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‘The Batman’ Review: Who’ll Stop the Wayne?

Robert Pattinson puts on the Batsuit and cats around with Zoë Kravitz in the latest attempt to reimagine the Caped Crusader.

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By A.O. Scott

The darkness in “The Batman” is pervasive and literal. Gotham City in the week after Halloween, when this long chapter unfolds, sees about as much sunshine as northern Finland in mid-December. The ambience of urban demoralization extends to the light bulbs, which flicker weakly in the gloom. Bats, cats, penguins and other resident creatures are mostly nocturnal. The relentless rain isn’t the kind that washes the scum off the streets, but the kind that makes a bad mood worse.

The Batman — not just any Batman! — is less the enemy of this state of things than its avatar. On television in the 1960s , Batman was playful. Later, in the Keaton-Clooney-Kilmer era of the ’80s and ’90s, he was a bit of a playboy. In the 21st century, through Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy and after, onscreen incarnations of the character have been purged of any trace of joy, mischief or camp. We know him as a brooding avenger, though not an Avenger, which is a whole different brand of corporate I.P.

But a modern superhero is only as authentic as his latest identity crisis. Both the Batman (Robert Pattinson) and “The Batman” itself struggle with the vigilante legacy that has dominated the post-Nolan DC cinematic universe. “I am vengeance,” our hero intones as he swoops down to deal with some minor bad guys. He doesn’t seem happy about it. He’s grouchy and dyspeptic in his costume, and mopey and floppy in his Bruce Wayne mufti. Having fed on Gotham’s violence and cruelty for years, he now finds that the diet may not agree with him.

For nearly three hours, “The Batman,” directed by Matt Reeves from a script he wrote with Peter Craig, navigates a familiar environment of crime, corruption and demoralization in search of something different. Batman’s frustration arises most obviously from the intractability of Gotham’s dysfunction. Two years after the city’s biggest crime boss was brought down, the streets are still seething and the social fabric is full of holes. Drug addicts (known as “dropheads”) and gangs of hooligans roam the alleys and train platforms, while predatory gangsters and crooked politicians party in the V.I.P. rooms.

This isn’t only a bum deal for the citizens of Gotham. It’s a sign of imaginative exhaustion. Fourteen years after “The Dark Knight,” the franchise and its satellites (including “Joker”) have been mired in a stance of authoritarian self-pity that feels less like an allegorical response to the real world than a lazy aesthetic habit.

That’s where “The Batman” begins, but — thank goodness — it isn’t necessarily Reeves’s comfort zone. In his contributions to the “Planet of the Apes” cycle (he directed the second and third installments, “Dawn” and “War” ), he demonstrated an eye for ethical nuance and political complexity unusual in modern-day blockbuster filmmaking.

Glimmers of that humanism are visible in the murk (the low-light cinematography is by Greig Fraser), but for Reeves the path out of nihilism is through it. A masked serial killer (eventually revealed as Paul Dano) is stalking Gotham’s leaders — including the mayor and the district attorney (Peter Sarsgaard) — leaving behind encoded messages and greeting cards for Batman. His signature is a question mark, which even a casual comic-book fan knows is the sign of the Riddler.

Upholding a genre cliché, he sees himself less as Batman’s nemesis than as his secret sharer, using more extreme means to accomplish similar ends arising from parallel motives. The Riddler exposes the connections between Gotham’s power structure and its underworld, links that seem to have eluded the Caped Crusader and Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), his ally in the police department. The mythology of the Wayne family — in particular the martyrdom of young Bruce’s parents — is held up to revisionist scrutiny. What if we’re wrong about Batman? What if he’s wrong about himself?

These are potentially interesting questions, but it takes “The Batman” a very long time to arrive at them. Luckily, there are some diversions in the meantime, most notably the arrival of Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman, also known as Selina Kyle. Like the Riddler, Catwoman is Batman’s self-appointed vigilante colleague, seeking payback on behalf of women who have been exploited, abused and killed by members of Gotham’s criminal and official elite. The prickly alliance that arises between these masked, pointy-eared cosplayers adds a much-needed element of romance with a just-perceptible hint of kink. Maybe there will be a place for fun in the DC universe.

But not just yet. Don’t get me wrong. There are things to enjoy here, in addition to Kravitz’s nimble work: John Turturro, hammy and slimy as a top mobster; Colin Farrell, almost unrecognizable as the oleaginous Penguin; Andy Serkis as Alfred; a crackerjack car chase; Michael Giacchino’s eerie score.

The problem isn’t just that the action pauses for long bouts of exposition, as long-past events are chewed over by one character after another. Or that Pattinson, in and out of the Batsuit, is almost as much of a cipher as any of the Riddler’s scribblings. It’s the ponderous seriousness that hangs over the movie like last week’s weather — the fog of white-savior grievance that has shrouded Gotham and the Batman for as long as many of us can remember.

“The Batman” tries to shake that off — or rather, as I’ve suggested, to work through it. Maybe it shouldn’t have been so difficult, and maybe the slog of this film will serve a therapeutic or liberatory end. Let’s hope. I can’t say I had a good time, but I did end up somewhere I didn’t expect to be: looking forward to the next chapter.

The Batman Rated PG-13. Grim and occasionally gruesome. Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Matt Reeves ’ “The Batman” isn’t a superhero movie. Not really. All the trappings are there: the Batmobile, the rugged suit, the gadgets courtesy of trusty butler Alfred. And of course, at the center, is the Caped Crusader himself: brooding, tormented, seeking his own brand of nighttime justice in a Gotham City that’s spiraling into squalor and decay.

But in Reeves’ confident hands, everything is breathtakingly alive and new. As director and co-writer, he’s taken what might seem like a familiar tale and made it epic, even operatic. His “ Batman ” is more akin to a gritty, ‘70s crime drama than a soaring and transporting blockbuster. With its kinetic, unpredictable action, it calls to mind films like “ The Warriors ” as well as one of the greatest of them all in the genre, “ The French Connection .” And with a series of high-profile murders driving the plot, it sometimes feels as if the Zodiac killer is terrorizing the citizens of Gotham.

And yet, despite these touchstones, this is unmistakably a Matt Reeves film. He accomplishes here what he did with his gripping entries in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise: created an electrifying, entertaining spectacle, but one that’s grounded in real, emotional stakes. This is a Batman movie that’s aware of its own place within pop culture, but not in winking, meta fashion; rather, it acknowledges the comic book character’s lore, only to examine it and reinvent it in a way that’s both substantial and daring. The script from Reeves and Peter Craig forces this hero to question his history as well as confront his purpose, and in doing so, creates an opening for us as viewers to challenge the narratives we cling to in our own lives.

And with Robert Pattinson taking over the role of Bruce Wayne, we have an actor who’s not just prepared but hungry to explore this figure’s weird, dark instincts. This is not the dashing heir to a fortune prowling about, kicking ass in a cool costume. This is Travis Bickle in the Batsuit, detached and disillusioned. He’s two years into his tenure as Batman, tracking criminals from on high in Wayne Tower—an inspired switch from the usual sprawl of Wayne Manor, suggesting an even greater isolation from society. “They think I’m hiding in the shadows,” he intones in an opening voiceover. “But I am the shadows.” In the harsh light of day, Pattinson gives us hungover indie rock star vibes. But at night, you can see the rush he gets from swooping in and executing his version of vengeance, even beneath the tactical gear and eye black.

As he’s shown in pretty much every role he's taken since “Twilight” made him a global superstar in 2008, working with singular auteurs from David Cronenberg to Claire Denis to the Safdie brothers, Pattinson is at his best when he’s playing characters who make you uncomfortable. Even more than Christian Bale in the role, Pattinson is so skilled at making his beautiful, angular features seem unsettling. So when he first spies on the impossibly sexy Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, slinking into her leather motorcycle gear and shimmying down the fire escape in her own pursuit of nocturnal justice, there’s an unmistakable flicker of a charge in his eyes: Ooh. She’s a freak like me.

Pattinson and Kravitz have insane chemistry with each other. She is his match, physically and emotionally, every step of the way. This is no flirty, purring Catwoman: She’s a fighter and a survivor with a loyal heart and a strong sense of what’s right. Following her lead role in Steven Soderbergh ’s high-tech thriller “Kimi,” Kravitz continues to reveal a fierce charisma and quiet strength.

She’s part of a murderer’s row of supporting performers, all of whom get meaty roles to play. Jeffrey Wright is the rare voice of idealism and decency as the eventual Commissioner Gordon. John Turturro is low-key chilling as crime boss Carmine Falcone. Andy Serkis —Caesar in Reeves’ “Apes” movies—brings a paternal wisdom and warmth as Alfred. Colin Farrell is completely unrecognizable as the sleazy, villainous Oswald Cobblepot, better known as The Penguin. And Paul Dano is flat-out terrifying as The Riddler, whose own drive for vengeance provides the story’s spine. He goes to extremes here in a way that’s reminiscent of his startling work in “ There Will Be Blood .” His derangement is so intense, you may find yourself unexpectedly laughing just to break the tension he creates. But there’s nothing amusing about his portrayal; Dano makes you feel as if you’re watching a man who’s truly, deeply disturbed.

This is not to say that “The Batman” is a downer; far from it. Despite the overlong running time of nearly three hours, this is a film that’s consistently viscerally gripping. The coolest Batmobile yet—a muscular vehicle that’s straight out of “ Mad Max: Fury Road ”—figures prominently in one of the movie’s most heart-pounding sequences. It’s an elaborate car chase and chain-reaction crash ending with an upside-down shot of fiery fury that literally had me applauding during my screening. During a fight at a thumping night club, punctuated by pulsating red lights, you can feel every punch and kick. (That’s one of the more compelling elements of seeing this superhero in his early days: He isn’t invincible.) And a shootout in a pitch-black hallway, illuminated only by the blasts of shotgun fire, is both harrowing and dazzling. Greatly magnifying the power of scenes like these is the score from veteran composer Michael Giacchino . Best known for his Pixar movie music, he does something totally different with “The Batman”: percussive and horn-heavy, it is massive and demanding, and you will feel it deep in your core.

Working with artists and craftspeople operating at the top of their game, Reeves has made a movie that manages to be ethereal yet weighty at the same time, substantial yet impressionistic. Cinematographer Greig Fraser pulls off the same sort of stunning magic trick he did with his Oscar-nominated work in Denis Villeneuve ’s “Dune”: Through pouring rain and neon lights, there’s both a gauziness and a heft to his imagery. His use of shadow and silhouette is masterful, and does so much to convey a sense of foreboding and tension. I could write an entire, separate essay on the film’s many uses of the color red to suggest energy, danger, even hope. And the costume design from the great Jacqueline Durran —with Dave Crossman and Glyn Dillon designing Pattinson’s rough-and-tumble Batsuit—put just the right finishing touch on the film’s cool, edgy vibe.

This is the most beautiful Batman movie you’ve ever seen—even if it’s not really a Batman movie at all.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Batman (2022)

Rated PG-13 for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material.

176 minutes

Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman

Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle

Paul Dano as The Riddler

Jeffrey Wright as Lt. James Gordon

John Turturro as Carmine Falcone

Peter Sarsgaard as District Attorney Gil Colson

Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth

Colin Farrell as Oz / The Penguin

• Matt Reeves

Writer (Batman created by)

• Bill Finger
• Peter Craig

Cinematographer

• Greig Fraser

Costume Designer

• Jacqueline Durran
• William Hoy
• Tyler Nelson
• Michael Giacchino

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The Batman review: Robert Pattinson goes emo in Matt Reeves’ detective noir

Matt reeves’s take on the caped crusader may not be a genre-defining miracle, but it delivers a tapered-down, intimate portrait, while zoe kravitz’s catwoman brings an almost-extinct sensuality to the role, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Matt Reeves. Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell. 15, 176 minutes

In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and Batman. The Caped Crusader has been a cultural constant since his inception in 1939, acclimatising himself to the days of Sixties kitsch or post-9/11 cynicism, and now reintroducing himself through Robert Pattinson before his current iteration has even taken a final bow (Ben Affleck’s final appearance in the role is set for this year’s The Flash ).

Joel Schumacher gave Val Kilmer and George Clooney nippled batsuits in the Nineties, Christopher Nolan’s trilogy gave him a philosophy, Zack Snyder gave him the urge to kill in 2016’s Batman v Superman . We’ve had platter after platter of Batmen served up with the promise that this, now this, will be the only Batman we ever need.

And here we are again, on another spin around DC Comics’s chiropteran merry-go-round. Matt Reeves is now in the driver’s seat, having successfully transformed the Planet of the Apes franchise into the stuff of modern epic. He’s spent much of The Batman ’s press tour spouting comparisons to the American new wave of the Seventies and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver – exactly as Todd Phillips did while promoting the now double Oscar winner Joker . But is this not just a little bit exhausting? Is it not perilous, too, for the hype machine to constantly insist that every new comic-book film is a radical, genre-defining miracle?

The Batman is a very good Batman film. To think of it as anything more only leads to delusion or disappointment. It also undermines the more subtle work at play in Reeves’s film, which remains faithful to the character’s core iconography – bat ears, elaborate gadgets, encroaching darkness – while simultaneously interrogating its usefulness. Comparatively, it’s pitched somewhere between Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton – with one foot in our reality, and the other planted in a Gothic noir aesthetic derived partially from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One comics.

Perhaps that’s where you’d place our new Batman, Pattinson, too – though his performance hasn’t been this tapered down since his Twilight days, stripped of the exhilarating chaos that infects his acting in Good Time or The Lighthouse . I can’t blame him. Anything outside the register of growly and monotone would be considered mutiny by fans, so it’s to be expected that he sounds almost exactly like Christian Bale did in Nolan’s widely admired Dark Knight trilogy of the early Noughties.

The curtain fringe Pattinson sports as Bruce Wayne, the man behind the cowl, at least allows us to differentiate his Batman as the “emo Batman”. And it swings magnificently when Bruce snaps at his butler Alfred (Andy Serkis) and tells him: “You’re not my father.”

• Jeffrey Wright: ‘Acting? It’s just silliness’
• Amnesia, pet grooming, and Sarah Michelle Gellar: Unearthing the gonzo Catwoman movies that never were
• ‘The duel of the freaks’: What today’s superhero movies could learn from Tim Burton’s Batman

But Reeves isn’t here to bore us with another origin story of dead parents and pearls scattered across a Gotham back alley. Finally, we’ve been delivered “the world’s greatest detective”, as the comics like to call him, in flesh and blood. Reeves hasn’t been shy about the fact that Paul Dano’s Riddler, one of Batman’s closest adversaries, is modelled directly on the real-life Zodiac Killer, who terrorised California in the Sixties and became the subject of one of David Fincher’s best films.

This Riddler slaughters the city’s officials while taunting the police with ciphers, badly lit videos shot in portrait mode, and, to justify the name, riddles. Reeves clearly saw Dano’s performance as a suspected child abductor in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners (2013) and said, “Yes, thank you, more of that.” No offence to Dano, but he does make an excellent serial killer, all twitchy and meek with a dark desperation.

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Reeves’s script, co-written with Peter Craig, delves into homage in a way that’s both broader and more effective than Joker ’s Scorsese fest. The streets of Gotham are slicked with the same kind of acid rain that pounded down on Blade Runner ’s futuristic LA; John Turturro, as crime boss Carmine Falcone, seems barely cognisant that he’s in a comic-book movie. Colin Farrell is so unrecognisable as the Penguin, hidden under layers of latex and a glutinous mob accent, that you do start to wonder why they didn’t just hire a guy who… looks like that. There are a hundred character actors who can do the mob thing in their sleep, after all.

Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, meanwhile, is both reduced to the trope of film noir broad and elevated by it. She has a tendency to overstate the fact that she can “take care of herself” while also conveniently becoming quite helpless whenever Batman’s around – but Kravitz delivers the role with slinky, milk-sipping elegance, her every entrance telegraphed by the meow of Michael Giacchino’s strings. She brings a sensuality that feels otherwise extinct from the comic-book genre.

This is a Batman that, in many ways, feels more intimate than what we’re used to. Reeves’s version of a car chase is captured, not with cranes and helicopters, but with a claustrophobic POV pinned to the front wheels or the driver’s face, exquisitely and provocatively framed by cinematographer Greig Fraser. We see a Batman of the shadows, whose entrances are signalled only by the ominous tolling of the score or the clomp of his boots, but who also falls hard and will limp away, defeated.

Nolan’s trilogy, at times, seemed uncertain about how its rebuke of authoritarianism could sit side by side with a Batman heralded as the benevolent capitalist. Reeves’s Batman makes more sense: he’s a reclusive, traumatised man treated as a freak by the rest of society. And there’s a startling twist hidden within the folds of this noir narrative, one that rightfully probes the individualist politics of the vigilante figure.

The Batman didn’t need nearly three hours to tell what is, at heart, the relatively simple story of its hero’s moral awakening, but it’s a feat in itself that the film has its own voice and perspective, instead of coming across like the Frankensteined creation of every Bruce Wayne that came before. Should it follow through on its final-reel promise of a sequel? The Batman has risen – but it might be pushing its luck if it decides to return.

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Movie Reviews

Review: 'the batman' takes the character back to his roots.

Bob Mondello

Robert Pattinson, the latest caped crusader to take on corruption and deranged killers in Gotham, is The Batman. The overstuffed, visually impressive, superhero epic takes fan service seriously.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The Batman review

The dark knight returns in electrifying fashion.

TechRadar Verdict

The Batman is a stunningly meticulous and tension-filled DCEU movie that doesn't lose sight of the iconic vigilante's comic book roots. Its unique blend of detective noir, horror, psychological thriller, action, and drama delivers a sumptuous tale that's full of gritty style, while its all-star cast, cinematography, and pulsating score enhance the spectacle. Some will claim Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy is better but, with or without those inevitable comparisons, Matt Reeves' The Batman is another outstanding entry in the Caped Crusader's ever-expanding movie franchise.

Diligently crafted and suspenseful plot

All-star cast at the top of their game

Explosive, high-octane action

Honors Batman's source material with aplomb

Clever cinematography and thundering soundtrack

Some fans may bristle at source material deviations

CGI/green screen technology is all too noticeable on occasion

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

How do you reinvent Batman? With an illustrious 80-year history – comprising comics, films, TV shows, and video games – under the legendary vigilante’s utility belt, it’s a question that individuals in multiple creative industries have grappled with.

The Batman is arguably feeling more pressure than its movie predecessors when it comes to answering that query. The iconic superhero’s latest cinematic reboot is his third reimagining in less than 20 years – a situation that could certainly lead to audience fatigue for the character. Add in the initial divisive fan reception to Robert Pattinson’s casting as Batman/Bruce Wayne, the movie’s lack of R-rated content , and its pandemic-induced delay, and The Batman could’ve been a disaster waiting to happen.

Unlike the criminals that Batman hunts, though, viewers can put their fears over the Caped Crusader’s next big-screen adventure aside. The Batman is a gripping, tension-filled, and pleasingly measured take on the Dark Knight that juggles its multiple moving parts with aplomb. And, although the superhero’s cinematic franchise may not have necessarily needed it, The Batman similarly breathes new life into the vigilante’s film series as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man did for the webslinger’s movie franchise .

The Long Halloween

Set during the second year of his crime fighting career, The Batman follows the titular superhero/Bruce Wayne (Pattinson) as he pursues the Riddler (Paul Dano), a serial killer targeting the Gotham City elite, in the week following Halloween. But, as the Riddler’s murder spree leads Batman down a path of conspiratorial corruption that connects to the Wayne’s family’s legacy, he’s forced to confront the devil inside his mind as much as those that demonize Gotham.

Immediately, The Batman’s synopsis places it in unusual territory. This isn’t a traditional Batman origin story – there’s no Thomas and Martha Wayne death scene, training montages, or thematic homecoming for Bruce before he settles into the dual playboy-vigilante role he’s renowned for. Here, Batman is already established as a renegade hero – albeit a somewhat inexperienced one – who serves Gotham and nobody else. He’s a rebel with a cause, but one whose worldview is still largely dictated by childhood trauma.

The narrative decision to solely focus on Batman’s fledgling vigilante career is one that some viewers may find a little peculiar, particularly following Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Given how its world is pre-established, The Batman occasionally feels like the second instalment in a new Batman movie series, or that a prologue sequence, which sets up the film’s events, has inexplicably been cut.

Nevertheless, The Batman works well as the potential first entry in director Matt Reeves’ film series without re-treading that well-worn origin story path. To unashamedly borrow the title of Nolan’s first movie, we know how Batman begins. Revisiting his backstory again is totally unnecessary, much like it was for Spider-Man’s introduction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War.

Sure, The Batman serves as a jumping-off point for other characters’ origin tales – Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) and Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) to name two. But, while their anti-heroic or villainous turns are established in novel ways, fans already know who these characters are before they undergo those transformations. The Batman respects its audience enough to forego overly long, formal character introductions. It’s simply up to us to recognize these individuals and their roles in proceedings, and enjoy it without exploring the beginnings of the Batman mythos again.

Literary interpretations 

Story-wise, The Batman feels distinct enough in how it approaches its plot from a source material perspective.

For one, it leans heavily into areas of the vigilante’s comic history that haven’t been explored in-depth in a movie adaptation. Batman’s detective skills have largely been overlooked in previous live-action projects, so it’s satisfying to see them substantially used throughout. Watching Batman regularly use his intellect (to solve the Riddler’s puzzles and conundrums), and gadgets, including the grapple hook and camera-integrated contact lenses, is hugely rewarding. We’ve seen the fighter and inventor in Batman before, but it’s refreshing to see the character’s investigative side strongly featured.

By leaning into the sleuth side of the character, The Batman’s plot is a slow but ultimately necessary burn. With a near three-hour runtime , The Batman’s narrative unravels at a methodical pace. Even so, it’s zippy enough in its execution, with key story beats evenly spaced out to ensure it doesn’t drag at vital moments. There are times when it does feel a little sluggish – namely, in the second act, when Batman’s pursuit of the Riddler takes a backseat to Bruce Wayne investigating his family’s past. But, generally, The Batman rattles through its story at an enjoyable pace; so much so that its runtime feels shorter than it appears.

The Batman seemingly borrows from other DC comics, too. Its opening scenes have an air of Watchmen about them, with a high-rise building murder and Rorschach-style voice-over from Pattinson’s Wayne drawing parallels with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ iconic comic series. It’s a curious graphic novel to pay homage to, not least because Batman comics are comparably gritty. Still, if Watchmen has informed The Batman’s opening moments, it’s a delightful nod on Reeves’ part.

The Batman hasn’t shied away from the frequently found horror and psychological thriller elements in the superhero’s own comics, either. Scenes involving the Riddler are creepy, sinister, and jump scare-esque, while his Saw movie -like contraptions (accompanied by found footage-style camera operation) create a real sense of terror that’s almost Blair Witch-lite in nature.

Sequences involving Batman stepping out of the shadows equally generate a foreboding, dread-inducing atmosphere before his silhouette appears on the screen. It’s a testament to the work conducted by composer Michael Giacchino and cinematographer Greig Fraser, whose ominous score, and spooky use of lighting and camera placement, deliver the right amount of tension when needed.

There are some aspects of The Batman that diehard fans may bristle at. There are some subtle deviations from the source material, but these are largely dictated by which Batman or Catwoman comic series that viewers might have read. General cinemagoers won’t lose sleep over them, but these changes could disappoint some fans.  

The Dark Knight rises

Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of The Batman, though, is how attuned its cast is with the roles they inhabit. Colin Farrell brings levity and violence-fuelled bravado to the Penguin’s early Batman era incarnation, while the likes of Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, and John Turturro have a clear presence about them as Lt. Jim Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth and Carmine Falcone, respectively.

But it’s The Batman’s key triumvirate who really excel. Pattinson, in particular, shows why those dissenters were wrong to criticize his casting. The former Twilight star delivers a robust and commanding performance as Batman, while his portrayal of a brooding Wayne speaks to the billionaire’s reclusive nature and deep-seated childhood trauma. Crucially, though, his Batman is fallible – an intellectual who, as brilliant as he is with his fists, is far from the finished article mentally and physically. He’s a tortured soul who finds rageful purpose in dealing out punishment to Gotham’s criminals, but he still struggles with the guilt over his parent’s deaths – an issue compounded by The Riddler’s toying of Batman/Wayne as the film progresses.

This is a Batman movie that stands on its own two, heavy-duty, boot-worn feet – and excels at what it does

Speaking of the Riddler, Paul Dano sparkles as the sadistic, deranged, and coercive antagonist to Pattinson’s hero. With his own long-standing trauma, Dano’s Riddler is something of a tragic villain; a character you can sympathize with even if his motives are detestable. Putting Batman at odds with a villain who’s a mirror image of him is a narrative choice that’s been used numerous times in other Dark Knight stories. Here, though, it takes on greater emotional significance due to the duo’s surprisingly analogous upbringings, and the elaborate game of cat and mouse that unwinds.

It’s Kravitz’s Kyle, however, who’s the real emotional heart of the story. This may be a Batman-centric film but, without spoiling anything, Kyle is central to how the plot plays out, and there’s certainly an argument that she’s the main driver for what transpires. In Kravitz, The Batman has a multilayered character who’s as fierce, seductive, and passionate as any Selina Kyle we’ve seen before – perhaps more so, in fact. Kravitz’s electric chemistry with Pattinson, too, feels natural if a bit forced on occasion. Given the pair’s romantic dalliances in the comics, though, it’s unsurprising that such a relationship is teased throughout.

Our verdict

The Batman may appear to be just another grungy, lifelike interpretation of the legendary hero’s literary works, but it’s much more than that. Every facet of its development, from its riveting, detective drama-style plot and 21st century symbolism, to its consummate cast and explosive, high-octane action scenes – that Batman/Penguin car chase is a real joy – has been crafted with real care. And it shows, as The Batman is an astonishingly good film that would work just as well even if its characters, world and plot were devoid of anything relating to DC's iconic hero.

Slight grievances can be leveled at it, including some clunky green screen use, and its plot sags a little during its middle act. Mainly, though, The Batman is an exceptional film that more than holds its own against other Caped Crusader movies, and pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in a PG-13-rated superhero flick.

Expectedly, comparisons between The Batman and Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy are inevitable. They share the same stylistic and tonal DNA and, given the reverence that Nolan’s three flicks are held in, The Batman has to be a near-perfect film to eclipse those offerings.

To simply liken The Batman to Nolan’s trilogy, though, is to do it a disservice. This is a Batman movie that stands on its own two, heavy-duty, boot-worn feet – and excels at what it does. To paraphrase a famous quote from 2008’s The Dark Knight, The Batman may not be the movie that the vigilante’s film series needs, but it’s certainly one that it (and we) deserve.

The Batman launches exclusively in theaters worldwide on Friday, March 4.

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The Batman is all about perception. Whether it's Batman's view of vengeance or Riddler's idea of justice, everyone in the film has a disparate point of view that colors their handling of, and reaction to, every situation. These wildly different perceptions are on display in The Batman , a gritty, layered film that explores Year 2 of the Caped Crusader's time as Gotham City's vigilante. Directed by Matt Reeves from a screenplay by him and Peter Craig, The Batman abandons Bruce Wayne's origin for a crime story that is steeped in corruption, and finally sees Batman emerging to become the World's Greatest Detective without sidelining his personal journey.

In his second year as Batman (Robert Pattinson), Bruce Wayne is struggling to find his place as Gotham City's vigilante. He instills fear in those who threaten harm, but he has yet to win the trust of the people — except for Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), who lets him investigate crime scenes alongside him. Following the murder of the mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones) by a man who calls himself The Riddler (Paul Dano), Batman begins piecing together the clues the killer leaves him after each murder. With the help of Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), who waitresses at the club of mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), Batman works to solve the mystery before The Riddler can claim his next victim, all while discovering just how deep the corruption in the city goes.

Related:  Matt Reeves Says The Batman Is Exactly The Movie He Wanted It To Be

With so many Batman stories to tell, The Batman is focused on the system and the layers of corruption at its core. The Riddler going after Gotham's elite sends a clear message, and portraying him as a serial killer (sans his green costume from the comics) positions him as a terrifying threat to those who have secrets to hide. The Riddler is a fantastic villain and is someone who burrows deep under Bruce’s skin. His kills are gruesome, though the violence and torture, when it does happen, occurs offscreen, the camera panning away, leaving the grisly details to the imagination. It’s an effective tactic that lends to the unsettling feelings that are present throughout the film. Despite having already made a point to both Batman and the city, however, The Riddler’s plan does drag on unnecessarily as the film draws to a close, weakening certain aspects of his scheming. It’s also at this point that the film — which runs for almost three hours — begins to feel a bit longer than need be. That said, it doesn’t at all take away from the devastating impact The Riddler has on Batman and Gotham at large.

The Batman is a crime mystery, first and foremost, and it succeeds as such. With each riddle, the tension escalates as Batman and Jim Gordon work to solve it before The Riddler goes after his next target. Though answers are revealed throughout, there is always something else — be it pertinent information or a criminal embedded within the system — waiting to be unmasked, all of which raises the stakes and maintains the intrigue. The truth coming to the surface allows Batman to see parts of Gotham that he may have missed before, which teaches him quite a few things and alters some of the idealistic views he had before. The theme of hiding behind masks works on several levels and challenges Batman's identity and assumptions about people, including Selina Kyle. The ongoing mystery also showcases the tension between Batman and Gotham’s police officers, all of whom hate the vigilante save for Gordon. It gives the Caped Crusader quite a few obstacles to overcome, and the way in which Reeves handles all of these story elements is exceptional.

The cinematography by Greig Fraser is phenomenal. The way in which The Batman works with shadow and light makes for a gorgeous aesthetic that complements the seedy underbelly of Gotham with Batman’s journey. The camera is often situated in ways that showcase various characters’ perspectives — Batman watching Catwoman speaking to her roommate through binoculars, the Penguin (played by an unrecognizable Colin Farrell) watching the Dark Knight walk up to him from his side mirror as he sits upside down in his car, and The Riddler watching his next target through a window — and it heightens the eeriness permeating the film, the sense of dread pulsating throughout as though a figure hiding in the shadows, waiting to pounce. From the production design to the costumes and superb hair and make-up, everything blends together seamlessly.

The musical score by Michael Giacchino is simultaneously beautiful and haunting; it’s perhaps most pronounced when Batman emerges from the darkness to enter a scene, leaving the other characters shaking in fear, huffing in annoyance or shifting in discomfort.  The Batman is greatly bolstered by the outstanding performances from its cast. Robert Pattinson slips into the guise of Batman rather effortlessly. As the Caped Crusader , Pattinson is stoic, curious, and bubbling with occasionally uncontrollable anger. He seems fearless on the surface, but there are still certain parts of him that capture the feelings he tries to hide so well. Considering the actor spends most of his time in the Batsuit (which is excellently crafted) rather than as Bruce Wayne (a recluse to Gotham’s citizens), Pattinson conveys much of his underlying emotions through lingering gazes, shifting eyes that can exude warmth or incite fear.

Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman is magnetic and she owns every scene she’s in. She’s the perfect partner for Batman, her life and choices challenging him to see beyond what he thinks he knows. They work together, but their ideologies differ and it makes for quite a few intriguing, electric moments between them — it helps Pattinson and Kravitz have fantastic chemistry that is palpable. Paul Dano is wonderfully creepy and maniacal as The Riddler, his actions controlled yet also unhinged. Jeffrey Wright’s iteration of Jim Gordon is calm, sensible, and skeptical of the rest of the police department. And while Riddler takes center stage as a villain, John Turturro’s turn as Carmine Falcone is chilling in a different, completely unnerving way.

The Batman  gets to the heart of the character while maintaining his humanity. The film is grounded as it explores the depth of corruption in Gotham, while exhibiting the vigilante's skills as an intelligent detective. Reeves and his team have crafted a Batman film that offers a different side to the hero audiences have come to know and love. With exhilarating action scenes, a layered story, and poignant, in-depth characterization, The Batman is a worthy addition to the live-action DC slate.

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The Batman releases in theaters on the evening of Thursday, March 3. The film is 175 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material.

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A grim, gritty, and gripping super-noir, The Batman ranks among the Dark Knight's bleakest -- and most thrillingly ambitious -- live-action outings.

It's long, but The Batman looks and sounds great, and its grounded take on Gotham is a solid fit for this Caped Crusader.

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‘The Batman’ Review: A Tortured Robert Pattinson Goes Even Darker Than ‘The Dark Knight’

'Cloverfield' director Matt Reeves brings a tough new vision to DC's most easily reimagined character, channeling elements of film noir and hard-R horror movies.

By Peter Debruge

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Where do you go after “The Dark Knight”? Ben Affleck blew it, and even Christopher Nolan, who brought unprecedented levels of realism and gravitas to that franchise-best Batman saga, couldn’t improve on what he’d created in his 2012 sequel. So what is “Cloverfield” director Matt Reeves ’ strategy? Answer: Go darker than “The Dark Knight,” deadlier than “No Time to Die” and longer than “Dune” with a serious-minded Batman stand-alone of his own. Leaning in to those elements doesn’t automatically mean audiences will embrace Reeves’ vision. But this grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir registers among the best of the genre, even if — or more aptly, because — what makes the film so great is its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.

Sure, that’s been done before — “Who watches the Watchmen?” Alan Moore memorably asked, influencing decades of spandex-clad savior stories — though Reeves does something relatively unique here, at least by comic-book-movie standards: He strips the genre of its supernatural elements (even more than the Nolan trilogy did) and introduces a more complex version of a classic pulp hero who’s only a whisker’s breadth removed from the story’s bad guy, morally speaking. Whereas these movies are typically defined by their villains, “ The Batman ” gets under your skin by asking: What if the good guys aren’t really the good guys? What if the person we were counting on to protect us might actually be making the situation worse?

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While Batman — who’s played here by gloomy “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson , representing the orphaned character’s tortured psychology to an almost painful degree — focuses on punching out petty thugs in shadowed alleys and on subway platforms, the Riddler (a genuinely disturbing Paul Dano ) emerges to expose/dispose of the white-collar scoundrels embedded at the highest levels of power. Both men are vigilantes, though one is preoccupied with helping the police, while the other targets the systemic corruption that undermines our faith in such institutions — in Gotham City, for sure, but off screen as well.

In ways far more unsettling than most audiences might expect, “The Batman” channels the fears and frustrations of our current political climate, presenting a meaty, full-course crime saga that blends elements of the classic gangster film with cutting-edge commentary about challenges facing the modern world. It’s a hugely ambitious undertaking and one that’s strong enough to work even without Batman’s presence, not that it would have any reason to exist without him. But by incorporating the character and so many of the franchise’s trademarks — Catwoman (a slinky Zoë Kravitz), the Penguin (Colin Farrell, all but unrecognizable), loyal butler Alfred (Andy Serkis, fully analog) and an epic car chase involving the latest iteration of the Batmobile — Reeves electrifies the dense, ultra-dark proceedings with an added level of excitement that justifies the film’s relatively demanding running time.

From the beginning, the director breaks from the stylistic influences of the genre, establishing a tone that almost never feels derivative of other comic book movies. That said, one could certainly point to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s killer serial “The Long Halloween” as a common thematic influence between this and “The Dark Knight.” That’s where crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) comes from, though practical action sequences hew closer to Korean films (like “Old Boy”) than Nolan’s nouveau-’70s style.

“NO MORE LIES,” reads the blood-red indictment scrawled across the face of the Riddler’s first victim, no less a figure than Gotham’s unsavory mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones). That’s just one of several grisly murders perpetrated by this maniacal avenger, who’s as twisted and self-righteous as that sicko from the “Saw” movies. Edward Nashton, aka the Riddler, wears greasy Coke-bottle glasses and what looks like a leather fetish hood (it turns out to be a winter combat mask), livestreaming his mind games on a message board for conspiracy crackpots. But here’s the twist: There really is a conspiracy among Gotham’s most powerful, one that traces back to the Wayne family, and it falls to Bruce to untangle it before it tears the city apart. Why him? The Riddler has drawn Batman in, leaving handmade cards loaded with ciphers and other puzzles at each of his crime scenes.

Part of the film‘s “reality” is to avoid calling comic-book characters by their traditional names. You no doubt noticed the “the” in the title of “The Batman” and asked yourself what it’s meant to signify. In using the definite article, Reeves isn’t necessarily trying to say that he’s created “the” definitive screen incarnation of the character. If anything, that tiny extra word casts an air of existential mystery around its masked and anonymous hero, who doesn’t even know what to call himself early on. When the imposing leader of a violent street gang taunts, “The hell are you supposed to be?” the bat-clad vigilante growls back, “I’m Vengeance.”

That’s how Bruce Wayne thinks of himself when we first meet this version of the character — no origin story, but rather, in medias res — two years into defending Gotham from the brink of anarchy. Ravaged by a major narcotics epidemic, courtesy of a street drug called “drops,” the city finds itself facing a level of disorder somewhere between a pre-Giuliani Manhattan and the final minutes of Todd Phillips’ “The Joker,” though the two films exist in different dimensions of the same Gotham multiverse. Reuniting with production designer James Chinlund (with whom he worked on the “Planet of the Apes” sequels), Reeves presents the most robust version of Gotham we’ve seen since Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman.”

Clearly modeled on New York City, amplified through set extensions and stunning CGI, this seedy metropolis plunges us into the Big Apple’s rotten core: The midtown equivalent of Times Square is illuminated by even more giant digital screens, a black cluster of buildings looms where lower Manhattan would be, and you don’t want to go anywhere near the Madison Square Garden-like arena where the finale takes place. At times, Batman surveys the city from an upper floor of a half-built skyscraper. Otherwise, he zooms around at street level on his Batcycle, eventually upgrading to a souped-up muscle car (the unveiling of which is one of the film’s big thrills).

Except for hidden-camera contact lenses, his technology is mostly realistic, and unless one counts a rooftop BASE jump, he can’t fly. Unlike so many DC comic book heroes, Batman is neither a god nor an alien; he has no fantastical abilities. Bruce Wayne’s superpower is his billion-dollar fortune, but the guy behind the mask breaks and bleeds just like anybody else — a point Reeves reminds us of with a shot of Pattinson’s bare back, covered in scars. Rather than leaning on a theme, Michael Giacchino’s score surprises, ranging from tense tribal drums to Nirvana to opera, while editors William Hoy and Tyler Nelson avoid obvious angles, leaving quiet spaces for audiences to process (and question) what’s happening.

As the Batman or Vengeance or whatever he’s called, Pattinson is the most sullen of the actors to have played the character, which reads as a kind of daredevil nihilism whenever he’s in costume: He doesn’t seem fearless so much as ambivalent about whether he lives or dies. Once the cowl comes off, however, Pattinson’s interpretation gets more intriguing: Brooding and withdrawn, he’s a damaged loner with unresolved daddy issues, saddled with all kinds of complicated emotional trauma. It’s tough to see a hero hurting so much, and yet, his troubled past informs every relationship, including the one with a lunatic who counts Bruce Wayne among his targets.

The Riddler’s schemes are genuinely scary, far more than seems reasonable for a PG-13-rated movie (like the remote-controlled exploding collar clamped on Peter Sarsgaard’s drugged-out district attorney, Gil Colson). The idea here is that some of Gotham’s top-ranking officials — plus cat burglar-cum-cocktail waitress Selina Kyle (Kravitz) — are somehow mixed up with Falcone, and the Riddler has taken it upon himself to purge the system of such elements. The “Chinatown”-intricate specifics of just how intertwined city government is with organized crime can make your head spin, though Reeves lays it out relatively elegantly, such that audiences can follow the many twists of Batman’s investigation.

This is first and foremost a detective story, unsentimental as they come — one half-expects Gwyneth Paltrow’s head to show up in a box at some point — and though the authorities take the Riddler into custody well before the end, the movie’s most shocking stretch is still to come, just when Gotham seems ready to celebrate its next chapter. It’s hard to imagine how Reeves (who was shooting “The Batman” during the early days of the pandemic) could have anticipated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and yet, the signs must have been there all along, for the film’s chilling climax hinges on activating susceptible citizens to conduct a mass terrorist attack. In “The Dark Knight,” Heath Ledger’s anarchist Joker felt like he’d stepped right out of your nightmares, but there’s something even more intimidating about the way the Riddler operates. He literally triggers others to become vigilantes as well — and judging by the real-world copycats previous Batman movies inspired (such as the Aurora, Colo., shooting), that could have consequences.

A movie like this will inspire countless debates: Does “The Batman” really need to be this dark? Can it hold a candle to Nolan’s trilogy? There’s room enough for both to exist, and space for sequels to build on this foundation, which assumes a certain familiarity with the character’s mythology. That’s the beauty of Batman, who transcends all the other heroes in the DC Comics stable: Like Dracula or Hamlet, this iconic antihero stands up to endless reinvention. Whether campy or pop, self-questioning or complicit, he tells us something new about ourselves every time he steps out of the shadows.

Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, Feb. 17, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 176 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release and presentation of a 6th & Idaho, Dylan Clark Prods. production. Producers: Dylan Clark, Matt Reeves. Executive producers: Michael E. Uslan, Walter Hamada, Chantal Nong Vo, Simon Emanuel.
• Crew: Director: Matt Reeves. Screenplay: Matt Reeves & Peter Craig; Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, based on characters from DC. Camera: Greig Fraser. Editors: William Hoy, Tyler Nelson. Music: Michael Giacchino. Music supervisor: George Drakoulias.
• With: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Peter Sarsgaard, Barry Keoghan, Jayme Lawson.

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'The Batman' review: Robert Pattinson leads a dark, nihilistic crime epic

A three hour runtime is no impediment to a batman film with plenty to say and show us..

What to Watch Verdict

'The Batman' fires on all cylinders and commits to its darkest impulses without losing sight of the light at the core of its protagonist.

Pattinson is an excellent Bruce Wayne

The nihilistic tone and grimy production design sell you on a corrupt Gotham

The action hits hard

The narrative pulls some punches when it should have leaned harder into nihilism

Paul Dano's Riddler is a little exaggerated for this film's tone

One really shouldn’t doubt Matt Reeve’s capabilities as a blockbuster filmmaker. Despite The Batman ’s initially off-putting runtime of nearly three hours , the director of Cloverfield and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has crafted another winning franchise entry, drawing inspiration from David Fincher crime films like Seven and Zodiac , and the long form detective intrigue of Batman comics like Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween . The Batman is a dark, surprisingly nihilistic interpretation of Gotham City and its caped defender, and while not without its share of self-inflicted wounds, it offers a vision of the Dark Knight that is more holistic and human than previous film interpretations.

Framed as a detective story, Batman (Robert Pattinson) is brought in by Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) to assist in the investigation of the mayor’s violent murder. The plot gradually develops into a sweeping examination of power, greed and corruption at the heart of Gotham City, showing an urban wasteland with a festering heart kept beating by powers hidden in the shadows. 

Reeve’s vision of Gotham is appropriately grimy and bloodstained — a sickly, cancerous metropolis where crime is on the rise. It's not simply because bad people decide to do bad things though, but because the economic climate is so hostile that might makes right as much in the streets as in the halls of power.

This is the setting in which Pattinson’s Batman reveals himself, walking steadily from the shadows with footsteps that thunder out in an ominous warning of vengeance. Fight choreography seems to take heavy influence from the Arkham video games, with an emphasis on Batman’s ability to manipulate multiple attackers at once and strike fear in their hearts with merely his presence.

However, Pattinson’s interpretation of the character is also sadder than previous Batmans , tortured by the traumas of his childhood in a way that makes the batsuit feel less like a calling and more like a penance. This plays into a character arc that's a rebuttal to the assertion Batman must be defined by his pain. Though the film is rather bleak at times, it’s also incredibly attuned to the humanity that drives its characters.

Foremost among the supporting cast is Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman ), who radiates honest-to-goodness sexual chemistry with Pattinson. Her vision of Catwoman is simply a gifted burglar who’s struggling to get by, driven to help The Bat’s investigation by common goals rather than altruistic intention. She’s a fascinating foil to Batman’s attempted personification of vengeance for vengeance’s sake.

The rest of the principal cast acquits themselves just as admirably, whether it’s Andy Serkis portraying butler Alfred as a guardian who loves Bruce Wayne but could never quite be the father he needed or John Turturro delivering a properly menacing turn as crime boss Carmine Falcone. Colin Farrell is an appropriately slimy and underhanded version of The Penguin, though the heavy use of prosthetics to realize the character feels like a casting misstep, no matter how well the effect looks in practice.

The only real weak point among the cast is Paul Dano’s serial killer take on The Riddler. His actions are a perfectly adequate impetus to push the plot into motion and upon first impression the character is suitably ruthless and disturbing. However, once the layers of Riddler’s persona are peeled away, the performance comes across as too tightly wound, too heightened for the grounded reality that The Batman finds itself in. To some extent this is clearly intentional, showcasing the instability that underlies the murderous intent, but Dano dials the gesticulations and vocal ticks so high at one point that it comes across as a cartoonish attempt at a Diet Joker.

In fact, the attempt to Joker-ify The Riddler speaks to some underlying issues with the film on a narrative level. Though the film does an admirable job balancing the darkness of its material with the accessibility of a PG-13 rating, there are times when it could dive deeper into the inherent cynicism of its premise. Instead, it backs away in order to preserve preconceived notions of Batman continuity and lore, possibly to avoid alienating a specific subset of fans. 

In some instances, the choice is understandable. However, there is a rather noteworthy twist involving the Gotham Police Department that feels so unearned it comes across as all too convenient for a tale about systemic corruption. This is especially true when contrasted to how the police are portrayed earlier in the film.

Even so, The Batman is some of the most entertaining blockbuster filmmaking we’ve had in a while. Whether it’s the fiery intensity of a Batmobile car chase, the puzzle-solving theatrics of a compelling mystery or simply the reverberating theme of Michael Giacchino’s incredible score, this is a film that fires on all cylinders and commits to most of its darkest impulses without losing sight of the light at the core of its protagonist. In the hands of gifted filmmakers like Matt Reeves, three hours feels like nothing.

The Batman opens in theaters on March 4.

Leigh Monson has been a professional film critic and writer for six years, with bylines at Birth.Movies.Death., SlashFilm and Polygon. Attorney by day, cinephile by night and delicious snack by mid-afternoon, Leigh loves queer cinema and deconstructing genre tropes. If you like insights into recent films and love stupid puns, you can follow them on Twitter.

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The first new trailer for “The Batman” in more than a year has finally dropped, and it’s as dark as night.

Attendees of DC FanD ome , the event for devotees of the comic book company that birthed Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and others, got the first look this weekend. It revealed much more of director Matt Reeves ’ vision of a rainy, gloomy, seemingly perpetually nighttime Gotham City and its fearsome guardian.

The 2-minute, 45-second trailer mostly used footage not seen in the previous one, which debuted Aug. 20, 2020 — when the film was still in production — and introduced Zoë Kravitz as a ragged, street-level Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, a masked person we presume to be Paul Dano as the Riddler and, of course, Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman. That grim two and a half minutes unspooled to the eerie sounds of a cover of Nirvana’s “ Something in the Way ,” but it didn’t afford a glimpse of Colin Farrell’s Penguin and didn’t allow more than a few words spoken by Pattinson.

The new trailer, scored by what sounds like a cross between “Something in the Way” and Jóhann Jóhannsson’s stomach-churning “ Sicario ” soundtrack, leans into the fear-generating aspect of the hero. After all, in his origin story in “Batman” No. 1, Bruce Wayne said, “Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible, a … a … a bat!” It’s part of the character that previous film incarnations have merely acknowledged, while the trailer makes it seem “The Batman” will explore it.

More evidence is in the expansion on the words in the teaser that rocketed across the internet last week announcing the trailer drop: “It’s not just a signal,” says a voice over an image of the famed Bat-Signal in the teaser, “it’s a warning.”

In the full trailer, the Bat-quote is “Fear is a tool. When that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call. It’s a warning.”

“It’s not just a signal; it’s a warning.” ❤️ this Tweet for reminders before and when #TheBatman is released. pic.twitter.com/ouos1t3PZ4 — The Batman (@TheBatman) October 14, 2021

The new footage opens with the arrest of the uncostumed Riddler played by Dano (sans mask) in a diner; as he’s apprehended, a glimpse into his coffee cup reveals a question mark drawn in the foam. We see Batman summoned by Gordon via the Bat-Signal, then facing off against the masked street gang already seen in the first trailer.

There’s more of Kravitz as Catwoman, looking much more well appointed than she did previously. There’s also a confrontation between Batman and a prisoner — who may be Dano’s Riddler — our first glimpse of Andy Serkis’ Alfred, and Batman relentlessly pursuing a crime boss by Batmobile. By the way, this Bat-ride looks more like an armored muscle car than the urban tanks of the Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder iterations.

Perhaps most telling, there are reaction shots of both friend and foe horrified by Batman’s brutal takedowns of criminals.

All of that adds up to a grittier take on the Caped Crusader than in the serious-but-clean Nolan trilogy and the near-Grand Guignol excesses of the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher movies of the late ’80s and ’90s. Reeves’ film picks up Batman’s story at an earlier stage in his development than the recent “Justice League” cycle, emphasizing his abilities as “ the World’s Greatest Detective .”

The movie’s violence, which first reared its jarring head in the 2020 trailer, looks more in line with the classic Frank Miller comic book takes, “ Batman: Year One ” and “ The Dark Knight Returns ,” than anything previously on film (including the warehouse scene in Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”).

Although Bruce Wayne in “The Batman” is a younger version than we saw in “Justice League” and its satellite entries, the new film is a stand-alone that does not occur in the same cinematic universe as those movies.

After several release-date delays caused by the pandemic, “The Batman” is scheduled to open March 4, 2022.

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“The Batman,” Reviewed: Eh, It’s Fine

By Richard Brody

It’s cause for modest celebration that “ The Batman ” achieves, for much of its nearly three-hour running time, a baseline of artistry: it’s eminently sit-through-able. There’s a category of movie that used to be the Hollywood stock in trade, which a dear departed relative used to call “brain cleansers”—one kicks back, the time passes with some rooting interest, some excitement, some curiosity about what’s coming next. For its first two hours or so, “The Batman” largely fulfills the commitment to be engaging and clever; its deftly inventive director, Matt Reeves (who co-wrote the script with Peter Craig), conveys the impression of substance where it’s hardly to be found. The movie is good with an asterisk—an asterisk the size of the financial interests at stake in the franchise’s intellectual property. As free as Reeves may have been to make the film according to his lights, he displays an element of custodial, even fiduciary, responsibility. It may well win him favor with the studio, with the ticket-buying public, and with critics who calibrate their enthusiasm to box-office success, but it gets in the way of the kinds of transformative interpretations of the characters that would make the difference between a baseline movie and an authentically free and original one.

The Batman is a vigilante who works with the coöperation of the police, who project a bat-sign into the sky, with a bright light, as a call to him and a warning to evildoers who anticipate him swooping in. Yet, as he lands on a subway platform and lays low a gang of young miscreants, made up Joker-style, who are assaulting an Asian man, the victim is also struck with fear and pleads with the Batman not to hurt him. The Batman describes his uneasy role as an avenger—indeed, he says, as vengeance itself—in a voice-over that holds out hope that the superhero will be endowed with at least an average level of subjectivity and mental activity. No such luck: that voice-over might as well be a part of the explanatory press notes for all the insight it offers into the protagonist’s thoughts. Yet his haphazard thwarting of random street crime in the chaos of Gotham City gets sharply focussed on one criminal, the Riddler (Paul Dano), who, in the opening act of his crime spree, virtually summons him.

The Riddler gruesomely murders the mayor of Gotham and tapes to the victim’s body a greeting card for the Batman and other clues to his motives and to his next victim—to the conspiracy that he has discovered and the perpetrators he’s targeting. In taunting the Batman by dosing him with knowledge, the Riddler is also making him an unwilling but inextricable ally, both forcing him to join in the same fight and informing him of the underlying and overarching truth about Gotham, about the social order that the avenging masked man is dedicated to defending and preserving. The Riddler has learned that many of the city’s officials, particularly ones involved in law enforcement, have been on the take from gangsters (I’m avoiding spoilers here and throughout); decisions to prosecute are tainted by the self-dealing of politicians and police.

The Batman is drawn even further into the tangled conspiracy when he accidentally encounters another masked avenger, Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), who, as Selina Kyle, works in a night club run by a gangster named Oz, who is nicknamed the Penguin (Colin Farrell), and frequented by other criminals, such as a mobster named Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and corrupt officials. When her roommate and lover, Annika Koslov—whom the Riddler linked to the conspiracy—vanishes, the Batman helps her to investigate, and she helps him to untangle the web of corruption that the Riddler has discerned and capture the Riddler himself. Meanwhile, the Batman is working closely with a police detective named Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), who, in collaborating in the pursuit of the Riddler, is playing the dangerous game of unmasking corrupt colleagues and superiors.

The reason for dwelling on these details is pleasure. The intricacy of the movie’s intertwined plots has a plain and simple efficiency that undergirds the onscreen actions like an architectural framework, and Reeves adorns that framework with a vigorous variety of visual twists and dramatic tempi. The opening scene, in which the Riddler spies on the mayor before doing him in, involves a telescope that Reeves (working with the cinematographer Greig Fraser) mimics with a telephoto lens, while, on the soundtrack, the masked Riddler wheezes with a huffing eeriness out of David Lynch. The best gizmo in the Batman’s bag of high-tech tricks is a pair of contact lenses that are also video cameras beaming their signal to the devices of his choice. The movie’s design also offers a handful of piquant touches, from the infinitesimal points of Catwoman’s mask-ears to the cable zip line that the Batman discharges for rapid rescues and escapes. (The Batmobile, however, is definitively outshone by the vintage black Corvette in which Bruce Wayne, out of disguise, shows up at a funeral.)

There’s a car chase that, if not especially original, at least conveys its obvious patterns in images of taut precision and culminates in the film’s money shot, which brings it to a rooting conclusion with a strikingly clever and simple twist of visual logic. There’s a fight scene in a dark room at night where the only light comes from bursts of gunfire; there’s a jolt of superheroic vulnerability when the Batman makes a midair misstep in his flight suit. In a movie deprived of humor, one moment of it bursts out with a gleeful surprise, as the gargle-voiced Penguin cuts loose with a rant attacking the Batman’s linguistic skills. That’s as good as it gets, though; the laundry list of moments that pop hangs on the framework as if to conceal its essential emptiness.

The crucial marker of the movie’s faux earnestness is visual darkness—the movie is set largely at night (explained in part by the Batman’s own nocturnal habits), which furnishes the bland metaphor, or cliché, for grim doings. The sleek foreground of elaborate yet functional design doesn’t reverberate with symbolic power; it has no loose ends for the free play of imagination. Its coherence is impressive, overwhelming—and deadening. The energy of directorial intention doesn’t reach offscreen—it implies nothing beyond the action. (It’s the kind of enticing visual beauty, conveying above all the realm of power, that Kogonada questions in “ After Yang .”)

The emptiness below the movie’s surfaces reflects the emptiness of the characters it depicts; they’re reduced to a handful of traits and a backstory, defined solely by their function in the plot. Even though the title character bears two identities and lives a double life constructed of careful and elaborate ruses, “The Batman” makes shockingly little of Bruce Wayne. Robert Pattinson’s performance provides the only hint of substance: in both personae, he maintains a stone face throughout. The utterly repressed expression that he lends them could suggest anything from self-discipline to existential anguish, though I see it as a superhuman effort not to burst out laughing at the simulation of seriousness, of any personality at all. The movie’s solid dramatic architecture is essentially uninhabited—“The Batman” is a cinematic house populated only by phantoms with no trace of a complex mental life.

The indifference to characters as sentient beings rather than pawns in a plot emerges in a twist that’s a long-standing marker of action-film superficiality: apocalyptic chaos. Again avoiding spoilers, the Riddler doesn’t only target individual high-level miscreants in Gotham but decides that the entire city deserves to go down with them. (The possibilities, with its Biblical implications, are endless—and remain untapped.) When his monstrous scheme is unleashed, crowd scenes conjure mass destruction as a plot point, the staggering loss of life as a generic and inchoate jumble. Extras, whether live or digitally created, are anonymous collateral damage in a city that “The Batman” presents only as a stage for the clash of its protagonists. The movie’s inability to imagine its superheroes and supervillains with any meaningful psychological identity is of a piece with the failure to imagine ordinary people with any degree of individuality. Nothing that distracts from suspense or excitement, no details of personality to get in the way of superficial identification with flattened-out heroes, nothing that suggests a world of possibilities beyond the sealed-off borders of the screen, is allowed to seep through the movie’s solid and opaque surfaces. Its triumph of superficial pleasure is chillingly triumphalist.

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Movie review: the batman.

Posted on 18 March 2022.

By: Anton Massopust III

“Who you supposed to be?” – Thug

“I am vengeance!” – Batman

Batman returns to the big screen in “The Batman”.   Batman/Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) dons the cape and cowl in this detective story in the tradition of film noir such as “The Maltese Falcon” and “The Big Sleep” and the modern classic thriller, “Seven”. A serial killer is on the loose attacking and brutally murdering Gotham’s elite including the police commissioner, district attorney, mob bosses and anyone who is connected to the corruption in Gotham City, even the woman that is currently running for mayor.   To solve this mystery was not going to be easy. There are clues within clues, riddles within riddles. Batman and Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffery Wright) are trying to figure out why the Riddler (Paul Dano) is doing this. The two mob families: the Falcone’s and the Maroni’s are connected to the corruption in Gotham City. What is their connection to Bruce Wayne’s mother and father? The Riddler keeps leaving little notes on his victims for Batman starting on Halloween. Connected to all this is well is Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) who is after something that the Maroni’s or the Romans have over her.

   The Penguin (Colin Farrell) steals every scene he is in and he vicious and funny at the same time. The actor is unrecognizable, even his voice is changed. What I really loved about this movie was the influence from the comic books and the famous nineties’ animated TV series. What I was glad about it was it was not another origin story. We get Batman already established right away after two years slowly working with Gordon to end crime in Gotham. I also liked the fact that criminals did not know where Batman is. He can be anywhere. Batman’s motivation right now is seeking vengeance for the death of his parents, so he has to change from being just a vigilante to becoming more of detective and more of a hero. Everyone is afraid of him. Besides a really clever mystery we also get lots of action and probably one of the craziest car chases you’ve ever seen in the movies that would even rival the car chase in “The Dark Knight”. There is a brand new Batmobile which is a muscle car. The musical score is awesome, dark and haunting while the cinematography and the use of being filmed London to give it a dark look is chilling. We also get Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth who reveals slowly more about Bruce’s parents and why and how they died.  

   It’s always great to see director Matt Reeves who previously directed the reboot of the Planet of the Apes. He is a huge comic book fan and Batman fan and really gets and understands him. We also get a little bit of cameos from other villains, but I won’t say who. I’m sure that we’ll see more of this Batman because this is great start, but at the same time, it is dark brooding and a fascinating from beginning to end. I was not bored for 1 minute, but I don’t think kids will find this interesting because it’s a lot of talking and it’s a lot of clue and mystery solving. There is action, but kids might be bored. We probably will see more of these characters because HBOMax is already planning a Penguin TV series and a Catwoman TV series.

   Is this the best Batman movie ever? Well, it’s really good. Check out the graphic novels or trade paperbacks Batman: Long Halloween and Batman: Year Zero and Batman: Year One to look for the inspiration. Go see “The Batman”.

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Pg-13 | superheroes | 2 hr 56 min | 2022.

When a killer targets Gotham City’s elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World’s Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle, The Penguin, Carmine Falcone and The Riddler. As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator’s plans becomes clear, The Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.

Matt Reeves’ The Batman stars Robert Pattinson in the dual role of Gotham City’s vigilante detective The Batman and his alter ego, reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. Starring alongside Pattinson as Gotham’s famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle (Catwoman), Paul Dano as Edward Nashton (The Riddler), Jeffrey Wright as the GCPD’s James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson, Jayme Lawson as mayoral candidate Bella Reál, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot (The Penguin).

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Kapow! Our writers pick their favorite Batman movie

To celebrate the release of The Batman, Guardian writers have written about their all-time favorite Caped Crusader films from Adam West to Ben Affleck

Batman (1966)

Of all the superheroes, DC Comics’ Batman is now endowed with the most Dostoyevskian seriousness. It wasn’t always like this. And, in my heart, my favourite Batman is the first movie version, from 1966, which grew out of the wacky TV show in the era of Get Smart and I Dream Of Jeannie and Mad magazine. As kids, we watched the program religiously on TV, which is where I caught up with the film about Batman and Robin taking on Joker, Penguin, Catwoman and Riddler – never dreaming that it was anything other than deadly serious. I watched it in the same spirit as I now watch Michael Mann films. I was thrilled by the (genuinely) propulsive and exciting “dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner” theme tune (how I resented the vulgar playground joke about what Batman’s mum shouts out of the window to get him in at mealtimes) and quivered at the brilliant, psychedelically conceived title-cards for fights: BAM! I also fanatically pored over the novelisation tie-in – Batman vs The Fearsome Foursome . The show-stopper was the famous, entertainingly tense sequence where Batman can’t find anywhere to dispose of a smoking bomb, something that surely inspired the later Zucker/Abrahams comedies. Adam West played the sonorous Bruce Wayne and Batman and Burt Ward was Robin (confusingly, his alter ego Dick Grayson was often described as Wayne’s “ward”). Their costumes, with luxuriant silk capes, were gorgeous. Brilliant acting talent lined up for the villains: Latin lover Cesar Romero was the Joker; veteran Hollywood character turn Burgess Meredith was Penguin, Lee Meriwether fused glamour and comedy as Catwoman (replacing TV’s Julie Newmar) and impressionist and night-club comic Frank Gorshin was Riddler. Much is said about the campiness of this show – and yes, there is a case for retrospectively re-interpreting this Batman and Robin as a covert queer statement. (In fact, it was Cesar Romero who kept the press guessing about his sexuality.) But in a way, it was more about goofiness as part of the Sixties Zeitgeist: being silly, even at this level, was countercultural seriousness. I suspect that every single Batman director, from Joel Schumacher to Christopher Nolan, measures their work against the addictive Day-Glo potency of the ’66 Batman. Pow! Peter Bradshaw

Batman (1989)

In the flood of frowningly serious superhero films that have emerged since, the true brilliance of Tim Burton’s then-revolutionary two Batfilms has become somewhat obscured, largely because of the silly Joel Schumacher follow-ups that demonstrated that the wrath of fanship was something Hollywood had to be careful of. But it’s totally worth another look: drinking deep of the gothic/deco vibe beloved of comic-book rebooter Frank Miller, Burton adds that distinctive combination of beautiful detailing and lurid trashiness that has marked out all his best work.

When I saw it back in the day, I remember thinking Michael Keaton was bit of a waste of space, but in retrospect his straight-arrow blandness works superbly off Jack Nicholson’s gurning and Kim Basinger’s sultriness. It’s worth remembering too, that this was the first major Batman feature since the Adam West one in 1966 – hilarious, but one Burton clearly wanted to put some distance from. Tonally, the whole thing is just great, it hits that sweet spot between flippant self-parody and unironic spectacle – most superhero films since have veered too close to either. No Batman film, in this writer’s opinion, has come close since. Andrew Pulver

Batman Returns

I yearn for the day that comic book movies can be sexy again, when a new Caped Crusader and Catwoman can exude just a fraction of the pheromones fogging up the screen in Batman Returns. The moonlight tussles between those iconic characters played by Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfieffer are an alluring and thorny mix of acrobatic choreography and S&M violence that simply would not fly today.

Batman Returns belongs to Pfeiffer, whose purrr-fect take on Catwoman, AKA Selina Kyle, as a feral woman scorned is unparalleled. And it’s not just because she makes people weak in the knees with her throaty delivery of “hear me roar.” Her origin story involves being demeaned at the office and then shoved out a window by her Trump-like boss Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), a bully with sexual menace in his eyes.

Pfieffer absorbs that trauma into her performance as a Catwoman who is at once vulnerable and dangerous, seductive and afraid, craving affection but brimming with anger. That complicated push-pull is even there in a steamy and thrilling fireside canoodle with Bruce Wayne, where she’s torn between giving her all and hiding her scars before the sex is interrupted. Radheyan Simonpillai

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Even as a cartoon, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm’s got it all – gangster thrills, municipal corruption and the residual anguish of long lost love. Set in the 1940s, it follows our hero’s pursuit of the Phantasm, a seemingly supernatural angel of death who appears in Gotham equipped with a voice modulator and menacing scythe. As they snuff out the city’s mob bosses one by one, they frame Batman for the murders. The Caped Crusader, meanwhile, is haunted by his own memories from a decade earlier, when his broken engagement to the wealthy and beautiful Andrea Beaumont drove him to his current life of darkness.

As a spinoff of Batman: The Animated Series, arguably the greatest iteration of the franchise there ever was, Phantasm offers the same intricate plotlines that cemented the TV show’s greatness – Bruce Wayne was not just brooding, he was emotionally complex. Plus, the film’s got style; having emerged after the Day-Glo camp of the 1960s Batman and just before Joel Schumacher’s similarly kitschy universe, Phantasm marked a pendulum swing into a darker iteration, of an art deco Gotham filled with film noir shadows, and a cinematic score with the sweeping love scenes of a second world war epic. Phantasm is one of those rare childhood favorites that holds up into adulthood. Janelle Zara

Batman Forever

Gaudy, kaleidoscopic and winkingly homoerotic, the 90s-saturated Batman Forever is a growing addiction that I can’t deny, the light on the dark side of the Batman film franchise.

Consider the blockbuster’s cast: Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey and Chris O’Donnell, all at the height of their powers, with appearances by Drew Barrymore, George Wallace and members of En Vogue. Each embodies Forever’s more-is-more ethos: an orange-haired, jumpsuit-clad Carrey air-thrusts, mimics pitching a baseball, twirls a question-mark-shaped cane, and screams “Joygasm!” all while destroying the Batmobile ; Kilmer rasps, “Chicks love the car,” as an oversexed Kidman caresses his infamous nippled Batsuit ; and just about everything about Jones’s grunting and cackling Two-Face, from his fuchsia-colored scars to his puffing of two cigarettes , one lit via flamethrower, from each side of his mouth. Not to mention the chart-topping soundtrack featuring songs by ’90s mega acts U2, Method Man, Brandy, Massive Attack, the Offspring and the Flaming Lips – and led by Seal’s unforgettable Grammy-winning karaoke classic, Kiss From a Rose.

More than 26 years later, it’s safe to say Joel Schumacher’s first foray to Gotham will never be the cinematic classic that Tim Burton’s or Christopher Nolan’s takes on the tale have become. But in dark times, Batman Forever’s light hits the gloom on the gray. Lisa Wong Macabasco

Batman & Robin

Consider, for a moment, that a film beginning with snap zooms on its main characters’ taut tushes, proud codpieces and pert nipples may be in on its own joke. Those erroneously defaming Joel Schumacher’s camp classic as “bad” most likely subscribe to the confused notion that superhero movies are serious business, a belief estranged from the color, humor and roiling homoeroticism of old-school comics revived here.

Even if the Adam West TV show hadn’t provided us with a clear precedent for a sillier Batman, there’s still too much deliberate artistry at play to write off Schumacher’s choices as invalid: the stunning soundstage sets under exploded-rainbow lighting, the magnificent costume design splitting the difference between the Met Ball and a drag ball, the Marlene Dietrich gorilla-costume striptease that explains what Uma Thurman’s doing with her voice as Poison Ivy. Schumacher seized on the oft-denied truth that there’s a fundamental absurdity to encasing one’s self in spandex and fighting crime, his direction suggesting that donning the bat-suit still counts as playing dress-up. You don’t like Mr. Freeze’s unlimited supply of cold-themed puns delivered in the blunt-force howl of Arnold Schwarzenegger ? Fine, just have the decency to admit that that’s a you-issue, a matter of tastes rather than garden-variety incompetence. Charles Bramesco

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

The surprisingly rich 2000 animated adventure Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker stands apart thanks to its dark, character-driven mystery plot. Return of the Joker should, in that sense, work just as well with Bat-fans who are unfamiliar with Batman Beyond, a sci-fi spinoff of the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series that takes place in the Gotham City of the future (2019!) and follows angsty teenager Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle) as he takes over the role of Batman from old man Bruce Wayne (Batman: The Animated Series’s Kevin Conroy).

In Return of the Joker, Terry takes on the Joker (Mark Hamill), whose reappearance, after decades of being presumed dead, reminds Bruce of a traumatic memory involving his kid sidekick Tim “Robin” Drake (Matthew Valencia) and Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon (Tara Strong), who replaced her father as Gotham’s police commissioner.

Fan-favorite screenwriter Paul Dini focuses on Terry and Bruce’s frustrated mentor/pupil relationship, as when Bruce confesses to Terry: “I had no right to force this life on you or anyone else.” And the great character actor Dean Stockwell complements the typically sharp ensemble voice cast as an adult Tim, now retired and seemingly happier for having escaped Bruce’s influence. Simon Abrams

• Batman Begins

Joel Schumacher’s lysergic, almost enjoyably appalling Batman & Robin – the Bat-movie least likely to appear elsewhere in this article – was both a blessing and a curse for Christopher Nolan. On the one hand, when the then-hotshot writer-director of sleeper hits Memento and Insomnia signed on to resurrect the franchise, Schumacher had set the bar so low that all Nolan had to do was make a film without Bat-nipples in it and it would be an improvement. On the other, Schumacher had taken any goodwill that somehow remained after Batman Forever, said “Ice to meet you,” and then flushed it down the toilet. An origin story for a superhero no one cared about any more? Why bother?

Nolan’s pitch to Warner Bros executives only lasted 15 minutes , which is indicative of the focused, brilliantly singular film it produced. Batman Begins did the impossible: answering the question “how does a billionaire playboy become a face-pummelling, chiroptera-stanning martial-artist vigilante” in a manner that’s logical, even believable, grounding Gotham City in general and Bruce Wayne in particular like no Bat-film before, shorn of the funereally frilly, wink-wink indulgences of Tim Burton or Schumacher’s neon plasticity. Christian Bale was perfectly cast (yes, even with the silly voice), the action was robust and moody, the story twisted and yawed until the final epic showdown, and it isn’t an overstuffed, three-hour delusion of grandeur like the two films that followed it. Everything about Batman Begins just works . This, more than any other, is the film R-Patz has to beat. Luke Holland

• The Dark Knight

It’s impossible to look back on Christopher Nolan’s glum 2008 sequel without an exhausted eye-roll, it being the superhero film that unfortunately inspired an unending glut of unbearably self-serious emo imitators. But it’s also impossible not to rewatch it without seeing exactly why it became so wildly influential, a sleek but punishing upgrade of what we had come to expect from a Batman movie.

Sure, Batman Begins had already introduced Nolan’s new, straight-faced universe, a world away from the codpiece camp of Joel Schumacher’s fun and flashy fripperies, but it was a flawed introduction, hemmed in by some slightly laborious world-building, an aggressively underwhelming lead villain and … Katie Holmes. The Dark Knight was freer, if still tightly controlled, and gave us both a better bad guy (in Heath Ledger’s terrifying Joker, an unpredictable and unbridled agent of pure chaos) and love interest (Maggie Gyllenhaal adding some texture to Bruce’s doomed childhood sweetheart Rachel). It was a shocking jolt at the time, and still remains so, staggering for how far Nolan was willing and able to take a film of this scale (without seemingly being micromanaged by studio execs), an unusually nihilistic PG-13 provocation that wrestled with weighty, unresolved issues but, unlike those that came after, did it without a heavy hand. Because importantly, nestled alongside the dour grisliness, was a string of dazzling, seat-clenching action set pieces, Nolan smartly playing to all seats. The poorly calibrated murk of the Snyderverse wouldn’t exist without it but The Dark Knight proves that it’s a price worth paying. Benjamin Lee

• The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises may well be the ugly sister of Nolan’s Batman trilogy – but for all its flaws it is hard to resist the ludicrous bombast on display, all accompanied by Hans Zimmer’s honking score. In truth it shares more in common with Adam West’s iteration of the Caped Crusader than the supposed “grounded” take that Christian Bale was embodying.

From the nonsensical plot of the villain – a neutron bomb used to hold Gotham island hostage for … reasons – to the absurdity of Tom Hardy’s Bane, with his barely audible mumbling behind his mask endlessly amusing; and the Scooby Doo reveal of the real big bad, Rises ditches the realism in favour of spectacle. And isn’t that what we want from our superhero films? Sure, the treatment of Catwoman isn’t ideal (goggles that flip up to look like cat ears, really?) and the ease with which Alfred abandons his charge is entirely out of character, but for every misstep there’s something to enjoy. The Broken Bat finally translated to the silver screen; Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow sending the rich to their deathly exile on the icy river from his kangaroo court; we even got Robin (sort of). And the coup de grace, in what was surely a tribute to the first Batman big screen outing in 1966 , we have the world’s greatest detective scrabbling to dispose of a nuke over the water that surrounds Gotham – and apparently dying in the process. Indeed, some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb. Toby Moses

• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

For geeks of a certain age, the definitive Batman graphic novel will always be The Dark Knight Returns, written and drawn by Frank Miller in 1986. And the closest thing we will ever get to a big-budget Hollywood adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns is not Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or even The Dark Knight Rises. No, that honour goes to Zack Snyder’s dystopian Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice .

Admittedly, you have to do a little mental editing. You have to imagine that Jesse Eisenberg is playing the Joker rather than Lex Luthor, and that the alien zombie has been cut out altogether. But a good proportion of the film is pinched from Miller’s tale: the hefty, short-eared Batsuit design, the vicious Bats-versus-Supes punch-up, Alfred’s waspish wit and, most importantly, the obsessive, ruthless central character. For once, Batman actually resembles the towering tough guy in the comics. Well over six feet tall, Ben Affleck looks as if a) he could beat all of the other Bat-actors to a pulp, and b) he might even enjoy it. Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy may have borrowed Miller’s title, but Batman v Superman is the only film to have a properly dark Dark Knight. Nicholas Barber

The Lego Batman Movie

Which Batman movie has the coolest gadgets, the greatest villains - Sauron, King Kong and Voldemort in a single episode! - and the most epic-scale Batcave of any film made about Gotham’s dark knight? Why, it’s The Lego Batman movie, a film that even manages to be the only decent big screen take on the caped crusader to feature Robin. Chris McKay’s movie was made in 2017, at a time when Batfleck was sporting the cape and cowl in live action, so it’s no surprise he’s something of a selfish, prideful jerk. Voiced by Will Arnett (who brilliantly borrows Christian Bale’s sandpaper-thick growl) this Batman loves heavy metal and rap music, and is more obsessed with his own independent self-image than he is with taking down the bad guys. Batfans may long for Gotham’s finest son to battle his rogue’s gallery in solo mode - the last time Robin and Batgirl got involved on the big screen did not exactly go well. But The Lego Batman Movie, in keeping with its kid-friendly aesthetic, ponders whether the dark knight can ever really be happy when he’s keeping all those victories to himself and cutting out those who get close to him. It’s a premise that’s ripe for comedy, but there’s also a keen-eyed understanding of the original DC superhero that will keep hardcore fans of the character happy, especially when it comes to Batman’s enduring love-hate relationship with Zach Galifianakis’s loathsome Joker. Ben Child

• Christopher Nolan
• Zack Snyder

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Netflix's latest crime drama with a twist arrives - and the reviews are in

What happens when you combine comedy with true crime? This show...

Love a crime show but tired of the formulaic approach to them? You might enjoy Bodkin, which has just arrived on Netflix.

Bodkin sees Will Forte star as Gilbert, a podcast host looking to create the next true crime hit.

He ends up in rural Ireland, investigating the disappearance of three people in a coastal town alongside his producer and an investigative journalist from London.

It’s a comedy. It’s also a mystery-thriller. We’ll take a look at the critic's reviews in a second, but take a gander at the trailer:

Bodkin currently has a fresh 63% rating over at Rotten Tomatoes . There are some glowing reviews. Others are not keen at all. It's a true mixed response. Let's get to the bottom of it.

Bodkin reviews

The Guardian says Bodkin is an enjoyable watch, but you do have to give it the first few episodes to get going. “It all works, in the end. By the third episode, Bodkin has found its groove and settled into it…It gains in pace, charm (and in dead bodies) and that first hour turns out to be an investment worth making.” It’s a 3/5 review.

The Roger Ebert website gave Bodkin a highly positive review, and a 3.5/4 score. “The story never overstays its welcome and instead unfolds into one of the most entertaining shows of the year,” says the reviewer.

The Daily Beast loves the show too, saying “it skewers the macabre voyeurism of true-crime podcasting, implicating its viewers just as much as its characters, to surprisingly refreshing results.”

However, some other reviewers didn’t much like Bodkin at all.

Observer calls Bodkin “deathly dull” and says “though it purports to be a smart take on true crime, the series doesn’t inspire much confidence or conversation.”

The Evening Standard wasn’t keen either, giving the “lifeless murder mystery” a 2/5 score. “For a show that’s entire shtick is about the power of a good story in true Irish-revival fashion, it fails to tell one that has any real effect,” it says.

Are reviewers offended at the attempts to skewer the much-loved true crime genre? Does Will Forte’s addition make viewers expect sharper comedy than is here?

We advise you take the Guardian’s review to heart with this one, and give it until at least episode three if you like the concept.

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12 Movies That Overused CGI (And Suffered for It)

Uncover the dark side of excessive CGI with movies that were ruined by an over-reliance on special effects.

CGI can either be the sole source of a movie's imagery or seamlessly integrated into live-action footage. This technique involves rendering special effects using a computer instead of physical means. It allows for the creation of characters that appear both completely real and ordinary or completely surreal, and it can be used to manipulate or enhance existing imagery to build believable environments.

Today, most contemporary films utilize CGI across various genres, including historical, science fiction, and big-budget productions. However, many movies are trending towards an overreliance on CGI, where the effects take priority over the story. When CGI is used excessively, there is a high likelihood of errors that can diminish the quality of scenes meant to drive the plot. Here are ten examples of movies with CGI overload.

Updated on July 31st, 2023 by Evan Lewis : This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.

12 Transformers series (2007-2023)

Transformers is a cinema mainstay and almost never fails to rake in millions; no one will ever deny that. Not even the underperformance of Rise of the Beasts (2023) can change that. With that being said, almost nobody going to see a Transformers film expects anything less than an overwhelming amount of computer-generated visuals.

It is one of the main criticism of the series as a whole and is a creative decision Michael Bay (director of most installments) has doubled down on. It has become a meme in itself; Michael Bay has almost become synonymous with "kaboom", thanks to his obsession with explosions and convoluted action scenes. There is a loyal, dedicated audience in love with this style clearly, so it probably will not be changing anytime soon.

11 The Flash (2023)

Using CGI for a movie about superheroes with nature-defying abilities sort of comes with the territory. So, that goes to say no one expected The Flash to be making use of practicality to showcase the powers of its characters. There comes a point where it is too much, however, even for a Flash film. One aspect where this polarizing romp suffered was the CGI used to put Ezra Miller's face over the body double while in the Flash suit. Something is off — as if his head is a couple too sizes big for his proportions, and it made for some hilarious screenshots over opening weekend.

The most egregious misstep would have to be the use of computer generation to forge cameos, though. Several of the actors used in the penultimate scene (which detracts from one of the film's most emotional story beats) were not even there in the studio to actually take part in the shooting. Some physically could not, seeing as they are no longer with us and passed away. Not only did this look straight-from-a-video-game ugly, but it was also in horrific taste.

10 Skyscraper (2018)

Skyscraper is an American action thriller film directed and written by Rawson Marshall Thurber, featuring Dwayne Johnson in the lead role. Despite appearing in over-the-top action films, Johnson, also known as "The Rock," remains a popular and successful action star . In the movie, Johnson portrays Will Sawyer, a one-legged family man interviewing for a security position at the world's tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong. He becomes the prime suspect in a fire that breaks out in the building and must clear his name while saving his family.

Despite its star power, the film received mixed reviews and a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics and viewers alike expressed disappointment in the excessive use of CGI, making everything appear synthetic and lacking authenticity. The stunt scenes seemed straight out of a video game, with actors appearing pasted onto the screen. Even Johnson looked out of place on the apparent green-screen background, making the film another forgettable CGI-heavy movie.

9 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones series, written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his companions as they navigate through Soviet KGB agents searching for a telepathic crystal skull and its secret. Despite the high expectations, the film was considered a disappointment, particularly due to its excessive use of CGI.

Before production, Spielberg stated that they would use minimal CGI effects to maintain consistency with the previous films in the series. However, during filming, the number of CGI shots increased to around 450. The use of CGI failed to add value to the film's plot, with scenes such as a nuclear blast and Jones's son swinging through the jungle like Tarzan looking artificial. Additionally, the use of CGI to create a virtual non-deforested jungle and the jungle action sequence was more practical and safer but still failed to meet the audience's expectations.

8 Green Lantern (2011)

Green Lantern is a superhero film adapted from the DC Comics character of the same name. In the movie, Hal Jordan, played by Ryan Reynolds, is selected by a dying alien named Abin Sur to become the new guardian of the solar system. Abin Sur gives him a ring that grants him supernatural powers and the responsibility of defeating the evil Parallax, who seeks to destroy the universe. Upon its release in 2011, Green Lantern was met with negative reviews, primarily due to its excessive use of CGI, unimpressive special effects, and inadequate script and tone.

Critics noted that the film relied too heavily on CGI, including the superhero's suit, which was entirely computer-generated. The green color and unnatural appearance of the suit on Reynolds' skin failed to impress viewers. The same was true for the CGI mask that covered Reynolds' eyes, which made him resemble a video game character rather than a movie character. Most of the scenes set on the Lantern's planet, and many of the secondary characters including the villain Parallax, were created using CGI. Unfortunately, the heavy CGI was poorly executed and didn't impress fans.

RELATED: Why Practical Effects May Be Better Than CGI

7 Catwoman (2004)

Catwoman is a poorly received American superhero film directed by Pitof and loosely based on the DC Comics character of the same name. The film revolves around Patience Phillips (Halle Berry), a timid designer who uncovers a workplace conspiracy only to be murdered. She is resurrected by cats, granting her extraordinary powers, and becomes a vigilante.

Catwoman received numerous nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards, including the Worst Picture category, due to its heavy and poorly executed CGI. Being the directorial debut of Pitof, a French CGI and FX specialist, the film featured excessive, stylized CGI elements, such as fake CGI cities, smog, cats, and the titular character. According to viewers, the movie felt like a series of FX scenes and product placements rather than a coherent film.

6 King Kong (2005)

King Kong is a film directed, co-written, and produced by Peter Jackson that blends adventure and monster genres. The story follows Carl Denham, an ambitious filmmaker played by Jack Black, and his crew as they venture to the mysterious Skull Island and encounter the giant ape King Kong (Andy Serkis). They capture King Kong and bring him to New York, but the situation turns chaotic when the ape breaks free in the city. The film received mostly positive reviews for its well-crafted writing and effects, but it was criticized for its excessive use of CGI.

Despite the two hours of motion capture makeup Andy Serkis underwent daily to bring realism to King Kong's movements, his interaction with his surroundings was still unrealistic, making it apparent where practical effects ended and CGI began. Furthermore, the CGI environments in the city and jungle failed to leave a lasting impression on audiences. They appeared unnatural, almost like a video game rather than a big-budget movie.

5 Justice League (2017)

Justice League is an American superhero film based on the DC Comics superhero team of the same name and directed by Zack Snyder. The film follows the efforts of Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) as they recruit and assemble the Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) to defeat Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and his Parademons. Despite featuring real actors, the film has been criticized for its heavy use of CGI, deemed unrealistic and disruptive to the film's atmosphere.

Upon its theatrical release, Justice League received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the action sequences and performances but criticized its lackluster CGI, underdeveloped villains, pacing, and thin plot. The movie underwent extensive reshoots after Joss Whedon took over production following Zack Snyder's departure. Still, these reshoots were criticized for their poor CGI, including the CGI-heavy race between Superman and the Flash and the less-than-perfect change in Steppenwolf's design.

4 Hulk (2003)

Hulk is an American superhero film directed by Ang Lee, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The film follows the story of Bruce Banner, played by Eric Bana, who transforms into the giant, green monster known as the Hulk in response to conflict after exposure to dangerous radiation levels.

Despite a mixed reception upon its release, the film's heavy use of CGI to bring the Hulk to life has been widely criticized. The transformation was well executed, but the model and movement of the character were flawed, resulting in an unrealistic appearance. Additionally, the use of CGI to create enemies like Hulk dogs was seen as overly cartoonish and detracting from the Hulk's menacing image. Overall, despite the superhero's immense popularity, the poor quality of the CGI in this film reduced the impact of the Hulk's powers and abilities.

RELATED: 10 Great-Looking Movies From Before the Age of CGI

3 The Mummy Returns (2001)

The Mummy Returns is a Hollywood adventure film directed and written by Stephen Sommers. The film follows the mummified body of Imhotep being transported to a museum in London, where it is resurrected by a cult and begins a reign of terror and anger. Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Some commented that the film neglected its characters and used the storyline to showcase special effects.

The film also faced criticism for its excessive use of CGI, particularly for the character Scorpion King, played by Dwayne Johnson. He was poorly designed, with rigid, jittery movements that did not blend well with his surroundings, earning a place among the worst CGI creations in movie history. The VFX supervisor acknowledged the subpar CGI quality and attributed it to a lack of reference material.

2 Jurassic World (2015)

Jurassic World is a science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow. In the movie, a theme park named "Jurassic World," which features cloned dinosaurs has been successfully operating on an island for years. However, the park descends into chaos when a genetically engineered dinosaur escapes its enclosure and goes on a killing spree. At the same time, a conspiracy arranged by the park's employees adds to the danger. Despite mixed reactions from critics and audiences, the film was a commercial success, with fans of the franchise turning out in large numbers.

Still, critics and audiences agreed that the film fell short of Steven Spielberg's original Jurassic Park from 1993, with one of the main concerns being the overuse of bad CGI. Compared to the effects and puppetry used in the original film, the CGI in Jurassic World pales, with over 2,000 instances used throughout the movie.

1 Expendables 3 (2014)

The Expendables 3 is a movie directed by Patrick Hughes and is the third installment of The Expendables franchise. The story revolves around the mercenary group known as The Expendables, as they face a conflict with the ruthless arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), who is intent on destroying the team.

The Expendables movie franchise has faced criticism in the past for its overuse of CGI, but The Expendables 3 takes it to a whole new level. The movie is plagued with unconvincing visual effects, from explosions to helicopters that look like they're from a cheap video game to a poorly executed parachute deployment effect. The film received low ratings and has a 31% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.