‘I’m vengeance…’
Is a Batman film an event anymore? Debatable. Considering the last truly great Batman film was released in 2008, I would argue not. The Dark Knight Rises was a bloated mess. The Snyder Batman movies had to be released twice because they were unwatchable first time round. So, what of Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson? Could that director/actor duo do for the Caped Crusader what Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix did for the Joker? Not quite…
As much as is it tries to be something else, plot wise this is pretty standard Batman stuff. Emo Batman (Pattinson) is flailing around Gotham trying to find ‘vengeance’ for the death of his parents. When the Riddler (Paul Dano) shows up however, everything that young Bruce Wayne thinks he knows turns out to be a lie. Also along for the ride are old favourites the Penguin (an unrecognisable Colin Farrell), Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).
I’m a positive kinda guy (stop laughing at the back), so let us begin with the positives. In terms of cinematography and lighting, this is by far Reeves’ best film and possibly the best in the whole franchise. Batman is only as good as the Gotham you put him in, and this iteration of Gotham is an absolute stunner. Owing just as much of a debt to the Arkham Asylum games as it does to art deco and German expressionism, this gloomy, rain soaked incarnation of Bruce Wayne’s hometown is an extension of the Dark Knight himself. The opening sequence in which the bat signal goes up and Reeves frames the arrival of Batman through the perspective of various villains scattered around the city is jaw-dropping, and while the rest of the film doesn’t quite keep up that breathless pace, it’s visually inventive throughout.
Let’s remain optimistic about this film aye, before the ‘but’ comes crashing into play like a baby rhinoceros. Ok. The performances are great. Batman is pretty much always the most boring character in any Batman movie, and while R-Pattz does stray a little too close to Eric Cartman during the closing narration, he mostly does a good job in embodying the pain and anger that so define the Caped Crusader. Zoe Kravitz breathes new life into Catwoman, another mostly dull character, and Turturro does well to move his version of Falcone away from that of ‘standard mob boss’. The real revelation here though is Colin Farrell. I genuinely had absolutely no idea it was him until I checked the credits. Not only is he unidentifiable, he’s also brilliant, taking one of the more cartoonish characters in the franchise and rendering them in flesh and blood. Top work. All the big talk though has been about Dano. And yes, he’s pretty great, but there also isn’t enough of him. Which brings us to…
The plot. And here it is. This is my ‘but’. The Batman is a great movie BUT the plotting and the pacing need a lot of work. Far too much time is spent solving the mystery behind Thomas Wayne and Wayne enterprises. Come now, we’ve been through all of this before. We simply don’t need to trawl the crime bosses of Gotham anymore. By the time the Riddler finally comes to the fore, the damn thing has nearly finished. I loved the duality between Batman and the Riddler, and the concept of them being two sides of the same coin was beautifully executed. I wanted more of this. Particularly after the Riddler’s John Doe like reveal in the third act.
As with so many of these movies, The Batman has been overhyped. This is an enjoyable but flawed movie that has undoubtedly breathed life into a moribund franchise, and for that, both Pattinson and Matt Reeves should be applauded. But is it as good as The Dark Knight? Batman Begins? Not even close.