Director: Matt Reeves
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright
Have I Seen it Before: Well, that’s the real thing, isn’t it?
Did I Like It: It’s actually taken me weeks to get around to this review. Part of it is a full plate. Part of it is the whole thing has been marinating in my head.
The Batman is quite good. It’s shot, cast, and mostly written well. It is the only Batman film to be fueled primarily by a legitimate, if uncomplicated detective story. We all know who the Riddler (Dano) is, and the secret identity of the Batman hasn’t been had an ounce of mystery to it since the concluding panels of “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” in 1939. And yet, Batman uses all of his skills in equal measure here.
I am happy to report that at no point does Martha Wayne drop her pearls, and while (spoiler) The Joker (Barry Keoghan) does appear in the film, Reeves shows a remarkable amount of restraint in both not making the Clown Prince a central part of the movie, and cutting his far more interesting—if ultimately redundant—scene.
It’s third act becomes a little incoherent, which puts it in good company. The end of nearly every film—with the arguable exception of The Dark Knight (2008)—to feature the Caped Crusader buckles a bit under even mild scrutiny. Why was the Joker climbing up the Cathedral in Batman (1989)? How were an army of trained missile-armed Penguins supposed to help Danny DeVito get his political revenge in Batman Returns (1992)? How did Jim Carrey manage to get that massive lair to do… mind control? The fact that I’m still—a couple of weeks after viewing the film—still not sure exactly what Batman was needing to do as the with the electrical discharges in the arena, and the city of Gotham really only seemed flooded when there were interesting shots of Batman doing things among water, and dry as a bone when he and Selina Kyle had to have a parting scene in a graveyard.
We’ve had good Batman films before. There’s really no excuse to not make one anymore. But there’s so much here we have seen before, and yet so much unexplored potential on screen for the character. What do I want out of a Batman film, now that I’ve had literally every part of The Long Halloween reconstituted on the movie screen? I want the Neal Adams Batman. I want a grey costume (with a yellow oval, so sit down, Mr. Snyder). I want a giant penny and an even giant-er T-Rex in the Batcave*. Really? I want it to be called The Caped Crusader. It’s entirely possible I may just want to watch <Batman (1966)> again. That’s always possible.
I may have to wait a bit longer. In the meantime, I’ll take as many stories in Gotham as Matt Reeves can dole out.
*I do not want to see Martha Wayne drop her pearls ever again in a movie or television series. So, good on ya, Mr. Reeves.