Movie Review: The Batman

BY: ADRIAN PATTERSON

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

The Batman is the newest stab at making a good Batman movie after a stint of making Batman movies that are supremely mediocre. Under the direction of Matt Reeves, Batman is played by Robert Pattinson and Catwoman is played by Zoe Kravitz. The other stand out performances include Paul Dano as the RIddler and John Tutorro as Carmine Falcone. 

The movie is trying to be more of a standalone movie movie than a comic book movie. It reminds me a lot of Se7en from David Fincher with its gritty and dark cinematography and themes. The cinematography in the movie is a little too dark to my eyes but it is effective in setting up the vice filled city of Gotham. I really like the way the city feels lived in. From the trash in the subways to the imperfections of the courthouse. It genuinely feels like horrible things have been done in this place. 

The Batman feels like a spiritual cousin of Fincher’s films such as Se7en and Fight Club. All three of these movies deal with themes of masculinity, security and how to deal with vices. In The Batman he is constantly forced to be mindful of the crimes that are committed in the city and how he has a part in them. It also is aesthetically similar to Fincher’s films, with the quick action and the long investigative montages.

The biggest issue I have with the movie is the extraneous run time at almost three hours long. It feels dragged along at points. The scenes that drag on, drag on hard. There also seems to be a little too much time devoted to things that don’t go very far. I don’t find the Catwoman and Carmine Falcone plot to be nearly as engaging as the Riddler plot or the anti Batman plot. This movie delves more into the ideas of Batman’s role in crime; not that he is committing crimes, but how he can be seen as a catalyst for crimes. This theme does tie into the main plot, but it is sometimes too much of a side story to warrant as much screen time as it gets.

This movie is a nice refresh to the comic book movie world, but I think it might have fallen into the trap that 2019’s Joker fell into a little. Joker, directed by Todd Phillips had the problem for me of not being enough about the DC comics canon. Both films are very derivative of some of the greatest directors of our time and show it boldly on their sleeves.