The Batman [2022]
Did I really never review this movie? Huh. Huh! It's almost been two years!
I didn't realize I've never reviewed this movie until I was looking through the list of superhero movies and I realized I just... somehow never talked about this one. And I really really like 2022's The Batman, not to be confused with maybe a dozen other Batman movies out there.
And... perhaps one moment of confusion is the sheer glut of alternate-universe DC comics projects running around, which didn't do The Batman (and to be honest a lot of other DC comics projects) much favours. There's Ben Affleck's Batman running around in the DCEU movie series, plus Michael Keaton playing an alternate-universe Batman in the DCEU movies (Flash was supposed to come out a bit earlier), plus there's a separate Joker movie that has its own Batman... so yeah. DC comics announcing a brand-new standalone Batman movie that is not connected to anything and is acting essentially as a soft reboot as the DC movie empire realizes that their DCEU project has kind of splintered is... an interesting decision.
But what a movie this was.
I really do find this as a very, very good adaptation of Batman in general, in addition to telling a pretty good story very loosely inspired by The Long Halloween. Running just shy of three hours, The Batman actually doesn't feel like it's that long and perhaps is one of the few superhero movies in late that deserves its runtime.
In this movie, Robert Pattison (of Twilight infamy) plays the Batman, and we get introduced to the Batman's effect on crime in such a great manner in this movie as we get to see random thugs and criminals get scared of the shadows of Gotham City, when Batman realistically only shows up to stop a single mugging. It's such a great return to basics of the noir vigilante that was arguably only really properly caught by Christian Bale's Dark Knight.
I'm not going to describe every single part of the plot, but basically a good chunk of the movie's first half takes place with Batman trying to figure out a series of murders done by the Riddler, with the movie doing a great job at making the Riddler feel gloriously unsettling without leaning too hard into grimdarkifying him. He's a lot creepier than Jim Carrey's Riddler, which isn't a hard bar to clear, but he doesn't go all the way that it loops back into being goofy again (see: DCEU's horrible gangsta' Joker). We get a nice little cat-and-mouse game as Batman and the police try and hunt down the clues and figure out who's going to be killed next.
Throughout trying to figure out the riddles, Batman also stumbles into a bunch of information being left behind about the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. And I do really like that at one point, Batman has to resort to utilizing his Bruce Wayne persona to enter the Iceberg Lounge. It's around this point that Batman also works together with the roommate of one of her leads... who just turns out to be Selina "Catwoman" Kyle. Basically, with Selina's help, Batman manages to play detective and discover a conspiracy that all of these people being killed by the Riddler are all under the payroll of mob boss Carmine Falcone.
What a great supporting cast, by the way. Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle really does sell someone who's smart but also knows enough to play the demure, confused girl next to all of these mob bosses and vigilantes. Jeffrey Wright is the right amount of tired and flustered as Gordon. Andy Serkis is the right amount of crabby as Alfred. John Turturro gloriously eats the scene as Carmine Falcone. Colin Farrell is an amazingly slimy Penguin. And while we don't get to see him much outside of his persona, Paul Dano does an amazing job balancing Riddler's nebbish civilian persona and his psychotic serial killer persona. There was some buzz about the racial-blind casting done for this movie, but while it feels forced in some projects, in this case I really did feel like the cast of The Batman was firing on all cylinders.
Anyway, at some point we get a scene where Batman has to deal with a timed collar bomb on DA Colson that, of course, Batman has to deal with some riddles to solve, bringing a nice sense of tension into the whole procession. The riddles also double as a way to essentially force Colson to admit to his participation in this whole conspiracy -- particularly, the name of an informant that led to Don Maroni's operations being destroyed and eventually to Falcone taking over most of Gotham's turf.
This leads to a very fun action scene as Batman figures out that Penguin is likely this mysterious informant. While all of this is going on, Selina has been going on her own little investigation -- spurred and aided by her helping Batman -- and ultimately finds her roommate Annika's corpse in one of the gangsters' cars. The crossfire causes a fight between the Penguin and the Batman with cards, leading to a very fun action sequence with the Batmobile (which is just a souped-up supercar after several movies of what are essentially Bat-Tanks) which I must confess did actually give me a fair amount of motion sickness when I watched this movie for the first time in the cinema.
While the Penguin turns out to not be the mysterious informant, Batman and Gordon end up following the Riddler's trail, which leads them to a building that used to be an orphanage sponsored by Bruce's dead parents. Always nice to have a brief tie-in to the Wayne legacy. Turns out that what the Riddler holds a grudge towards isn't the Falcone crime operation, but rather the whole Wayne legacy. Riddler has sent a bomb addressed to Bruce Wayne, although he obviously had no idea that Bruce Wayne is the same vigilante hunting him down. Alfred almost gets killed by this bomb... which was a very nice, tense scene as Robert Pattinson manages to balance both the stoniness of Batman and the panic running through him. I actually almost wanted them to kill off Alfred since this is a one-off movie anyway, but Alfred survives, albeit hospitalized.
The Riddler then starts sending out some character assassination videos about Thomas Wayne colluding with Carmine Falcone, where allegedly Thomas paid off Falcone to kill a journalist that was about to expose Martha Wayne's mental illness. This leads nicely to Batman's own themes of family legacy and justice. Of course, the movie doesn't go as far as to make Thomas Wayne order the death of a journalist... on purpose. Thomas asked Falcone to intimidate the journalist, but the journalist end up getting killed by the gangsters. Thomas, naïve bastion of justice that he is, planned to turn himself in, only to find himself and his wife the next targets of Falcone. A delicious string of drama that I actually like, and instead of just doing the easy way and make either Thomas obviously incorruptible and pure, or turn him fully into an evil Court of Owls villain, we get him straddling the lines of good and evil... just not as well as his son would.
Throwing things into the mess, Selina Kyle also reveals to Batman that Falcone is her father, and she's seeking revenge for her roommate Annika -- who was killed by Falcone. Selina wants to murder Falcone, but Batman manages to stop her in time. This whole sequence can get summarized pretty quickly into two sentences, but both Pattinson and Kravitz do a phenomenal job at channeling Selina's anger and frustrations and to really hammer home the 'vengeance does not mean killing'.
Which, by the way, was always what Batman was meant to be. And as much as I loved Ben Affleck's acting, that mentality that permeates the DNA of early DCEU was why I really think that those movies thematically didn't do a good job at adapting Batman. Or Superman.
Ahem.
Anyway, Falcone dies anyway because of Riddler machinations, which leads to the Riddler's own capture. He gets unmasked as Edward Nashton, a forensic accountant, who turns out to be inspired by Batman himself as someone who targets the corrupt. It's a nice little Dark Knight style twist where the main villain seems to be arrested, but of course it's not quite over yet.
As Batman, Gordon and the cops comb over the Riddler's lair, we get a fun sequence where they find that the Riddler actually has a whole other plan going on, having planted multiple car bombs around Gotham City. Riddler apparently has grown a whole dark web online cult (which seems eerily well-tuned to modern day themes), leading to a mini-adaptation of No Man's Land as the bombs destroy the bridges and cause flooding in the city. Riddler's followers end up arming themselves and are about to assassinate the current mayor Bella Real, leading to a whole final sequence of Batman and Catwoman fighting them to rescue all the people.
It's basically a huge fight scene before we close off with a shot of an exhausted, battered and beaten-down Batman still doing his goddamn best to rescue people from the flooding building. Sure, we've got the geeky easter egg scene of the Riddler talking to the Joker in the prison... but ultimately, I think the scene that sold me on how the makers of this movie really got Batman and decided to go back to the roots was the conclusion to Catwoman and Batman's story. Selina leaves Gotham City, deeming it beyond saving and so corrupt... but Batman stays.
Batman knows it's a losing battle, but he takes what became a joke both in the movie itself and in the fandom... that Penguin keeps calling him as 'vengeance'. And taken the wrong way (and written and adapted by the wrong people), yes, Batman would become vengeance and inspire all the wrong people... all the Riddlers of the world. But that isn't what Batman was supposed to be. Batman's supposed to be, at the end of the day, a superhero. A darker one, a more pragmatic one, but one that ultimately represents hope. One that ultimately tries his best to save people, to stop Selina Kyle from murdering another criminal in cold blood.
And returning to that Batman after so many other adaptations that missed the mark? Returning to the highs of Burton and Nolan's adaptations of Batman? That's worth the price of admission, even without the stellar acting and pretty gripping plot.
