In regards to The Batman, the big question everyone (that is, everyone who hasn’t seen the film) keeps asking is: how does Robert Pattinson fare as Batman? I believe the actual question should’ve been: how fares The Batman as a Batman movie?

To answer both: quite good, actually.

Directed and co-written by Matt Reeves, who helmed the last two Planet of the Apes films (his associate screenwriter is Peter Craig), The Batman is an ode to the essence of Batman. That is, the Batman reimagined by writer Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli in the milestone comic book Batman: Year One — which rebooted Batman in 1987, won numerous awards and set the tone for subsequent Batman books.

The story in The Batman is actually year two — as shown on the cover of a file he keeps — and with this slight alteration, Reeves smartly let’s go of the done-to-death sequences that lead to the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, his discovery of the cave filled with bats, and the idea that inspired him to a life of vigilantism as the Dark Knight of Gotham city.

Matt Reeves’ The Batman featuring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader is deliberately different from any previous Batman film

When The Batman begins (no pun intended), we see that his influence as the vigilante has already taken a toll on average criminals. One such hoodlum, fresh from a crime, gets scared of the dark, and narrowly avoids becoming roadkill when he gazes long and hard into a shadowy area across the street. Such is the terror of Batman — a man of vengeance (the word gets used a lot, and not without purpose).

Gotham, though, is a cesspool of crime, and while the Batman wasn’t in the shadows of the last alley, he does walk in from another shadow to help save a young man from bullies who look like a gang of jokers (they wear white make-up with marker-painted slits for smiles).

After Reeves establishes Batman’s take down of low-level crime, the plot introduces us to another masked vigilante — The Riddler (eventually revealed as actor Paul Dano), who has started his own crime-cleansing spree against corrupt people in high-power positions. His clean-up starts with the Mayor of Gotham, and runs right up to noted mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).

Falcone should be a familiar face to comic book readers; he is one of Batman’s early foils and the space the character gets in Reeves’ film is a happy surprise. The story also effortlessly introduces Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) and Oswald Cobblepott aka The Penguin (Collin Farrell in make-up that would have given the film an Oscar nomination, if it had been released sooner).

Reeves’ Batman is still a neophyte who is fine-tuning his craft. When he is summoned by Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) via the bat signal to the scene of the crime, rather than do his famous (and much-parodied) appearing-disappearing act, he simply walks into the room after Gordon — and to his and our astonishment — is stopped by a rookie cop.

Contrary to Gordon’s confidence — who is still a lieutenant and not the commissioner — the police, we’re told, don’t like working with Batman. The Dark Knight’s inclusion, however, is a necessity, because the Riddler is leaving clues for Batman.

The Batman is probably the first film where the ace detective actually does some detective work, albeit with assistance from his butler Alfred (Andy Serkis), who is actually as astute as he was in the comics.

The film is too long though — not that I’m complaining; others might — and one can see that Reeves is enthused by the comics, as we piece together the clues he leaves for us. There are clear mentions of Hush, a popular comic book story, and the climax takes inspiration from the No Man’s Land story arc which devastated Gotham (No Man’s Land was also a point of inspiration in Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises).

Arkham and Wayne family’s history is superficially delved into but, rather than leave teasers that can be retrofitted into sequels, the tidbits we see are weaved directly into this film’s plot. The story and the screenplay are very well-written, indeed.

Reeves’ film is deliberately different from any previous Batman film. It reverberates with Michael Giacchino’s unremitting background score (seriously, the score never ends), Grieg Fraser’s reality-mimicking, moody cinematography, and the thick ambience fittingly designed by production designer James Chinlund. In comparison to other superhero films, The Batman has few action sequences, and for some this might be a letdown.

With The Batman initiating a new shared universe of two sequels and two series for HBO Max (one about the Gotham city police department, the other centering on the Penguin), this Batman-exclusive film universe, free from the undecided storytelling paths and shenanigans of the Zack Snyder started DCU films, is, literally, a breath of fresh air for DC and Warner Bros.

Right now, WB has a good thing on their hands; I just hope they don’t bungle it up.

Released by Warner Bros. The Batman is rated PG-13. It is dark, moody, wonderful, and perhaps the third-best Batman movie to date (the first two would be, Tim Burton’s Batman and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight)

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 13th, 2022