Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Tururro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy (There but the grace of God went I) Serkis and Colin Farrell. Written by Matt Reeves and Peter Craig, directed by Matt Reeves. Budget $200 million, running time 176 minutes, or four minutes shy of three hours.
The plot! When The Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman and the Joker team up to steal Commodore Schmidlapp's dehydrator weapon with the view to using it to kidnap the United World Organization's Security Council, it's up to Batman and Commission Gordon to thwart their dastardly scheme, and battle shark attacks too! Cue submarines disguised as penguins, romance and some good old batman fun!
Well, that was the plot of the first Batman movie made in 1966. This time, 56 years later it's time for the Batman we deserve, mean and moody, moody and mean. Brooding, racked with angst and bottled up rage. It's year two of Batman's campaign of vigilante justice and even by his own account, he narrates the film, it's not going too well, in fact it's safe to say he's actually made everything worse.
The best way to summarise The Batman is like this. Imagine Batman (1966) crossed with Seven and you have this, the single best Batman film since Batman Begins (2005). And that's a lot of Batmans in one paragraph.
The plot for this 2022 outing isn't as simple as the 66 version. There's this nutter going round town murdering the rich, powerful and corrupt and leaving cryptic riddles in letters addressed to The Batman. Now it's up to Bats, or Batty as he asks to be called in this outing, to thwart the crimbo and bring the ne'r-do-well to justice. All shot at night time and preferably in the rain, there's no time in this outing for anti-shark repellent, the Batusi, or fizzing bombs! But there is time for savage slap-downs, spectacular car chases and deep, inner brooding as Bats and Gordo slosh around Gotham on the tail of an insanely clever murderer with a diabolical plot for vengeance.
Directed fantastically by Matt Reeves (he also co-wrote the script) who previously helmed the equally brilliant previous three Planet of the Apes films. Robert Pattison makes a fantastic Batman, and for the first time makes the idea of a masked vigilante in the real world seem actually plausible. Aided by a superb cast, from Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, Jeffrey Wright as Gordo and a seriously unrecognisable Colin Farrell as the Penguin, to John Tururro menacing turn as crime boss Carmine Falcone, every one is bringing their A game to this particular table.
The plot uncoils slowly and with deliberation, and if there's a failing it's that it's perhaps a tad too long, one couldn't help thinking with a bit of gentle cutting this film could probably have been 15 minutes shorter, likewise it's going to test the patience of those expecting another Suicide Squad or Batman vs. Superman as attested by the 10 people who walked out during my screening. But those are the only issues I had with this film and have to say that it ranks up there as one of the best Batman films so far, and it's truly great to see a Batman who will not kill.
I bloody loved this and will be going back to see it again!
9/10
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