'The Batman' returns, and he's ... fine
WB
So we’re doing this again. The third person to play Batman in the last decade (fourth if you count Will Arnett’s “Lego” version), as if Batman and Spider-Man were locked in an epic battle for the most versions in the shortest time frame, which of course is inaccurate because property rights ensure the two characters can’t face off ever. But it’s hard not to wonder if even those who love the superhero era feel like we’ve emerged into a new level of overkill and familiarity to the point of numbness.
If it seems like this review is in no hurry, that’s because the nearly-three-hour “The Batman” isn’t either. Directed and co-written by Matt Reeves, the film is hardly the first DC adaptation to feel murky and bleak. But, outside of a handful of surprising and surprisingly effective bits of humor, this might be one of the grimiest, darkest depictions of a comic book character, refusing any cartoonish glee and doubling-down on an intense film noir that just happens to feature a man in a bat suit (Robert Pattinson) pursuing a guy who calls himself the Riddler (Paul Dano).
It’s not as if the Batfleck years are sacred or anything, and even the Christian Bale/Christopher Nolan “Batman” trilogy can feel bloated or painfully serious in hindsight. The Keaton, Kilmer and Clooney Batmen feel ages ago. But “The Batman” needed a stronger narrative to justify its length and its redundancy, inevitably plopping us back into Bruce Wayne’s isolated world and contextualizing it with the murder of his parents and the progressive disintegration of Gotham’s social stability. That this time it comes in the form of a very generic story of possible corruption between criminals, government officials and police officers is barely enough to generate a shrug. It’s hard not to want to fast-forward the Dark Knight’s investigation, especially in a few moments when the movie and the character choose forced complication over being intellectually sound.
That the ultimately disappointing enterprise remains watchable is a testament to a few killer sequences and the charisma of Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, arguably the only cast member to instill freshness into her performance. Pattinson is a good, straight line here, but the role removes much of what makes him an electric performer. Dano does about what you’d think Dano would do, and there isn’t quite enough of Colin Farrell’s amazingly unrecognizable Penguin to comment; he’s just here to be a villain later on.
So after all the hype and length and analysis, we arrive at neither the best Batman nor the worst, just another one. If it’s neither fun nor searing, even those iconic pointy ears might struggle to hear the point.
C+
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