The Batman Review

The highly-anticipated reboot of the Batman character is finally here, and I can safely say that it does not disappoint. I am very close to claiming it to be a masterpiece, and I feel comfortable pairing it right next to The Dark Knight in terms of quality. The Dark Knight will always have the greatest villain performance, but the portrayals of the characters in this film I believe to be stronger than those in The Dark Knight.

When I first heard that Robert Pattinson was cast as Batman, I thought it was a great pick. After watching his performance in 2019’s The Lighthouse, I felt completely confident that he would nail his performance as Batman, which he did. All of the live-action Batman movies incorporate the character being somewhat tortured in specific moments of the film, but in this movie, you can see the scaring on him in every scene and especially during action scenes. The aspect of Batman that I think is the most interesting is how he takes the trauma he’s experienced from witnessing the death of his parents out onto the criminals in Gotham, and that’s the side of Batman they explore in this film. They also do a good job at making Batman feel like a fearful force with their use of low-angle shots and him entering the scene through shadows. His performance was the highlight of the film, but the supporting cast all gave great performances as well.

Every performance for the cast felt like the characters jumping straight from the comic book, especially those coming from Catwoman and commissioner Gordon. The only performance that felt like a deviation from the source material was Paul Dano as the Riddler, but his performance felt appropriate for this film. His performance was far from the wacky take that Jim Carrey had in Batman Forever and was much more of a serial killer type.

The one aspect of the movie that I thought brought it down a little was the run time. The film has a run time of 2 hours and 56 minutes, and by the end of the movie, you will feel the runtime. With that being said, I wouldn’t say that I wasn’t engaged throughout the film. Still, by the end of it you’ll want it to be over because it truly is a long movie. I’ve seen plenty of 3hr films before, and it’s rare to say that I couldn’t imagine them trimming certain section off to reduce the run time because I don’t feel they could with this movie. I remember when I saw the director’s cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I was miserable by the end of it not only because it was a bad movie, but also because it was a three-hour nightmare where they could have easily trimmed about 45 minutes off the run time and the story would be the same. Going into this movie, I was very nervous, given the expectations leading up to it. I’m always hesitant going into the film with high expectations because I’m afraid that the movie won’t be able to live up to it. However, I can safely say that The Batman does live up to the hype making it one of the greatest Batman films ever made and maybe one of the best films released this year.