After two years of fighting crime Batman, while pursuing the Riddler, a serial killer who is targeting Gotham’s elite, he finds himself taking on a web of corruption at the highest level, in a game with high stake consequences.
Director Matt Reeves delivers a great looking no expense spared Warner Bros. Production. Notably Reeves and along with Peter Craig question DC’s Batman’s ethics and focus on his material wealth rather than the playboy life that we’ve seen in other incarnations. With a subtext of social inequality mainly of the primary characters, Batman, the Riddler and Catwoman. There’s nods and call backs to the comics and Batman ’66, even cult anarchy of the Joker (2019).
Reeves offers a dark Gotham, more grounded and tangible than Tim Burton’s stylised vision, with a more claustrophobic, gritty atmosphere than Christopher Nolan’s outing. Here cinematographer Greig Fraser’s Gotham is like a Blade Runner-esque city and wonderfully realised with ombré and colour aesthetics straight out of the drawing room of The Godfather (1972). For such a lengthy film, it’s fast pace, Michael Giacchino’s memorable music complements the investigation, mystery and action perfectly.
The supporting cast are first rate, the leads including Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, while he’s pivotal has little screen time. With a fantastic costume design, Robert Pattinson is a surprisingly fitting Bruce Wayne/Batman, even if the depiction is somewhat troubled and uncharismatic. Yet, he’s the most interesting we’ve seen with plenty of screen presence. Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Paul Daniels as The Riddler do a solid enough job along with memorable John Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon. In award deserving makeup an unrecognisable Colin Farrell steals the show as Oswald/The Penguin, even if this more of an introduction to the character.
All the players are far removed from their comics, offering a somewhat hyper realistic portrayal. Reeves and Craig’s logic of The Batman’s concerns about Catwoman killing or her revenge is shaky. It’s not clear if crossing the line is killing another person or her not executing revenge is the issue. Either way it’s in the balance given Falcone’s bodyguard’s fate. This like previous outings this makes a point of adding arguably too many villain characters at once. The detective story ends abruptly, the left of field reveal of Gotham’s defences is somewhat anticlimactic, it seems The Batman is flawed, partly fails to capture the villain and stop a disaster. But perfectly in keeping with the grim bleakness of it all. The third act is tense, action packed; but messy, (especially juggling Kyle and Gordon) that said, to it’s credit moves away from the traditional showdown offering an interesting future. While novel, it may leave some scratching their heads.
Overall, whether or not it’s a good Batman film compared to its predecessors is almost irrelevant, it just a great unique, fantastic looking film, with subtly and thoughtful dialogue. It’s good looking cinema.
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