'The Batman' Review: Robert Pattinson as vengeance is masterful, dark, and worth the wait
There have been 'Batman' movies over the last two decades, and then there's 'The Batman'. Robert Pattinson as Gotham's caped crusader is intense. He swaggers in taking the full force of a round of bullets but barely obliterated by it. His face contorts when he's angry and his gnarl is just the beginning of the whirlwind of death punches that he unfurls with absolute disdain. But when he's not lugging the thugs, he's basically a whiz. Matt Reeves 'The Batman' is a detective story with a superhero in it.
Not all of it is novel. Bruce Wayne's tragic childhood that saw his metamorphosis into the Dark Knight and brought Gotham's crime to its knees is pretty much the standard theme. In this case, Pattinson's lanky-haired Wayne is just two years into fighting crime and has an ally in Jeffrey Wright's Jim Gordon. But what stuns is the chilling narrative of a masked criminal who commits murders and then leaves cryptic messages linking to the Bat. The Riddler (Paul Dano) as he's known is on a serial-killing spree and over time the investigation unearths a conspiracy that ties back to Wayne himself.
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And all along, Reeves and Pattinson crank up the intensity in their attempt to do justice to Peter Craig's writing. The familiar crime and corruption-riddled Gotham is beyond repair and no matter how much he cleans up the street, the gangsters and crime bosses are weeds. 'The Batman' is unsettling. It's as simple as Reeves making the film darker than any version of the masked vigilante's movies. There's a rather badass yet sensitive Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz), there's an itch villain in the Penguin (a ridiculously and brilliantly disfigured Colin Farrell), and a new Alfred Pennyworth in Andy Serkis playing key roles.
Like all bat flicks, there's a scene with the Batmobile and an absolutely electric one at that. It's not exactly Christian Bale's tumbler, but this one's practically a heavily modified hot wheels car with a furnace for an engine. What the movie does is demand attention every minute. With that three-hour runtime, which at best could have been done away with two and forty-five, the film leans heavily into Pattinson's Wayne being more of an investigator.
'The Batman' has close to zero sentiments. The Riddler is actually a walking version of Heath Ledger's agent of chaos reference from 'The Dark Knight'. He's someone who provokes. Whether Reeves took a leaf out of the Capitol riots last year is debatable, but that's the kind of horror he brings to the table and that's, safe to say, skin-crawling. The Riddler is basically a trigger to those the populace that wants revenge and he manages to bring out their darkness making life tough for the Bat.
Pattinson's Bruce Wayne is damaged goods, with and without the cowl. He's broody, sometimes disoriented, a bit of nihilist, and intriguing. Call him a functioning lunatic if you must, but he's a hero who was born out of tragedy, and the 'Tenet' star evokes it in each frame he occupies. His traumatized portrayal of the character is a new and dark shade when compared (can't and shouldn't) to Ben Affleck and Bale. Serkis is a bit bland as Alfred. For a butler with a wicked wit, this version's watered down and direct. That's perhaps one stinging scratch.
All things considered. 'The Batman' is more than just a good movie. It is masterful, well made, and worth the wait.
'The Batman' releases March 4 in cinemas near you.