There really is no competition when it comes to who is DC's best superhero and over the years WB has experimented a lot with this character through video games like the Arkham series, the telltale series, a bunch of animated movies, and a few feature films as well. Marvel continues to dominate the shared universe spot with very little competition from the DCEU due to multiple studio issues but where DC has managed to dominate is when it comes to solo character study type movies. Joker made over a billion dollars at the box office, being the only R-rated movie to achieve this feat. The Dark Knight trilogy has managed to produce two separate movies which grossed over a billion dollars and even the infamous DCEU has Aquaman which grossed over a billion dollars.
The Batman was originally going to be a standalone movie directed by Ben Affleck, with Deathstroke as its main antagonist but Affleck stepped down as director and Matt Reeves took his place as director. A few months later, Affleck announced that he's quitting as Batman due to personal reasons. Whatever the reasons were, this is a role that demands a lot from any actor, physically, mentally, and socially because it's a double-edged sword where on one side, you receive a lot of fame, money, and attention but on the other, there's going to be a mountain of expectations because the actor is basically representing the best comic book character ever created irrespective of what we think we see on feature films. There really is no debate over Batman being the greatest comic book character of all time regardless of how overpowered Superman is or how smart Tony Stark is. Whatever the reasons were and whatever conversations took place in the WB studio, the actor who was going to replace him was going to be under tremendous pressure.
The Batman was directed by Matt Reeves and stars Robert Pattinson as Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Andy Serkis as Alfred, Jeffrey Wright as Gordon, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin. There was a lot of talk and controversy surrounding Pattinson taking up the role of the caped crusader, whether the Twilight star could pull this one off, a bunch of people including myself who weren't too happy with the casting but it looks like, after this performance, that bunch has completely disappeared. Pattinson's Batman is probably the standout performance in this otherwise extremely talented and veteran actor list which had a few other amazing performances and I'm happy to say that in a Batman movie, the actor portraying Batman did it best which usually is very rarely the case in these things.
After being glued to countless gripping interviews of Matt Reeves describing the film to be a noir, character-driven detective story, that is exactly what we get on screen. Before describing the movie itself, I wanted to say how much I loved Matt Reeves talking about Batman which almost felt like a teacher making a whole bunch of students fall in love with a subject just because of how good he is and how well he knows a subject, only in this scenario, this is a subject that we already love. It really felt like more than the casting, WB picked one hell of a director who knew what he was doing, who wanted to stick to the roots of the character and not experiment wildly in the name of risk-taking yet managing to keep it fresh.
The movie is 2 hours and 56 minutes long, making this the longest Batman movie ever made. It was nice to see WB not interfering with a director's work, trying to cut down screentime to make room for more screenings, thereby resulting in a poorly edited chopped-up movie which in the past has led to complete disasters like the Suicide Squad and Justice League Whedon's edition. Unlike those, this was Matt's intended cut for the movie and felt like under 2 hours when you step out of it. The pacing in the movie is pretty slow overall, it takes its time to establish the main characters to make us feel more connected with them.
The trailers were pretty misleading I'd say, making us think like this was a full-fledged action movie. The movie does a pretty good job with the action overall but it's a movie that almost feels like an Arkham video game where we are witnessing what Bruce is witnessing, following him, thinking like him, and basically uncovering all the events behind the eyes of Bruce Wayne. Talking about Bruce Wayne, he is very rarely in it, and even when he is, he is pretty reckless about trying to cover his tracks as he is still the Dark Knight and uses Wayne as simply a tool to collect information for Batman, not yet realizing the potential for Bruce Wayne to do good to the city. This movie was also inspired by a famous comic book called Batman ego where Bruce struggles to establish a duality between Bruce and Batman which is clearly the case for this version too and I loved seeing such an unpolished version of both Bruce and Batman who are trying to perfect their role in the city.
Other highlights of the movie include what was probably the best batmobile chase we have ever witnessed to date, a scene where he chases Cobblepot, sadly slightly spoilt by the trailers, Zoe Kravitz's pleasant surprise as both Selina Kyle and Catwoman which felt not like some filler content or forced love interest and distraction for Bruce but more like a trustworthy ally who keeps a check on him and is there for him at his worst and probably the best on-screen version of James Gordon. I have been a huge fan of Gary Oldman as Gordon but Jeffrey Wright's version almost makes it feel like he's jumped right out of a comic book. He really does feel like Morgan Freeman from Seven.
I love the fact that this movie didn't waste time in establishing things like why Bruce and Gordon are close, or why Bruce became Batman but rather sprinkles the origin elements every now and then. Basically, it assumes that we know who Batman is, making it a straightforward movie for the real fans of Batman and not first-time moviegoers expecting to learn who he actually is. Bruce and Gordon's chemistry was a highlight for me and I did not feel like arguing why Gordon is blindly supporting Batman or the reason behind their partnership at all. I think, in this case, DC has maybe taken a page or two out of the Spiderman homecoming and it totally works for me.
Not everything in this movie was perfect for me. I loved all the side characters including Oz, Catwoman, and Gordon but what I was hoping for was more scenes between Bruce and Alfred. I think Andy Serkis and Robert Pattinson's chemistry was on another level which is usually extremely hard to nail considering how much amazing content we already have between the two of them. There was a scene in particular in the 2nd half of the movie which had me and most of the audience crying and continuously clapping because of how brilliant the writing and acting was. I hated the fact that Alfred was barely in it for over 5 minutes in total.
Another thing that I wasn't fully on board with was the Riddler. Paul Dano did an amazing job without a doubt but as a fan of the Zodiac movie already, I felt like it was a carbon copy of the Zodiac which lacked originality in the character overall. His acting was brilliant and there was a scene between him and Batman which was pretty close to the Joker Batman interrogation scene in the Dark Knight. Riddler's character was loved by a lot of people and for some of them, his killings were pretty sadistic and difficult to put up with but for me, there was not much to like in it and there is literally a scene where Riddler says "This is the Riddler speaking" just like "This is the Zodiac speaking". Batman villains have so much to experiment with and I was so glad that they went with the Riddler but the lack of originality for me was pretty lackluster irrespective of how ridiculously talented Paul Dano is.
Michael Giacchino's score was beautiful throughout the film and he makes it his own and definitely stands apart among other genius composers like Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. Greig Fraser's cinematography was another noteworthy piece of art in this film, the colors were extremely pretty and 95% of this movie takes place in the night, late evenings, or early in the morning which makes his suit stand out. There is even a scene where Batman is almost a beacon of hope in an otherwise hopeless and failed city which was nice to see.
Overall, Pattinson stands out for his dark, broody, depressing take on the Dark Knight in a film that is probably the darkest Batman movie ever and I am definitely looking forward to seeing where Matt Reeves is going to take this new Batverse. As much as we all want to see crossovers and a potential Justice League movie, I think the best thing for this universe is to try to expand the Bat-verse and bring in Robin, Nightwing, and the entire Bat-family before introducing aliens and magic to this otherwise very grounded and realistic universe. I really do hope that this isn't just a standalone trilogy and I want to see Pattinson as Batman in at least 10 different movies and a full-fledged established Batman in front of a complete Rogues gallery and villains like Mr. Freeze, Hush, Bane, and a few other villains we haven't seen before and if they were to do a Joker in this version, I really do hope that they push it as much as they can not because I hate the character, but because I would like this universe to wrap up with the Joker. I would love for this version to someday be the definitive version of Batman and this really does look like the perfect start to a new DC universe.
VERDICT
FAN IN ME: 9.5/10
CRITIC IN ME: 9.5/10
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