The Batman (2022) review

The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson, is unlike any Batman movie we have seen before. Despite its nearly three-hour runtime, The Batman feels like the smallest-scale Batman story we have ever seen. The score from Michael Giacchino is much less bombastic than the scores for previous series, but it fits in line with the dark, simpler tone of The Batman. Where The Dark Knight feels like Batman dropped into Heat, The Batman feels like Batman dropped into Se7en. I loved the minimalistic approach to the conflict with The Riddler for about 95% of the movie, but it took his ultimate plan a little farther than what I could believe for this movie, although the effects of what happens works extremely well for Batman’s arc, I wish the mechanics of where it goes was a more in line with the rest of the movie.

Writing for Batman as a character has never been stronger than it is here. Batman’s skills as a detective, as well as his relationship with the police, and his fixation on striking fear into the criminals of Gotham City has never felt more natural and integral to the story and his character arc. The Batman shows Bruce Wayne from a point in time where his persona as Batman has utterly consumed him and taken over his life altogether. Unlike previous films about the character, Bruce never even attempts to put on the face of the playboy billionaire for the public, only interested in his vengeance driven vigilante persona. The claustrophobic cinematography of the film reflects this wonderfully, feeling like the persona of Batman is crushing in on Bruce. Matt Reeves does a fantastic job of illustrating how Batman’s methods have had the opposite effect on Gotham City than he intended, leading to a great character arc for Batman.

Paul Dano is a standout as The Riddler, who fits perfectly into this more serial killer-like interpretation of the character. Although he was never shown in person until the last 30 minutes of the film, Dano was able to remain an intimidating presence. Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, an unrecognizable Colin Farrell as Penguin and a surprise appearance from John Turturro as Carmine Falcone are phenomenal as well but the highlight without a doubt is Robert Pattinson as Batman. I’ve been an avid Pattinson fanboy ever since Good Time and he did not disappoint. He delivers what I would say is easily the best performance of Batman we have seen in the 60 years of the character in live action, and the film’s decision to focus on Batman more and less on Bruce gives more time to flesh this side of him out. For the first time, Batman has been the best part about a Batman movie.

The film’s incorporation of classic characters is extremely natural, giving Penguin, Catwoman, and The Riddler integral parts to play in the story, instead of feeling like they were inserted into the story just to put another comic book character in the movie, like Catwoman’s inclusion in The Dark Knight Rises. The only character that felt unnecessary and tacked on was “Unseen Arkham Prisoner,” (big mystery as to who this could possibly be) which I really could have gone without, even though the casting of said character is promising.

Matt Reeves did a phenomenal job at the helm of this project, delivering what is likely the best of his filmography. Only time will tell if this is the best Batman movie, but it has many elements that could contribute to this becoming the definitive version of the character.