Before I talk about The Batman (2022), I think it’s important that I give you my long and sordid history as a viewer and fan of this franchise- Just kidding, I wouldn’t put you through that. I’ll just start with the plot. Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) is a chronic insomniac and orphaned son of one of those dot com millionaires. He’s also Batman, a vigilante and not great detective with a heart of gold. A mouth-breathing incel who calls himself The Riddler (Paul Dano) is making trouble in the metropolis-like city of Gotham by kidnapping and murdering city officials and leaving nursery rhymes for babies as clues. Batman is the only one who can stop him. Luckily, he has an erudite cop (Jeffrey Wright) and a supermodel/cat burglar (Zoë Kravitz) to save his butt when he keeps failing miserably at his job.
It’s as if the whole world seems to hold its breath when there’s a new Batman movie coming out. Years from now, people will not be able to understand why the fuck this franchise became such a juggernaut. Anyway, I’m happy to report that The Batman is good and now we can all go back to wasting our lives on our phones. While doing all the familiar plot elements that we’ve come to expect from a Caped Crusader adventure, this film leaves out Batman’s more superhero-y vibes and makes him a naïve screw-up who has only been at this game for a short while. Pattison isn’t afraid to let Batman look foolish. We get to see Batman failing left and right as he’s still learning how to be The Batman. I also really like this take on Bruce Wayne who is more Lydia Deetz than James Bond.
The cast is good and everyone rises to the challenge of delivering the goods under the pressure of being under the comic book movie microscope. The music score by Michael Giacchino is my new favorite music for any Batman film. The dude loves a good dirge driving the music along and so do I. The cinematography of Greig Fraser is especially exciting. There’s a lot of feverish blurring of the edges in many shots, giving this a claustrophobic and sick feeling. It’s almost like Batman is mentally ill or something! The engrossing screenwriting is super solid and the emphasis on making a great noir detective film first and a superhero movie second is greatly appreciated by yours truly.
I don’t mind long movies at all. Some of my best friends are long movies. The one thing I can gripe about with The Batman is its three endings. It felt like Matt Reeves and company had enough material for two movies but were worried that if things didn’t work out, they’d never finish this story for a part two. I’m relieved that they made this into one film, but that last half hour or more with the big finale and the denouement and the second denouement is particularly hard to sit through just because the film has just worn me down. Maybe we should bring back intermissions! That would be nice. Make it a chapter you can’t skip on the Blu-ray.
Warner Brothers loaded this 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital combo with a whole bunch of extras. Piles and piles of slick featurettes are all over this thing and I don’t think anyone will have anything to complain about here. I was most curious to see the deleted scene with The Joker and yep, it’s there. It’s very nice.