Each Time They Reboot This Franchise It Gets a Bit Darker
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MOVIE REVIEW
The Batman
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Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Year Released: 2022
Runtime: 2h 56m
Director: Matt Reeves
Writer(s): Matt Reeves, Peter Craig
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis
Where To Watch: In theaters now, Streaming on HBO Max April 19
Perfect movies don’t come around very often, and while I liked this one very much, it wasn’t perfect. At least it wasn’t ideal for me; this doesn’t mean the film was terrible or even flawed majority, just that I didn’t think it was 100% everything it could’ve been. For starters, I believe that runtime was a little much for the casual movie-going audience (although its box office seems to be proving that wrong.) I also would’ve liked to have seen Batman’s costume be toned down a little; it felt almost out of place in the otherwise very grounded movie. I wasn’t a fan of emo Bruce Wayne either; I get and understand the eye shadow; I think that’s perfection, but the hair, eh.
Those are the smallest of minor gripes; overall, the film was beautiful with a Tim Burtonesque Gotham (with a few updates such as cars, cellphones, etc.) The costumes and set design felt perfectly balanced with this Gotham as well. There was a perfect mix of crazy and yet still had enough down-to-earth realism to be fantastic. The villains felt like a real threat while not being over the top for the most part.
The story was pretty straightforward, which I think almost worked against the film with this long runtime. It was a challenge to stay fully invested while we followed the same issue for most of the film. Although it also lets you focus entirely on the character development and what they were trying to build with the new characterizations. It was interesting to see such a dark take on these characters that we’ve seen for years. I grew up with a version of the Riddler played by Jim Carrey with bright orange hair and a bright green spandex bodysuit. We get a version played by Paul Dano, a mix of the Zodiac Killer and John Kramer from the SAW franchise.
What impressed me the most was that I thought I had seen everything I needed to see with the Batman franchise; thankfully, these three hours proved me wrong. I wasn’t a big fan of Ben Affleck’s Batman, but Robert Pattison, for the most part, nailed everything I’d want. Their decision to go young instead of old a tired was brilliant. I’m curious what Warner Brothers/DC will do next; I think a standalone and more grounded take on Superman could be fantastic (how exactly you do a grounded take on him is beyond me.) Give the keys to a brilliant director and let them take it where they can.
I would like to see DC stick to this plan; unfortunately, there’s already a sequel in the works for JOKER, and I’m sure with the success of this film, there will be a sequel for it as well. These separate universes work better than the overly complex DCEU that combines all of the superheroes into one strict universe. Marvel has that down to a science, but DC has never really been able to balance the tone of the films and the stories.
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Holy Detective Style Batman… instead of just an ass kicking machine Batman!!!
I am going to be honest… I have a really really hard time with these types of movies. I remember how amazing the original batmas movies were. I absolutly loved them growing up. And even though this movie was asthetically pleasing. They will never hold that flame to the originals. At least to me.
I really wish I liked this movie as much as everyone else. When I first watched it I was sucked into the hype of the dark murder mystery movie like David Fincher if he did Batman. Then I re watched it and was very bored and just felt too long. I also wish they didnt do the cameo at the end