![]() The last hour makes all that build-up worth it with a few big, beautiful, brilliantly choreographed action sequences. But when the story – and the action – revved up again, it felt like one of the Bat’s grappling hooks pierced me and yanked me back so hard that I didn’t even have time to complain. If that seems like a lot to stuff into one movie, well, The Batman does clock in at a hefty three hours, so it has the time! It mostly earns that bladder-testing runtime, although there are moments in the middle when I didn’t feel completely glued to the political mystery at its center. Whether they’re trading fists or information, it’s all very hot. Plus, the two actors’ chemistry is undeniable. Pattinson may be the one screaming “ I am vengeance!,” but it’s Kravitz who simmers with a need for payback. She’s got all the slinkiness and slyness you could hope for, but, like Pattinson’s Bruce, she’s also incredibly vulnerable, while selling an insatiable need for revenge. The former struck me as inspired (dare I say, purrrrfect?) casting from the get-go, but Kravitz’s layered portrayal of the catburglar clawed past even my high expectations. Those honors go to Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and The Riddler, respectively. Pattinson’s performance, in turn, is crushingly painful, whether he’s in or out of the Batsuit.īut, believe it or not, Pattinson’s performance isn’t even the second most memorable of The Batman. This Bruce is a broken man, unable to hide his emotions even under the cowl. Here, we get a sad weirdo who’s both crippled and compelled by his unresolved trauma in a way that’s gripping to watch. Gone is the convincing illusion of a charismatic playboy we’ve seen in past iterations. With a role so iconic, it would’ve been easy to crib – even accidentally – from the many actors who came before him, but Pattinson makes Bruce his own entirely. On that note, Robert Pattinson is playing a much more vulnerable, human version of the orphaned billionaire than we’ve seen before. I told them that there have been so many great movies, but if I were to do this, I’d have to make it personal, so that I understood what I was going to do with it, so that I know where to put the camera, so that I know what to tell the actors, so that I know what the story should be.” And I explained to them why I love this character. "I said look, I think maybe I’m not the person for this. Reeves revealed in an interview with Esquire Middle East that he had a chance to direct Affleck's Batman movie, which he said was "almost James Bond-ian," but passed. Matt Reeves' dark vision for The Batman is one that was seemingly much different than the one Ben Affleck, who was originally set to write and star, pitched years ago. We don’t see the beginning, but we do see plenty of development, as well as some clever callouts and additions to the histories of several Gotham families. It takes place late enough in Bruce Wayne’s story to not retread scenes we’ve already seen a million times, but early enough that he’s still got a lot of growing to do before he’s the nigh-flawless superhero. Instead, we’re dropped right into Batman and Jim Gordon’s vigilante/detective partnership. Reeves knows we know Thomas and Martha Wayne are dead, and he correctly assumes we don’t need to see them get gunned down yet again. It pulls from and remixes various storylines from the comics in daring yet respectful fashion, all while being very different from what we’ve seen on the big screen up to this point.įor one thing, it’s not a Batman origin story. The Batman, on the other hand, is still very much a Batman tale in a surprisingly loyal way. ![]() But the difference here is that the Joaquin Phoenix thriller didn’t really need the A-list DC villain’s name to tell its story of an impoverished man forgotten by society. If anything, its grounded nature is a lot like 2019’s Joker. ![]() Its gritty realism is most similar to Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, but this is a refreshingly bold new cinematic take on the Dark Knight. Among the movies I thought about while watching: Zodiac, Se7en, Chinatown, and Saw! You know what I didn’t think too much about? Most of the previous live-action Batman movies. The Batman stands on its own, but it’s still dripping with cinematic references. This is a creeping, angry, white-knuckle-inducing psychological thriller with a heavy dose of crime noir – and believe it or not, Reeves absolutely pulls it off, achieving a grimly beautiful masterpiece. Right from the violent opening scene, the message is clear: this is not your mother’s Caped Crusader. “Fear,” Bruce Wayne tells us in a gloomy voiceover early in The Batman, “is a tool.” He’s talking about how the presence of the Batman can be used to intimidate bad guys, but it’s also possible writer/director Matt Reeves took this to heart for his approach to rebooting the famous superhero.
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