Mr. Vengeance Begins! A Review of The Batman

After nearly 10 years, we have finally gotten another *live-action*, standalone, Batman film… note that I said live-action as we still got the animated masterpiece, The Lego Batman Movie in 2017!

Hey Everyone! It’s my first movie review of a movie released in 2022 and well, it’s a comic book movie… shocker. But, this is one of the ones I have been EXTREMELY excited for in the form of Matt Reeves’ The Batman! As per usual, I’ll leave an IMDb link for the plot summary, but just letting you know it don’t give ya the origin story. For those who don’t know, Bruce’s parents get shot right in front of him… so sad… anyway, here’s the link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877830/

As I alluded to, I have been hyped for this film for quite a long time. No matter who was wearing the cape and cowl, I was biting at the bit for Warner Bros. to make another standalone since under the webslinger, Batman is one of my favorite superheroes and characters of all time. Robert Pattinson’s casting intrigued me, I’ve heard Matt Reeves is a great director, and ever single piece of promotional material has been looking nothing but stellar. Every delay to Covid has only made me get more and more antsy to where I jumped at the bit once I heard about the early IMAX screenings (special thanks to Jalen for getting me hooked up with those tickets!) and now, here we are, having seen the movie.

The big question that all of you have been waiting for is (at least I’d hope so, otherwise you’re in the wrong place pal)… was it good?! Um. HELL YEAH!!! Good is an understatement–The Batman is an absolutely fantastic film that has already become of the best pieces of Batman cinema!

Not the least of which is the person playing him. Yeah, let’s just say that Robert Pattinson in his portrayal as the Caped Crusader! This time around, his version of Batman is REALLY tortured on the inside to the point where it affects every part of his being and from a single stare with Pattinson’s eyes, you can feel it. On top of that, he really gets so many aspects of Batman down in just about every aspect of his performance. With this being the first film to delve incredibly deep into the “World’s Greatest Detective” angle, you can sense that intelligence all around him in how he solves any case by any means possible… and this is Batman so any means could be beating the crap out of baddies half the time! 😉

^^Like, look at that, badass! It also showcases how Pattinson’s physicality as the Batman is excellent, whether it be in the way he carries himself when he walks, his stance when he stares, or again, his intensity whenever thugs are getting their asses knocked to the floor in the most brutal of fashions. Probably therapeutic for him if I had to guess but you wanna know what else isn’t mentally healthy?! ME!!! …moving on… Above all else, Pattinson delves so deep into the psyche of this version of Bruce Wayne that you don’t doubt for a second why it’s easier to be a vigilante dressed up as a bat than a billionaire who could literally sleep on dollar bills if he wanted to.

Thankfully, even though Pattinson is the one performance who needed to work the most, the entire ensemble is just out of this world good! Zoë Kravitz is outstanding as Selena Kyle/Catwoman by nailing that constant questioning on the viewer’s part of “are her motivations for doing this good or bad”, while also bringing a lot of humanity to the part. Jeffrey Wright is an awesome Gordon from how his dedication to being a good cop makes his trust with Batman an essential at points and the two of them have great chemistry as well! Oh god, who do I go to next?! (Throws dart on imaginary board) Colin Farrell, oh he was AMAZING as the Penguin! I can’t wait to see him in this role even more because that vibrancy he brings to Oswald Cobblepott is insane and is so entertaining to watch onscreen. And of course, Paul Dano is really great as the Riddler, in making his cold precision terrifying and the large freak-outs to be really believable!

Man, if this what Matt Reeves could do with the rogues gallery in this movie, I can’t wait to see what he does with the next one! And for the record, Matt Reeves NEEDS to make as many sequels to this as possible, not simply because it’s freaking Batman and that sells. No, his filmmaking abilities in the director’s chair were nothing short of outstanding across the board here. Well ok, I would be remised if I didn’t address the ingenious decision on Reeves’ part to hire Greig Frasier as the cinematographer because OH MY GOD THIS FILM IS GORGEOUS!!! This guy’s about to hopefully win an Oscar for Dune and he’s already looking pretty set for a nomination when you have shots that just impossible to accomplish in the hands of even the most talented cinematographers. Whether it’s the stills that can be a painting on my wall or the shots during the action that don’t compute with my brain on how he did the lighting for that, I’m just… to quote Temuera Morrison, “Ah there are no words”.

“Ok Alex so we get it, the visuals are just dandy, but can you talk about something else Matt Reeves did well now?!” First off, rude no wonder you’re just a voice in my head. 😉 And yeah, Reeves, really did hire all of the right people for this film. On another side of the visual mastery on display here is the production design by James Chinlund that brings a healthy mix of gothic realism to this version of Gotham City that makes it feel more alive than ever! Also, they also made sure these sets were gonna be privy to some of the best action sequences of any Batman movie (probably even comic book movies period)! With choreography that brings out the anger in every one of Batman’s punches and stunt work that makes you hope nobody was hospitalized, my blood was pumping with one thing during the action of this movie VENGEANCE!!!

Of course, none of this is possible without a little bit of magic er wait– oh crap, I meant to save that line for when I was writing a Disney review, yikes! Well um, *scrolls through list of Bat-themed transitions*, oh how could I forget the most obvious one?! “Holy Matt Reeves did a great job directing this movie Batman!”… good enough! 😉 Seriously though, Reeves killed it with a bevy or really clever directing choices that brought in the dark, noir-heavy tone without feeling too one-note. Like don’t get me wrong, this is a movie with a lot of dark themes visually and story-wise, but it’s not just dark and depressing for dark and depressing’s sake all of it is earned through the actions of the plot and characters.

And thankfully, that plot Reeves’ direction is serving is just a beautifully well-handled! With the help of co-writer Peter Craig, Reeves was able to capture all of the right elements to create an engaging detective story at every beat of this film, which isn’t easy given the scope of the story. To be clear, that isn’t just me fanboying and going “Batman’s doing detective things, *salivates in nerdom*”. Legitimately, this was was a great story that managed to add a lot nuance onto the cases being solved via strong political commentary, and subtle discussions of trauma that has lasted over years and years.

Granted, as much as I have praised this movie to death, I do have to put my “film critic” hat on to mention a few issues I noticed within the movie. Yes, they are on the borderline of nitpick territory, yet I still feel like they should be brought up. For starters, since this is a film where the character are trying to solve a mystery, they have to state a lot of that out loud and you know what that means: exposition dumps! They’re obviously needed and since A) the dialogue was great and B) I was engaged with the plot, it didn’t bother me, but I can easily see how it can bother someone else. What has bothered a lot of people inherently, even before the movie came out, was the 3-hour-runtime. Just to state the record for this court, I do not have a problem with 3-hour-movies, nor did I have an issue with this story needing that runtime. Rather, my note is how, due to there being several storylines going on at the same time here, two climaxes occur and after the first one, the movie does slow down just a tad for me.

Again, for the love of Keanu, I still think these are very minor issues that don’t tamper with my personal enjoyment in the slightest. Plus, the fact that they made this movie fly by like it’s 2 hours is still insanely impressive!

Also, quick PSA: I never got the chance to integrate this naturally, but Michael Giacchino’s score is absolutely phenomenal!!! In the lexicon of great Batman themes/score and other films composed by Giacchino (he literally just did No Way Home so like, can you pass the talent over please?!), The Batman‘s theme has already become nothing short of the word iconic!

…now that I think I mentioned everything I could *without giving away spoilers*, The Batman is basically everything I could ever want from a Batman film and then some! It serves the character justice and reaches the heights of being the second Best Batman film ever made… and given the competition in that race and my immense love for the character, that’s saying a lot!

Rating: 9.5/10, it is VENGEANCE, and I loved it!!!

When this movie hasn’t even finished its opening weekend and I’ve already seen it twice, with plans of seeing it at least two more times, I think that means this movie is gonna stick with me for quite a while!

So um, yay! The review’s over but don’t leave yet, please, I NEED THE ATTENT– I mean, I would politely request you to keep reading so I can inform you on several updates that may interest you.

First off, I really hope you enjoyed this review! I wish I could’ve gotten it out before the movie came out since I saw it on Tuesday, but I guess opening weekend will have to. I was even tempted to try and get a Spoilers Discussion on The Batman for the Spinning the Cineweb YouTube channel out before the end of this weekend, but that’ll most likely be coming out within the next couple of weeks… nudge nudge WINK WINK! 😉

Also, as much as I do love them, I really do want to review more than just comic book movies or just blockbusters, so my hope is that the next review I can get out will be of that variety. FYI, if anyone ever has a request on a new release that they’d like to see me review, or even something of the older variety, let me know and I’ll get writing on it! Haha, get it?! …I’m just gonna, get to the conclusion part.

Anywhoosers, if you have seen this movie, what did you think of The Batman and my thoughts on it?! Feel free to tell me about it in the comments below or on my social media–Instagram: @FriendlyFilmNerd & Twitter @FriendlyFilmNrd (#SubtlePlugs). And as always, I think you should all know who I am at this point…

I’m Alex, Your Friendly Neighborhood Film Nerd!!!

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN!!!!!!!!!