“The World’s Greatest Detective.”
It’s one of the many nicknames associated with Batman, yet it’s the one that Hollywood has cared the least about. “The Caped Crusader” has been the starting point for any Batman script, always the story of a lonely warrior on a quest for justice all while wearing a thin curtain on his back. “The Dark Knight” is so omnipresent, it’s the one thing that keeps Batman in the realm of movies made for grown-ups. But few (if any) of the winged freak’s numerous live action movies have shown or developed Bruce Wayne’s skills that aren’t intimidation or violence. Not that those aren’t fun things to see (who wouldn’t want to see a guy in a makeshift fighter jet dropping missiles on a crazy clown?), but lately it’s been showing the signs of how little you can do with Batman on the big screen. It makes you wonder what would happen if Batman was dropped into another kind of movie like, say, a noir detective mystery? Or a hardened crime thriller?
For better or worse, you can wonder no more. The Batman sees its titular hero (Robert Battin-sorry, Pattinson) two years into his tenure as the Big Black Bat. He’s not a widely-known name in Gotham City, but popular enough to strike fear in the hearts of every streetwalking criminal that sees a dark corner. The only ally he has in the streets is Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), who brings Batman onto the scene of a brutal murder of a local politician with mysterious clues, one even addressed to the Bat himself. Though his faithful butler Alfred (Andy Serkis) wants him to focus on his family’s fortune, Bruce Wayne starts to untangle the web of haunting clues left by the so-called Riddler (Paul Dano) and how his alter ego factors into it. One who also supposedly factors into it is Oz Cobblepot (Colin Farrell), a mid-level Gotham gangster who oversees the lewd nightlife of the city’s cops, attorneys and other high-ranking officials. But Batman’s not the only one on the case, as the alluring Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) is trying to infiltrate Cobblepot’s organization to help a friend and maybe score some money on the side.
Commendations should be given to co-writer/director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, War of the Planet of the Apes), who fully commits to putting Batman in the world of a classic noir detective thriller. The influences are very obvious, from Pattinson’s droll narration reminiscent of Harrison Ford in Blade Runner to coded clues that harken back to Zodiac. Hell, Reeves owes a lot of royalties to David Fincher as Zodiac and especially Seven are the most blatant inspirations on display. From the near-constant rainfall flooding Gotham city to Riddler’s hideout looking exactly like John Doe’s manic apartment setup, you’re almost waiting for Batman to scream “WHAT’S IN THE BOX” when he finally comes face-to-face with the spectacled supervillain. While it borders on plagiarism, the world of The Batman is fully-realized and does a good job setting the mood (and the rules) of this particular movie’s universe. There’s an endless sea of corruption at the top of Gotham that feeds the scum roaming the alleyways, but Reeves doesn’t wink at the audience to let them know the fun of Batman’s crime fighting is on the way. Even the moments of brightness are harsh on the characters’ faces, like they’d rather scurry back into shadows with the rest of Gotham’s rats. You just sit in Gotham’s stew of decaying buildings and low-lit sidewalks fully accepting that even an avenging hero has to get blood on his hands to see justice done.
Speaking of said hero, sadly, the biggest problem with The Batman is Batman himself. Almost everything in The Batman works, from the fully-realized setting to the practical-looking action scenes (especially in the finale) to the well-timed use of lighting and especially one of the best scores a Batman movie has ever had courtesy of Michael Giacchino (Up, Star Trek Beyond, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). And yet all of that is thrown off whenever the guy in the hulking batsuit shows up. It’s nice when Batman has the methods or even just the aura of a cool private investigator, but there’s something truly odd about a man dressed as a bat literally knocking on the front door of a nightclub and trying to look imposing. As cute as it is to see Batman and Gordon having great chemistry while examining evidence, seeing Battinson’s plastic ears huddled between the grumpiest of Gotham’s cops borders on farcical. Reeves’s commitment to the noir detective thriller style has robbed this Batman a lot of his mystique. If this was just Pattinson in a trench coat smoking cigarettes in the moonlight and trying to take down a corrupt Mayor of some sort, say a modern day Chinatown, it would be a wickedly enjoyable stylized thriller. So while the movie’s structure is solid, Batman’s presence throws things for a loop.
Balance has always been a problem in Batman movies, specifically when their directors lose focus on the Caped Crusader and let his surrounding elements overtake the story. Tim Burton cared more about how his grotesque kinky freaks ran wild in Batman Returns, Joel Schumacher let gaudiness be the guiding force during his Batman tenure and even Christopher Nolan could barely find a spot for Bats in the bloat of The Dark Knight Rises. The problem with The Batman script by Reeves and Peter Craig (The Town, Bad Boys for Life) is that they have two really good, but underdeveloped stories mushed into each other without ever really gelling. There’s Batman the mob hunter, working with Selina Kyle to take on Gotham’s criminal empire (complete with an excellent supporting turn by John Turturro as mob boss Carmine Falcone) as his first big challenge in the batsuit. Then there’s Batman the gumshoe, following the breadcrumbs laid out by the Riddler and trying to discover if his violent nightlife is helping or hurting Gotham. It gives the movie’s pace a one step forward, two steps back dynamic, where every time we get some enticing development to the mob story, we have to stop and give some time to the Riddler story and vice versa. Either one of those stories could make for their own solo Batman movie, not to mention more time to develop this new version of Bruce Wayne, but making the audience stop one to go back to the other makes what could’ve been a tight and fleshed-out two hour adventure an overlong 174-minute mystery that is both bold and underwhelming. You end up admiring specific parts of The Batman rather than how the movie flows as a whole.
That’s nothing to do with the performances here. Pattinson in the batsuit may look awkward at first, but he develops a presence that is equal parts patient and intimidating. He glides through scenes with a cool, assured attitude that is unique to his own take while also fitting the mood of Batman’s character. He says very little behind the cape and cowl because his eyes pierce through everything he looks at and his bits of aggression break through in very tense ways. It’s a shame that the near three-hour running time doesn’t give him more time to give his take on Bruce Wayne more than just clothed brooding and shirtless brooding. If that’s not enough sex appeal for your comic book movie, Kravitz carries that load with ease. Her Selina Kyle could lead her own spy thriller as she walks into every scene with an immediate alluring aura. Kravitz has had off-the-charts screen charisma in movies for years and the sleazy scuzz all throughout The Batman gives her the chance to toy and then topple over her co-stars. Wright is great as Jim Gordon, fulfilling the role of being the grounded, more-human foil to Batman’s intensity. You get the sense that this early version of Gordon and Batman’s relationship is more like a buddy cop dynamic rather than Batman just using Gordon as a means to an end. Farrell is having the time of his life as Cobblepot, breaking through the confines of his makeup (and lack of smoking) to thrive as a Joe Mantegna understudy. Dano’s approach to the Riddler as some sort of faux intellectual turned unhinged Internet terrorist has moments of terrifying intensity. His first appearance in the movie is a scarier Michael Meyers homage than anything in the recent Halloween soft reboots. He takes his time to truly relish in how hopelessly unprepared Batman is when they come face-to-face, though there are a few moments where he plays things a bit too crazy, like a Warner Bros. producer is telling him off-camera to just do Heath Ledger’s Joker.
There is a lot to like in The Batman and given how desperate Warner Bros. has been in the past to catch-up to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s good to know they’re still willing to let a filmmaker craft a DC movie that’s so singular. It actually harkens back to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, also a radical reimagining of a timeless superhero that had plenty of problems, but dared to be something different. While its influences are obvious and once again thinks an overload of story makes for an engrossing movie, The Batman has elements to it that are exciting enough to follow-up on in a sequel. In terms of Batman movies, it actually has more in common with Batman Begins as a starting point for a new era of the Caped Crusader. He’s intense but caring and truly earns the title of hero by the movie’s finale, and that’s enough to be satisfied, if not entirely thrilled, by the exhaustive journey into Gotham’s heart of darkness. It’s nice that we’ve seen the entire complex canvas that Reeves has painted, but getting us to keep coming back to it means he (or whoever else takes the reins of the franchise) has to know what to focus on. And it’s hard to miss a winged freak flying on rooftops.
3/4
jwinkla 