The Batman

 

Score:  B+

Directed by Matt Reeves

Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano

Running time: 176 minutes

Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  The Batman brings the famed hero back to theaters, this time with Robert Pattinson wearing the cape and Matt Reeves (Planet of the Apes reboot) behind the camera.  It's darker than any of its predecessors, both in aesthetics - a grimy but impressive Gotham - and a view of the city's "legitimate" leaders being as bad as the super villains.  It's well produced, along with a strong cast and good action scenes - but it's also too long, with accompanying problems of pacing.  Still, it's well worth a trip to the theaters to catch this blockbuster.

Gotham City has fallen into decay despite the best efforts of slain philantropist Thomas Wayne; his son, Bruce (Pattinson), tries to hold the darkness at bay via his vigilante identity as the Batman.  A new criminal has begun targeting high-profile individuals and leaves messages for the Batman.  While he is helped by officer James Gordon (Wright), Batman seems to have more respect from the deranged new threat than from Gotham's suspicious authorities.  As Batman tracks Gotham's latest menace, he learns more about the city itself - as well as his own family history - that leads him to question his mission.

The Batman is a strong return for DC's most famous superhero, entertaining and well-produced in many ways; however, it's held back by a gratuitous running time.  The character is more familiar to movie audiences than any other superhero, with the exception of Spider-Man, and so - as it was with the MCU's Spidey - it's crucial to strongly distinguish a new version.  Certain elements, notably the character's origins, are almost too well-known, and so The Batman wisely spends little time on this.  It does, though, have an interesting new (to me) twist on Wayne family history.  Gotham itself is practically a main character - more later - and its look and feel is one of the best parts of the movie: a dark, grimy place, yet teeming with life and energy, too.  Batman's new costume is suitably cool, along with gadgets both new and familiar; the Batmobile is the most down-to-earth and raw version yet, rumbling loudly with untamed power.  Speaking of sound, Batman gets another great theme and soundtrack, this time from Michael Giacchino.  The setting is very important for Batman, and this movie creates a good one.

The plot works nicely on two levels: one, it forces Batman into detective mode (a distinctive yet often overlooked ability), and two, it digs into the history and corrupt power structure of Gotham.  Bruce Wayne is in fact one of the least interesting characters here, which is both a knock on the writing and praise for the supporting cast.  Batman's two main allies, officer (not yet commissioner) Gordon and Selina (aka Catwoman, though they never call her that), are a lot of fun and played very well by Wright and Kravitz.  The bad guys - there are plenty of them - are also intriguing, especially an unrecognizable Colin Farrell as the Penguin, here a mere mob lieutenant.  There is plenty of action to go with the mental games, and even though most of it is shot in darkness, it is surprisingly coherent and watchable.  It's also satisfying; Batman is no super kung-fu master here, relying more on brute force and some trusty armor, taking almost as much punishment as he dishes out.  An opening melee with a gang sets the tone, but we also get some flashier sets, like an exhilarating nighttime highway chase.

The main problem with The Batman is that it is significantly too long, however.  It's not that there are any obviously superfluous parts, but the overall pacing is consistently slow, meaning each scene is pretty long - even those that shouldn't be.  Part of the reason for this goes, I think, to another weakness: reliance on the structure of the genre's gold standard, The Dark Knight.  The Riddler's crimes (if not his motives) are quite close to the Joker's; of course, there's no way that this new villain can measure up to Ledger's legendary performance, so this is a losing battle.  I won't enumerate them all, but there are plenty of other striking resemblances, to Batman Begins as well.  While The Batman visually and sonically creates a great, distinctive new world for its hero, the structure of events and even many details are a little too familiar.  Trying to measure up to its impressive predecessors, it hits all the "necessary" beats but a little more urgency would have helped.

***

The Batman is the best movie of the (still-young) year I've seen so far, and a good and worthy addition to the franchise.  I waffled between a "B+" and an "A-" for way too long on this movie - and I still may go  back on it later.  It's one of those movies that has so much good in it, it feels wrong to give it less than an "A-" - yet it has significant enough flaws in it that it also shouldn't get the same grade as other movies at that level.  Still, I'd much rather see that kind of film than what I'd call the *shrug* movie - which doesn't make much of an argument for OR against itself.  While there are disposable scenes I'll want to skip through on repeat viewings, there are about as many that I'll eagerly look forward to seeing again.  Give me more like this - though, maybe not so long, please.

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