The Batman

One thing I have always liked about Batman is that he is not a true superhero.  He has no superpowers and must rely on his wits, gadgets and his loyal factotum Alfred to help him in his role as a reluctant crime fighter.  One thing I hate about Batman movies is there are just too many of them.  Every movie seems to rehash The Joker or The Penguin, and you always know that Batman is conflicted, brooding and will be doomed to live a lonely life.  Even so, I did like The Batman.  In this iteration, Robert Pattison expertly plays Batman in his early stages; he has barely been Batman for two years.  Most people do not even know who he is yet, and those who do regard him merely as a vigilante.  There is no Robin mentioned throughout the movie. The only person who knows the identity of the mysterious crusader is Lieutenant James Gordon, who is played by one of my favorite actors, Jeffrey Wright.  (Yes, not-yet-commissioner Gordon). This is indeed a brooding, film-noir type Batman movie.  There is no time or place for humor or lightness.  There is a really disturbed serial killer on the loose, The Riddler (Paul Dano), who leaves twisted clues among grotesque corpses all around the city. Yet there is method to his madness, as the saying goes.  Batman teams up with Cat Woman (Zoe Kravitz) to explore the seedy individuals of the underbelly of Gotham and expose their rampant corruption.  Some of these despicable characters include Colin Farrell as The Penguin (completely unrecognisable in amazing prostheses) and John Turturro as crime boss Carmine Falcone.  Even though there is a running time of three hours, the movie didn’t drag and there were a lot of surprises or familiar Batman tropes spun in a different way.  I have two minor negatives.  First of all, the wonderful Andy Serkis played Alfred, but had very little screen time.  I would have loved to see more of him and I imagine part of his role ended up on the cutting room floor. If so, I hope some of those scenes will be included as deleted scenes in DVD releases.  The other thing I didn’t like was how dark this movie was.  I get it.  Batman lives in the shadows and roams the city at night,  BUT it makes it really hard to see everything that is going on. I mean, they are even investigating crime scenes with flashlights!  For Pete’s sake, turn on a light or two!  I would imagine if this is the first in a series (the end does set up at least one sequel), future movies may include Robin and the return of The Joker.  I am not sure I would take younger kids to this one, but the rest of you will probable enjoy Robert Pattinson’s  performance and the dark atmosphere of The Batman.