The Batman (2022)

Written by Horseface on April 23, 2022

I am so tired of superhero movies. Still, being down with a mild case of Corona, I wanted something to watch that'd go down easy, and The Batman was available, so I picked it.

I have to say that this, to me, is one of the rare superhero movies that appeal to me. And that's after having seen every other Batman movie since Tim Burton's 1989 one. And, I dare say, even with me being fed up with superhero movies, I think this is the best attempt.

At three hours, it feels like binge-watching a three-part miniseries. And by that I mean both that to the extent that it is three acts, they almost perfectly align with an hour each, and also that the pacing is great, and I never got bored.

The cast is excellent. Also, for the first time ever, I'm not thinking that it's ridiculous that no one recognizes Bruce Wayne as Batman. The half-mask actually makes Bruce Wayne unrecognizable. I'm not sure if they thought of that during casting, but it's really quite impressive.

It's also nice to not have to suffer through a pathetic attempt from Batman to make his voice sound cool. Oh dear, Christian Bale trying to look and sound cool was just so cringey. Robert Pattinson is by far the best Batman I've ever seen. The almost depressive mental torment he conveys does not come off as fake or pretension, and that's a first for the Batman franchise as far as I'm concerned.

The mood is bleak without being depressive, the score is fantastic, if a bit too much, the cinematography is amazing, I really have very little to fault here. If anything, it may come off as a little pretentious and self-indulgent, but that's also part of the attraction, and if I'm being completely honest, I think it's more to do with my own "people need to grow up and stop watching these childish things" prejudice I have, when in fact the 15-year-old inside of me f...ing loves it, and I need to embrace that childish part of me rather than hate on it.

If there's anything I would change about this movie, it's what I feel is somewhat of a PG-ification of Batman. I would love to see this movie with all its bleak desperation and lust for vengeance on the depravity and evil in the Gotham world, but with a seriously anti-hero, all-violent, bringer-of-death Batman. I would love to see him - in a more crude outfit, with less bells and whistles, and definitely without the cape - destroy, slay and kill, with exploration of the terrible aftermath it would bring, including the impact on his psyche, rather than the beat-up-and-let-go strategy that he is using in this movie. That part just feels to not align with both the doomish mood that sets the story and the seeming existential depression of our masked protagonist. I think that would warrant yet another installment in this franchise. I'm actually surprised how much meat there is on this character.

Also, if the movie overall is consistently a bit too much, the ending takes it one notch further on that scale.

Regardless, I now have two superhero movies that I keep in my movie collection. The other is Watchmen (Director's Cut).

1 star deducted for Catwoman being racist without it being presented as a problem. The casting of her is perfect, by the way. Much better than Michelle Pfeiffer.