The Batman (2022)
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The Batman Movie Review
The Batman is a 2022 superhero film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson in the main role. It is one of the best DC movies so far.
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“What have you done?“
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When the Riddler, a sadistic serial killer, begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and question his family’s involvement. First and foremost, I have to state that I did not care for neither of the previous live-action Batman movies up until this point. A couple of them I found to be pretty good, especially ‘Batman Returns’, but all the others, in particular Nolan’s trilogy, I found to be either bad or overrated.
That all changes with Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the first truly great film in the Batman series that isn’t animated (‘Mask of the Phantasm’ still remains iconic). Reeves is a phenomenal director that came onto the Apes franchise and delivered two incredible entries in both ‘Dawn’ and ‘War’. He does it again with the DC universe. His directing here is so confident, ambitious and polished that he is the one most responsible for the film’s staggering quality.
Batman as a character was first and foremost a detective and that role was shamelessly absent from all the previous live-action installments. Here however, those detective elements are fully present and the movie is actually fueled by an incredible neo-noir atmosphere that made the viewing experience very classical in feel. Couple that with the terrific use of gadgetry and an excellent villain and you’ve got a movie that so pleasantly reminded me of the amazing ‘Arkham Asylum’ game, my favorite ever Batman product.
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This is still undeniably an extremely dark movie, even overbearingly so in certain sequences. There is this immense violence, grittiness and impressively high stakes that make the movie almost R-rated in quality, but it evaded that rating due to the lack of gore. Still, the horror/thriller elements were so evident that at times the movie was surprisingly intense. I personally found the lack of humor problematic as is always the case with these Batman movies, but at least Reeves did not forget to include the superheroics besides all the crime drama spectacle.
The gadgetry is perfectly incorporated into the story, the fight choreography is excellent and the villains are actually quite good, all leading to excellent action sequences and superhero elements. My favorite scene was the car chase one. Wow. Rarely have I seen such a brilliantly executed car chase sequence that made even me as not a big fan of these sit down and take notice of the terrific craftsmanship on display. Needless to say, this was the best and in the future it would be the most iconic scene of the film.
Robert Pattinson plays a different kind of Batman. He is young at the start of his career and as a result very inexperienced. Just seeing him struggle through gliding, fighting and even in the detective work was very interesting. Couple that with a very unique, different Pattinson in the role and a tortured, psychologically complex and very well developed arc for his character and you’ve got by far the best and the only great live-action Batman that we’ve gotten so far.
Paul Dano as The Riddler is also fantastic, though unexpectedly so. Who would have thought of all people that Dano would be an amazing Riddler, but he is. He’s very scary and creepy despite his geeky outward appearance. The casting done on this movie was both unique and outstanding. Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman was also terrific. I really like her as an actress and she fitted the character like a glove. She was cool, but I wanted more of her and their relationship.
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Jeffrey Wright is a strong Commissioner Gordon, Andy Serkis is a wonderful Alfred and both John Turturro and Peter Sarsgard make an impact in smaller roles. But Colin Farrell as Penguin was so good and so unrecognizable that I have to praise both him and the prosthetics apartment once again as Hollywood is killing it with make-up these days.
The Batman’s third act was fine, but far from the quality of the remainder of the movie. The film was consistently so strong that a somewhat mild conclusion was a disappointment, but it still had its moments. I loved the scene in the Gotham prison, though. That was fantastic. The film has its overbearing political metaphors and gangster elements, but it also has fun superhero stuff, a terrific noir atmosphere and a great mystery story. Thus, it’s a terrific genre-bender.
The technical aspects are something else. Not only is Matt Reeves’ directing absolutely incredible as is expected from this master storyteller in the blockbuster arena, but the cinematography is also frequently quite gorgeous, very well composed in some shots and unique in camera angles. It’s an artistic-looking movie, that’s for sure. For once we get a great Gotham that felt lived-in and properly explored. But the score is by far the best thing about the movie. That central theme for Batman is among the best movie themes that we’ve had in quite a while. It’s suitably eerie and blood-pumping.
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