The Batman (2022 | USA | 176 minutes | Matt Reeves)

Here is an exercise for people in the Puget Sound region: Imagine what downtown Seattle looks like through the eyes of viewers of the Sinclair-owned KOMO News or the chronic malcontents that lurk on Safe Seattle’s Facebook page. You’d probably imagine a dystopian shithole whose best days are all in the distant past. If you then imagine something ten times more desolate, you’d get an idea of what Gotham City looks like in the newest DC Comics film: The Batman. 

Gotham’s issues are largely from neglect and corruption. Before his murder, Thomas Wayne bequeathed Gotham City with a billion dollar endowment that renews itself every so often and the city leaders have bled it dry by using as their own personal slush fund. Bruce Wayne has grown into a reclusive man that doesn’t get out much as his own persona and has internalized his trauma from viewing his parents’ murder. He has no interest in the billionaire playboy that has dominated other portrayals since the mid-twentieth century. With his take on Batman, Robert Pattinson is much darker in the role than we’ve previously seen. If you thought Christian Bale’s performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman was too silly in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, I have just the movie for you. With the possible exception of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker movie, this is the darkest Batman or Batman-adjacent movie I’ve seen. I’ll need to watch them both again to make a declaration, but I’m in no rush to do that.

Desolate shithole or not, the noir-ish world-building of Gotham City is remarkable and it’s every bit as important to this story as Batman is. 

I really loved all three hours of it. 

As per canon, Batman is working in tandem with police commissioner Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) in trying to make Gotham a safer place. Batman is happy to take on Jokerfied subway hooligans and such until Gotham is under imminent threat from a mysterious, menacing villain who is set on killing all of the corrupt public officials in Gotham. Life is not long for the mayor, district attorney, and police chief and anyone else on the take. This bad guy leaves behind puzzles, or riddles, for “the Batman” each time he commits a murder. Paul Dano is absolutely menacing in his performance as “the Riddler.” 

The complexity of the relationship between Batman and Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) is also very well done because they might have similar goals for how to navigate Gotham, but their loyalties lie with different entities so they’re both aware a relationship wouldn’t work.

Much has been made of the long running time. The Batman is just under three hours long. A lot can go wrong over three hours, but I didn’t mind the length because the movie was well done and I was never bored with it. Or maybe I should say I wouldn’t have minded the running time if I didn’t foolishly purchase a large soda from the snack bar. 

One of the more tired debates that happens online is about whether or not it’s good that so much of the film industry is centered on comic book movies these days. They do seem to be ubiquitous but I have no interest in arguing if that’s good or bad. One thing I do think is undeniable is that there is a lot of money thrown their way and they are getting some wildly talented filmmakers to direct these blockbusters. It doesn’t always pan out, but there is often a lot of creativity that goes into films of this scale. The Batman is one where I think the gamble paid off. I hope we get a few more films out of this Matt Reeves/Robert Pattinson collaboration. 

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The Batman opens in theaters on Friday, March 4.