Two years of stalking the night streets of Gotham as the Batman (Robert Pattinson) and Bruce Wayne is no closer to his goal of deterring crime. Murder and mayhem are at record highs before Gotham’s mayoral election. The city is turned upside down when the sitting mayor is murdered in his home by a criminal called the Riddler (Paul Dano) who leaves provocative clues and letters for the Batman to solve. With the heart of the city’s rampant corruption pointing towards Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and his right hand Oswald “The Penguin” (Colin Farrell), Batman will turn to cat burglar Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) and Lt. Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) to stop the Riddler’s sinister plot.
Another day, another take on the world’s greatest detective. With the fan-dubbed DCEU “Snyderverse” floundering in the wake of the critical drubbing of Batman v Superman and the horrible theatrical version of Justice League and Ben Affleck’s exit from his own solo project, Planet of the Apes shepherd Matt Reeves was brought in to deliver hungry Bat-fans a fresh new take on the masked vigilante. Moving away from the heavily Frank Miller-inspired material of the last films, Reeves' The Batman pulls pieces of the classic Long Halloween storyline while cherrypicking bits and pieces of Batman lore that’s part classic early Bill Finger Batman and part gritty hard-boiled Dashiell Hammett detective with nods to the Arkham games and even the 1966 television series. The cape and cowl are practically lifted from Mike Mignola’s Gotham By Gaslight design.
For my part, I loved The Batman, gleefully going to see it at IMAX three times in as many weeks ahead of its arrival on HBO Max where I've honestly lost track how many times I've watched it. This is the kind of thing I want to see in a Batman film for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Nolan films are good - well the first two of the three - but Batman still was relatively an incidental figure compared to the life of Bruce Wayne when it should be the other way around. Bruce Wayne is Batman, not Batman is Bruce Wayne. This Batman is still raw and new to the streets but cuts an imposing figure ready to strike fear into the hearts of Gotham’s criminal element. This film gives him strikingly little time out of the cape and cowl and when he is out from under the mask, he’s far from the attractive hunky billionaire playboy. This nightlife of crimefighting has taken its toll and he genuinely looks like crap.
Ever the faithful servant, Alfred Pennyworth, this time played by Apes actor Andy Serkis is aimed as a man coming to terms with the monster he helped create. He knows he’s powerless to stop Bruce’s mission as Batman so he does all he can to help. He doesn’t stop to splay out some nonsensical rambling metaphor, he's the one who trained Bruce and gets to work helping him with the case in spite of any misgivings because at this point it's the only way he can help keep him alive.
No Batman film is complete without a Gordon to work with. This time we’re treated to Jeffrey Wright as Lt. Gordon. He’s an early friend of Batman regularly working with him and consulting on cases, but Batman hasn’t won over all of the cops in the city. The corrupt have reason to fear him but the honest cops still don’t know what to make of this vigilante. Wright's Gordon has to walk that thin line of trust between turning to a masked crime fighter and working with his brothers in blue.
Zoë Kravitz delivers a terrific Selina Kyle. She’s not full-on “Catwoman” - but she’s definitely a master thief who isn’t above stealing from the rich or corrupt to line her own pockets. Using a bike chain as a whip is a nice touch. This is another strong spot where Reeves nailed the relationship between the Bat and the Cat. She’ll help Batman as long as it serves her interests but she’s not going to share his mission. I also dug that instead of a cat-like mask she’s turned a black puss*hat into a makeshift balaclava.
Standing tall for the ciminal element of Gotham is John Turturro as crime boss Carmine Falcone with Colin Farrel delivering an amazing performance as The Penguin. They're gangsters rolling legit enterprises but they've managed to pocket essential city servants. Then there’s Paul Dano as the Riddler. This 8chan fringe conspiracy extremist version of Riddler is just damn chilling and like Pattinson, Dano gets very little actual face time instead hiding behind an arctic combat mask streaming his crimes to his followers. He's John Doe fromSe7enmeets the Zodiac.
Top to bottom The Batman is an exciting fresh take. Perhaps the film runs a tad long, but for the life of me, I can’t figure a scene that could be cut out to tighten it up. Some trims here and there maybe, but that wouldn’t dramatically bring in the runtime. In all honesty, I didn’t want less - I wanted more. This was one of first films in a long time that made me feel like when I saw The Fellowship of the Ring where I get to the credits and I’m ready to watch the next film. Since that wasn’t an option I just kept going back to my local IMAX as often as I could.
Thanks to Colin Farrel’s excellent turn as the Penguin, HBO Max is moving forward with its spinoff series while at Cinemacon it was confirmed that Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson will be coming back for another round of caped crusading. I’ve been a Batman fan damn near my whole life and I’m always game for a new movie. While I know this one wasn’t for everyone and aren't as enthusiastic about it as I am, that's totally cool. But I do have to point out how damn awesome it is that we’re getting a Flash movie featuring Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton in costume with Keaton returning for Batgirl as well. It’s a damn cool time to be a Batman fan at the theater.
Vital Disc Stats: The 4K UltraHD Blu-ray
Warner Bros unleashes The Batman to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in a three-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Set. The 4K disc is pressed on a BD-100 disc with the 1080p on a BD-50 with another BD-25 disc for the bonus features. The discs are housed in a three-disc Elite case with identical slipcover artwork. Each disc sits on an individual tray and is not stacked on top of other discs. Each disc loads to a static image main menu with basic navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. The included digital copy can be redeemed through Movies Anywhere and will port to all connected and supported digital streaming services.
