TMS Movie Review: The Batman
(DC Films / Warner Bros. Pictures)
When the trailer for Matt Reeves’ new DC interpretation, The Batman, dropped last year, I promised myself I wouldn’t see it. I can’t think of a more overexposed fictional universe that has overstayed its welcome than Batman/Gotham. Like other classic franchises, such as Star Wars or Superman, it’s just the same characters in the same location with the same storylines every time. Even the title, The Batman, shows we’re running out of names to call new Bats movies. And yet…here I am. Mostly because nothing more interesting was released in theaters this week. One of my main gripes with any Batman movie is that we always get an obligatory flashback to how Bruce Wayne’s parents died, as if their fate wasn’t already part of the most famous origin story in comic history. I thought maybe Reeves and co. would at least do us all a favor and spare us the repetitiveness. Well, there isn’t a literal flashback this time. But the whole plot revolves around Bruce’s family history.
It’s 2022 in Gotham City. Once again, we have Bruce/Batman (Robert Pattinson), Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Edward Nashton/The Riddler (Paul Dano), Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Colin Farrell), Commissioner Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and Alfred the Butler (Andy Serkis) as our flashy characters. In this universe, things are neither cartoony nor hyper realistic a la Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012). Instead, we have art direction and production design akin to an emo music video from fifteen years ago. Key political figures keep disappearing or turning up dead because of the Riddler and the more Bruce learns about his motives, the more he discovers it has to do with his father’s own past political career. While trying to track down the disturbed villain’s whereabouts, Bruce comes across a local cat burglar, Selina, who wants vengeance for her innocent roommate’s murder.
(DC Films / Warner Bros. Pictures)
On paper, The Batman does have a lot going for it. Reeves is a decent director, famous for Cloverfield (2008), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). Pattinson leads his first big-budget studio film since the Twilight film series ended in 2012, and the supporting cast is filled with talent (as is usually the case with Batman flicks). But for the most part, I’m struggling to see who The Batman is for. Aesthetically, it looks like the perfect Batman movie for any teen fan in 2006. But most blockbusters/action movies are supposed to cater to young viewers, and I’m not even sure if enough teenagers and 20somethings care about the emo vibe. Though, with how well the movie’s already doing at the box-office and with other critics, maybe superhero fatigue has finally hit me. I will say, if there is one hero to appropriately give an emo makeover, it would be Batman, with his famous moodiness and aloofness. Catwoman is supposedly bisexual with this version according to Kravitz, yet Selina flip-flops back and forth between calling her roommate ‘baby’ and only her friend. Of course, this could easily just be a cover for the pair’s safety, but we never get this confirmation on screen, disappointingly.
The direction and performances in The Batman are fine, and I think giving Bruce a makeover was interesting compared to previous iterations of the character. I’m sure there will always be new and longtime fans of DC/Gotham who will visit the movie theater to see the man in black. But personally, I’m just so sick of these characters and could probably go a whole decade without seeing them on screen. Maybe if Zack Snyder’s whole Justice League universe hadn’t existed in the 2010s, I would have warmed to The Batman more, instead of feeling over it.