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The history of the Batman on the big screen is a tale of ups and downs. And depending on who’s watching, the perception of the character itself is as diverse as the many versions portrayed in comic books and on screen. From the terrible campiness of Batman and Robin, released in 1997, to the haunting final scenes of The Dark Night Returns, released in 2008, Batman has gone through it all.
Then there is 2022’s The Batman, a triumph to some, an epic failure to others.
Following on the heels of Christopher Nolan’s superb The Dark Knight trilogy, any filmmaker would have struggled to find an angle, an attitude with which to deal with the character of Batman that would feel stylish and fresh. Co-writer/director Matt Reeves, a master of visual style and big canvass cinematic storytelling, tries to do just that, choosing to start his version in year two of the Batman’s adventures. It’s a risky but potentially rewarding move, giving the film an urgency and a freshness that could pat off.
But the problem with The Batman is apparent from the get-go. It is the film’s tone. From the first few minutes, the ominous music and Robert Pattinson’s heavy-handed voice over, there’s something off about this approach. And it becomes clear as the story progresses and the minutes, and then the hours, pile up, the filmmakers behind this tale take more wrong steps than right ones.
With a convoluted and tired plot involving everything from a serial killer, to crime bosses The Penguin and Carmine Falcone, to a vengeful Catwoman, to Bruce Wayne’s struggles with his own past, nothing here feels new or compelling. Under layers of special make-up, Colin Farrell as The Penguin is little more than a rehash of Robert DeNiro’s Al Capone from 1987’s The Untouchables, and Paul Dano’s portrayal of The Riddler is a terrible miscalculation on every level, coming off as annoying, laughable, and deeply embarrassing to watch. Zoe Kravitz is serviceable as Selina Kyle a.k.a Catwoman, but the fault lies mostly with the writing, taking one of DC Comics’ most fascinating anti-heroines and turning her into a resentful, psychologically bland character who is basically little more than a victim.
Then there’s Robert Pattinson as The Batman. Pattinson, a charismatic and photogenic actor, isn’t really the right choice for Bruce Wayne/The Batman. He has the good looks, but lacks the physicality and the nuance needed for such a psychologically complex character. His performance is good but ultimately unremarkable, and again the confused script doesn’t help. Of the main cast, only Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone acquit themselves.
Which brings us to the main problem with The Batman. Matt Reeves. As co-writer and director, Reeves is wholly to blame for why the movie doesn’t work. It is obvious that Reeves tries to present Batman in a new light, one that is timely, politically correct, and, at the same time, admirable. It is a near-impossible task, and Reeves’s approach, an off-putting combination of po-faced seriousness and emotional manipulation, works against a story that needs all the help it can get.
Arguably, Reeves and company seem to be making some sort of statement against mob rule, violence, and sentiment overruling reason, but, at the same time, the approach is emotionally manipulative, and the script’s attempts at rationalizing victimhood, terrorism, and thievery as the last resort of the so-called oppressed, is problematic to say the least. Reeves also seems intent on deflating and demythologizing Batman, depicting him as a rash, occasionally violent vigilante who is in many ways responsible for inspiring violent, resentful, and mentally unbalanced individuals, an inversion of everything the character of Batman has ever stood for. This narrative choice might have come off much better if Bruce Wayne’s motives and psychology were delved into with any semblance of depth, which is not the case here. This seems to stem from Reeves himself not having much love for the character of Batman. In a Time magazine interview, he calls The Batman, “completely sheltered and has this moral superiority… He encounters Catwoman in the underworld and assumes she’s morally corrupt. And he’s entirely wrong about her because he didn’t have to struggle.”
The movie does end on a thought-provoking note, with a humbled and contemplative Batman rethinking his approach, and trying harder to set a better example. But it is a downbeat ending to a downbeat film, which commits the cardinal sin of being the least entertaining Batman film ever made, and one which fails where it really counts: presenting Batman as a hero who is flawed, but, in the end, an inspiration.
Overall, The Batman is a morose and bloated film. At its best, it is visually stylish. At its worst, it comes off as a mediocre crime drama which happens to feature Batman.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.
Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer
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