The Dark Knight is back with a new solo movie separate from the DC Extended Universe in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and so far, it has been getting positive reviews from critics – and here’s what they’re saying about it. As one of the most popular and beloved comic book characters, Batman has been adapted to all types of media for years, most notably film, but his history on the big screen has been full of ups and downs. After Ben Affleck’s version failed to connect with the audience, Warner Bros, gave the Caped Crusader another chance in a solo movie set in a separate universe, and now with Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne.
Simply titled The Batman, the movie follows a younger Bruce Wayne on his second year of crime-fighting in Gotham City, and it also explores his detective side. Batman will come face to face with the Riddler (Paul Dano), a serial killer targeting elite Gotham citizens, but during his investigation, he will uncover corruption that links to his own family. During this process, Batman will also come across other notable villains from the comics, such as Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Colin Farrell).
After a couple of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Batman is now ready to be released on March 4, and the first reactions to this new adventure have been very positive so far. At the time of writing, The Batman holds an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with most praise going towards the movie’s tone, the performances of the main cast, its cinematography, and its action sequences. Here’s what the positive reviews of The Batman are saying:
“It’s more of a detective procedural than a superhero movie. Law and Order blended with horror featuring costumed vigilantes. This is a Batman story told with a commitment to reality which instantly distinguishes it from all other films featuring the character. And it works incredibly well. The story is a gritty mystery that’s gripping and exciting, coupled with several high-octane action scenes and tons of gorgeous imagery.”
“Pattinson and Kravitz have insane chemistry with each other. She is his match, physically and emotionally, every step of the way. This is no flirty, purring Catwoman: She’s a fighter and a survivor with a loyal heart and a strong sense of what’s right. Following her lead role in Steven Soderbergh’s high-tech thriller Kimi, Kravitz continues to reveal a fierce charisma and quiet strength. […] Cinematographer Greig Fraser pulls off the same sort of stunning magic trick he did with his Oscar-nominated work in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune”: Through pouring rain and neon lights, there’s both a gauziness and a heft to his imagery. His use of shadow and silhouette is masterful, and does so much to convey a sense of foreboding and tension.”
“Kravitz's performance is less indebted to other Catwomen who came before her and more in the mode of femme fatales like Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep or Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential. It bounces nicely off Pattinson's Batman, an interpretation that manages to feel refreshing despite all the Batmen that came before him. Pattinson at first seemed like an oddball choice for the role not because of his past as a Twilight pretty boy, but because he seems best playing the downright unheroic in indies like Good Time and The Lighthouse. But that works in his favor.”
“Fully embracing the “world’s greatest detective” comics reputation that cinematic Batmen often forget, Reeves thus plays things out like a twisty David Fincher-esque thriller. (Some of the Riddler’s clues could have been ripped from the pages of the Zodiac killer.) Occasionally the knottiness of the plotting will leave you feeling that near-three-hour runtime, but it is never boring, the narrative propelled by a series of grisly conundrums through Gotham’s seedy underbelly.”
“It’s a dense, labyrinthine detective tale that grips from the off, feeling like the truest representation to date of a Batman graphic novel on screen as its focus shifts and reconfigures in order to explore lengthy tangents that provide a richer understanding of the city and its inhabitants. The first Bat-film to fully deliver on the oft-forgotten fact that ol’ Bats is supposed to be the ‘world’s greatest detective’, this is a story that unfolds entirely on the rain-soaked streets and seedy underbelly of a Gotham blighted by corruption and crime, with clues left at each bloody tableaux leading inexorably to the next, in classic ’tec movie fashion.”
“The Batman is the most visually-stunning Batman movie, ever. Matt Reeves and his cinematographer, Oscar-nominee Greig Fraser (Dune), have captured the iconography of Batman, his supporting cast, and Gotham City better than any filmmakers before them. What was visually sold in trailers proves true across the course of the film: every scene is wonderfully constructed and composed, both visually and sonically, thanks to the haunting score by Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino.”
Since its announcement, and after all the changes it went through and delays in production due to the pandemic, The Batman has been one of Warner Bros' most anticipated movies, and it all points at it living up to the hype. While Pattinson’s take on Bruce Wayne has been praised for its freshness and darkness, Zoë Kravitz’ performance as Selina Kyle/Catwoman seems to be taking the most attention, with critics applauding her femme-fatale approach. Reeves’ vision of Gotham City was masterfully brought to life thanks to Greig Fraser, with whom he had previously worked in Let Me In and whose work in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has been widely praised, so it’s not surprising that this is one of The Batman’s strengths. Of course, The Batman also has its weaknesses, with critics pointing out its length (176 minutes) as one of its biggest flaws, as some feel the story drags at some points and then has a lot of things happening at once. Some critics also feel Andy Serkis was underused as Alfred Pennyworth, while others are simply not impressed with this new and darker version of Batman. Here’s what some of the negative The Batman reviews are saying:
“The reality is that there is probably nothing truly novel to be done with Batman at this point. He’s been thoroughly mined for both fun and pathos; try as Reeves and his co-screenwriter Peter Craig might, they can’t squeeze much higher-meaning blood out of a fatally depleted stone. Pattinson, moody and saturnine, does what he can, but he’s not afforded much beyond growling and scowling.”
“Regrettably, Reeves first misstep is that his anti-hero doesn't have the exhilarating disdain and wild bravado of Fincher's. His Batman is less booming with bravado, more brooding and boring. His theme song is a moaning emo track that never rises to a roar or a victorious chorus, and Pattinson's performance is similarly one-note. Worse still, this Batman isn't much of a detective, making leaps in logic that are more inexplicable than elementary.”
“With not much to sink his fangs into, Pattinson is wasted here. Normally, he’s an electric, funny and unpredictable actor — but that’s the opposite of Batman, who hides by necessity. He doesn’t act conflicted, determined or scared — he just seems bored. [...] The Batman is the first Caped Crusader adventure in a while to come off as completely purposeless. Christopher Nolan’s movies reframed the comics as realistic, psychologically complex tales of urban blight, and Affleck’s Bruce was built to fit into a wider DC universe. The Batman is here just to ensure that Marvel has box office competition.”
“A problem, maybe the biggest in retrospect, is that the picture doesn’t know when to quit. It comes to a potentially powerful conclusion just past the two-hour mark, only to restart for the sake of a generically bloated blockbuster-sized set piece. Absent the need to still exist as a big-budget superhero tentpole, The Batman could have thrived as a mostly compelling 135-minute *drama,* one that doesn’t primarily rely on action and spectacle to entertain. It’s hard to overstate just how misguided the film’s final 45 minutes become, in terms of what happens onscreen, how the status-quo shifting events are treated as a minor inconvenience and how the film settles for a generic moral while spending the earlier 160 minutes promising something more specific.”
Comparisons to past adaptations of Batman, especially the ones from Christopher Nolan, are inevitable, but comparing every single aspect from The Batman is unnecessary – at the end of the day, they are all different interpretations of the same character, and they are all going to offer different things, both good and bad. The overall consensus about The Batman is that it delivers on being a different, more film-noir oriented story that shows a younger side of the title hero as well as his detective side, which is often forgotten when bringing him to the big screen, but it might have benefited more from a shorter runtime.
