This year’s The Batman long and unmemorable

(US, 2022)
Directed by Matt Reeves

Review by Angus Luff

The Batman is an American comic book action film directed by Matt Reeves. The film follows Robert Pattinson’s interpretation of the beloved hero as he attempts to track down a mysterious figure in Gotham named The Riddler (Paul Dano), who is killing important political figures and leaving behind clues for Batman to figure out. He gets help from Commissioner Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and tries to get answers from crime bosses The Penguin (Colin Farrell) and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). The Batman also crosses paths with Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) – she is caught up in another mystery that involves her missing friend, but she ends up helping him try to figure  what the Riddler wants and how to find him.

The first thing I think of when looking for positives in the film is the visuals. The cinematography, colours, lighting, staging and movement make for such a captivating experience. More than any other Batman film (of those I’ve seen), this one has the best mix of brutal, gritty realism, and stylized, corny comic book adventures – the bright, unfamiliar yellows and oranges in a sick, lived-in world. It’s very gritty and tangible, and it is a serious story, but it never forgets that a Batman film needs a bit of stylization.

But what everyone’s talking about is its length – just four minutes shy of three hours. I think an overarching mystery should be long, so you have time to get invested and be right there in the film, cracking codes with the characters. But three hours does seem to be a little bit of overkill. At three hours, you must really justify that length, and I don’t think this movie did, but I’m not as against it as many people on the Internet. The time didn’t really go by that slowly, the pace felt consistent, the performances and mystery were engaging enough to go on; by the end, I really didn’t feel the runtime that much. The middle of the film lost me a little, the repetition got to me. Also, the story development didn’t interest me that much since I’m not really a fan of this character and world, so I did not get emotionally invested when the film wanted me to.

The performances were good, but maybe not great. The main cast is pretty solid – Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis and Jeffrey Wright do decent jobs but nothing very memorable. As a fan of Pattinson, I was disappointed, as this is one of his weaker performances in recent years. The performance that was memorable for all the wrong reasons was Dano as The Riddler. I simply couldn’t buy him as a threat or a villian or as someone who seemed tortured and “wronged by the world.” In fact, in later scenes, I was actually laughing because his performance was so funny to me. What they were going for with the character feels way too similar to previous villains played by Heath Ledger or even Joaquin Phoenix. I know you can only portray the crazed, unpredictable Batman villain in so many ways, but that’s one  point where I felt the film was derivative or unoriginal.

Again, I’m not at all a die-hard Batman fan, so I wasn’t rushing to see this before it came out and I’m not rushing to see it again. It’s a superhero story, so naturally I roll my eyes. That said, this is a pretty solid Batman movie. Visuals, tone, the mystery and action all work well to create an entertaining, well-rounded, alive film. It’s maybe not super original or a break from the formula, but it shows that these films can be solid as their own contained thing. I probably won’t remember this film very well in the upcoming weeks, but I’m overall glad I saw it.

Running time: 2 hr 56 min
Showing in theatres

Angus Luff is a student at Glebe Collegiate. He grew up in the Glebe and is obsessed with movies.