The Batman (2022) - A Fine Effort But Nothing Special!

While MARVEL continues to follow the same timeline of events for over 10 years, DC Comics have been jumping between different interpretations of the same characters even since their very first movie adaptations. Seemingly unable to have one timeline stick. And this recent film about Gotham's dark knight is no different. We now have yet another actor playing the popular superhero, but does this collaboration between Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves provide a fresh experience?... To me, I would say... No.

Now hear me out, this film is very well made, and is fun to sit down and watch. However, there is key areas that I found to be the film's downfall. The biggest issue is how there's little in this film that makes it unique when put alongside other Batman films. Yes the film is gritty, yes the film has a strong mystery element and a twisted and threatening villain. But it should be noted that so many of the things that this film got so right, are present in many of the other cinematic outings for this character. And while there is elements that this film brings in that I really liked, I wouldn't call them game changing ideas.

I also believe a big issue with this film is it's extremely bloating running time. At just under 3 hours in length, this is by far the longest Batman film produced so far. And sadly, it really shows, because the first two acts of this film suffer from very slow and poorly paced series of events. These sequences aren't bad, but the way the editing paces these moments out, it feels like the film is far longer than it actually is. It felt like I was watching a 5 hour film, instead of a 3 hour one. It's a shame, because films at this length can be greatly beneficial to a film's story, but in the case of this film, I don't think it needed to be this long.

It doesn't help that the film's main antagonist only interacts with our hero ONCE throughout the whole film, and it takes place at the start of the third act. And YES, that scene is superbly acted by Robert Pattinson and Paul Dano, but it could've been so much more. In a way, the structure of the hero/villain interaction is very similar to the Batman/Joker interactions in 2008's The Dark Knight. Starting out as messages being sent to our hero, before meeting the villain face to face later on. Only issue is like I said, these face to face interactions occur ONCE in this film. There could've been more amazing scenes like that, had they cut down the first two acts down just a little bit. The mentions of a mystery woman throughout the film gets drawn out for a "surprise" reveal that most audiences would've seen coming. I would've had the reveal happen much earlier, in order to still be a catalyst for a character's motifs, but without the needlessly drawn out mentions to this mystery person.

Now having just ragged on this film, most would assume I hated it. Far from that in fact! As I said before, the film is beautifully put together. The design of the world is phenomenal from the costumes and vehicles to the design of Gotham itself. The introduction to Batman as a character at the start was really clever, and I appreciated that the narration wasn't overbearing throughout the story. I do think the cinematography looked a little too drab at times, but overall it was still really nice, making use of colour and lighting excellently in the film's action. Robert Pattinson shone at Batman, although I do think his portrayal of Bruce Wayne was rather flat and one noted. I don't put this on the shoulder's of Pattinson though, as it feels others feel just as one noted. Despite that though, the cast all gave superb performances, from the calm and collected, to the deranged and psychotic. MVP for this film is by far Paul Dano, who really leaves you tense and nervous at what he'll do or say next.

I also should bring up the music in this film, which is sadly something else that could've been so much better! It's well produced music, and provides the right emotional motifs to back up a scene, but as with a lot of movie music today, it's just background noise, and holds no real relevance to a character or sequence. It also feels like composer, Michael Giacchino was trying to replicate the repetitive nature of the theme for Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, when giving the dark knight a new theme, but again, it wasn't very memorable, nor did it really feel like it suited the tone of this film. Not awful music by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly leaving a lot to be desired.

Overall, The Batman is simply a fine effort. It's not bad! It's not rubbish! It's simply FINE! I enjoyed watching this film, and will likely go back and give it another go when it reaches home media. But after a mass saturation of Batman centric stories, I feel like Warner Brothers needs to stick with just one incarnation of the character, and run with it for a while. All this changing around is tiresome. Alas, it doesn't appear like this will be the case if the rumour mill is anything to go by. The film is a technical marvel, and features some of the best acting in any of the Batman films. But it's the meat and bones, the story and characterisation, that I felt either had just been repeated, or wasn't reaching it's full potential!

SCORES

Story - 3.5/5

Characters - 3/5

Production - 4/5

Acting - 4/5

Music - 3/5

TOTAL - 7/10