it has been granted by various censorship boards, but I can wholeheartedly say that despite not explicitly showing any graphic content, or containing a lot of bad language, I feel that The Batman is simply too intense of a film for younger audiences (a sentiment I also share about The Dark Knight). I went to watch The Batman in IMAX (which for those of you who have never experienced it is a massive screen usually in a huge auditorium), yet for the entire runtime I felt like I was being suffocated and squashed into something tiny. The fantastic cinematography by Greig Fraser was always so intimate, even during action sequences it was right up in people’s faces or shot from uncomfortable angles. It plays into the downright depressing nature of the film so well that even though you’re not shown anything graphic, it’s extremely unsettling to witness. Combined with the eerie score composed by Michael Giacchino which is always putting you on edge, The Batman is much closer in style to a horror film than an action film. I can imagine this will be a fantastic film to watch at a Dolby Cinema if you have access to one, as you'll not only get considerably more range in the black tones the film relies so heavily on, but with the extra kick of an Atmos sound system Giacchino's score will be nothing short of phenomenal.
I really want to go on talking about The Batman forever, because I loved it, but I also want you to experience this incredible film for yourself. This is a film that I didn’t have particularly high expectations for when going into it, but much like 2019’s Joker, it shocked and surprised me whilst also leaving me a little bit terrified. Something I’ve been asked a few times already is whether The Batman is better than The Dark Knight, often used as the gold standard for Batman films. But despite ultimately both films being about Batman, they’re completely different beasts. But what I can say is that The Batman is among the best superhero films I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to subject myself to its terror all over again. I can very easily see this being among my favourite films of the year.
I really want to go on talking about The Batman forever, because I loved it, but I also want you to experience this incredible film for yourself. This is a film that I didn’t have particularly high expectations for when going into it, but much like 2019’s Joker, it shocked and surprised me whilst also leaving me a little bit terrified. Something I’ve been asked a few times already is whether The Batman is better than The Dark Knight, often used as the gold standard for Batman films. But despite ultimately both films being about Batman, they’re completely different beasts. But what I can say is that The Batman is among the best superhero films I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to subject myself to its terror all over again. I can very easily see this being among my favourite films of the year.