The Batman (2022) Dir. Matt Reeves

After the success of Todd Phillips’ Joker and with their DCEU in a Snyder-cut mess, Warner Bros have decided to reboot their most iconic hero once more, mere months after the last appearance of the Caped Crusader.

Splitting from Marvel’s “universe” idea, the multiple iterations of the same character in different films at the same time doesn't seem to be a problem for savvy comic fans, picking and choosing their favourite versions from what's on offer.

Director Matt Reeves echoes Phillips’ Joker-origins take with an extremely gritty, almost nihilistic tone which features Robert Pattinson as the dark knight. Here, he’s still very much a young man learning the ropes but filled with much more rage. He’s working in a rain-soaked Gotham to uncover political corruption whilst Paul Dano’s Riddler is a serial killer with an online following.

The noir-influenced voiceover that opens the film nods to Frank Miller (both his Sin City adaptation and his Batman: Year One graphic novel) whist the obvious references here are David Fincher’s Se7en (fiery Pattinson as Pitt, Jeffrey Wright’s calm Detective Gordon as Morgan Freeman) and some SAW-style moral-torture traps. The creed Dano’s Riddler recites is pure John Doe from Se7en – being close to plagiarism in one instance.

The recognisable plot points are complimented with exciting new cinematic angles though – a pulsating score of noise by Michael Giacchino, an unrecognisable Colin Farrell with a new take on noted villain Penguin and a neon cityscape providing a seedy canvas for criminal activity. In the negative column is the film’s 176-minute length (c’mon folks, it’s Batman not The Odyssey), whilst the themes are so familiar as to maybe feel a bit been-there-done-that.

However, bringing the positive is Pattinson’s emo-version of Bruce Wayne – a nice inexperienced alternative to the suave smoothness of Christian Bale – and Andy Serkis delivers a credible but underused turn as the veteran butler Alfred. Zoë Kravitz’s excellent Catwoman is the right mix of sultry and sassy and plays an important proactive role rather than a backseat feline.

We see a far greater amount of investigating from the world’s greatest detective in comparison to previous incarnations and there’s more Batman screen-time in the first 20 minutes than the entirety of The Dark Knight Rises.

In the end though, the movie takes enough risks with the well-known material to provide an alternate adaptation away from Snyder’s bombastic Bat-stylings and provide a mystery thriller with a weirdly tacked-on city-destroying finale. Yet overall, what we end up with sits pretty well between the gothic excesses of Burton’s Batman and the dark realism of the Nolan-verse.

It’s not as good as either of those but from nightowls to Nirvana, The Batman wears its cinematic cues on its muscly sleeves and despite a multitude of on-screen appearances in recent years, there’s enough evidence here to prove that it’s worth spending more dark nights with the Dark Knight.

★★★★

Michael Sales