A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Batman” (2022).
The first real blockbuster of 2022 arrives with a bang. Matt Reeves new take on the caped crusader – “The Batman” – is mean, moody and – in parts – magnificent.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Millionaire recluse Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has spent two years fighting the wave of crime in Gotham City as “The Batman”. Masked and caped, only his trusted butler, Alfred Pennywise (Andy Serkis), is in on the secret.
The mayor is brutally murdered by an unknown assailant who leaves cryptic clues addressed to The Batman. Police lietenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) invites him in to try to unravel the riddles. But the truth leads to an elaborate set of well-kept secrets.
Certification:
(This struck me as a bit of a “15-lite”. This is reflected in it being only a PG-13, not an R, in the US. Although there is violence and threat, there was very little ‘icky stuff’ shown on screen. The BBFC summary is here.).
Talent:
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Andy Serkis, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard.
Directed by: Matt Reeves.
Written by: Matt Reeves and Peter Craig. (Based on Batman created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane).
Twitter Handles: #thebatman
“The Batman” Review:
Positives:
- “Cloverfield” and “Planet of the Apes” director Matt Reeves delivers a genuinely dark and brooding movie. It plays out, at times, more like film noir than as a DC action movie. Some of the scenes are beautifully stylised: a skyscraper sunset rendezvous between Batman and Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz); a fight lit only by the light of machine gun rounds; a raid to apprehend a suspect at a coffee shop. Teriffic cinema.
- Much of this mood must come down to the low-lighting cinematography from Greig Fraser. He’s on a bit of a roll from his Oscar nom for “Dune”. I suspect this might also get him a nomination for next year too.
- I loved that fact that the emphasis is on the plot and the characters rather than the ‘gizmos’. Here, the ‘Batmobile’ and the ‘Bat-bike’ are more like you would expect a DC fan-boy to come up with a can of black spray paint and an old Ford Cortina/Yamaha 250. (And who stalls a Batmobile? Lol… nice touch.)
- What about the Bat and the Cat? I really wasn’t sure about the casting of Robert Pattinson as the iconic hero. But he really pulls it off well. Moody and magnificent. Even more perfectly cast is Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. She is both gorgeous and feline in her movements… like the cat that got the cream. Elsewhere in the cast, Jeffrey Wright, fresh from Bond, makes a reliable Jim Gordon; the immaculate Paul Dano – although only getting to act, mask-free, as The Riddler, for the last hour of the movie – is just memorably manic; and a TOTALLY unrecognisable Colin Farrell (as in, I hadn’t realised until now that he was actually IN the film!) has a lot of fun as Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot.
- I was really worried that having so many ‘Batman villains’ in the cast would turn this into a massively top-heavy “Spider-Man 3” monstrosity. But it really didn’t play out like that (due to reasons I won’t go into for fear of spoilers).
- The music by Michael Giacchino is very clever. It focuses on a dramatic four note motif. Although this is new, it feels like it’s been associated with Batman for 50 years! The non-stop action riffs don’t stop Giacchino breaking into a few bars of cheeky love theme for a Bat/Cat kiss moment!
Negatives:
- Man, it’s long! I’m steering clear of my 4.5 and 5 star rating for this one. That’s because in my book a film REALLY has to have a reason for overstaying the two and a half hour mark. At a smidge under three hours, there seemed to be a lot of padding and mood setting that could have been excised somewhat. The story, although having Shakespearean aspects, is “not bloody Shakespeare”!
- Did we really need another re-boot? I suspect Warner Brothers will look at the inevitable box office takings and say “Yep!”. But for me, movie perfection was in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” (and to a lesser extent, “The Dark Knight Rises”). And this didn’t particularly move the bar any higher, or take things in a radically different direction for me.
Monkeys?
I didn’t stay through the end-titles, but I have been reliably informed by another reviewer that there are no monkeys either mid- or post-credits on this one.
Summary Thoughts on “The Batman”
It’s a bladder-testing 3 hour movie that still manages to remain engrossing and at times beautifully poetic. Kevin Maher of “The Times” gave this 2 stars: I think he must have been watching a different cut. I’d have made it into a more cinema-friendly “Part 1” and “Part 2”, but even at the present 3 hour cut, I’d still rate this as a “recommended”.
It’s a great tribute to the film makers that although it’s filmed extensively in the UK – including Liverpool and Glasgow – it very seldom looks like it. The only scene that belied the drizzly British climate was a motorbike/graveyard scene – filmed at the Glasgow Necropolis.
Will there be further outings for Robert Pattinson’s Batman? Almost certainly, yes. A late film scene featuring a manically laughing prisoner (who imdb identifies to be Barry Keoghan) seems to make that inevitable. Keoghan is too good an actor to have barely a cameo.
Trailer for “The Batman”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u34gHaRiBIU .
