The Batman

Back in 2008, I had found in Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT the near perfect Batman saga.  One which achieved the original dark visions of the Bob Kane character - a boy left orphaned who transforms into a weapon of vengeance, both for his family and the citizens of Gotham City.  It was the very rare superhero movie that did everything right.  Nolan's entire trilogy seemed untouchable, anything that dared to follow would be a shadow at best, a cash grab epilogue at worst.  When Ben Affleck donned the Batsuit he appeared in some silly DC crossovers, I was hardly encouraged.  He had planned to star in and direct a new adaptation but in early 2017 dropped out due likely to his tabloid ready life.

Enter writer/director Matt Reeves, whose resume includes a few PLANET OF THE APES reboots and the forgotten David Schwimmer vehicle THE PALLBEARER.  Also far from encouraging.  But here we are with THE BATMAN, an arresting reimaging that had me in a sort of hypnosis for nearly three hours.  As it played I was reminded of....something.   Another movie that cast a similar spell and lo-fi energy.  ZODIAC, David Fincher's 2007 masterpiece that I have shamefully not yet reviewed on this blog.  Reeves' Bruce Wayne/Batman has more in common with Jake Gyllenhaal's obsessed would-be investigator than the carefree millionaire playboy we've seen before.  

Gone is the smooth seduction of the urban bachelor, a tantalizing enigma to Gothamites.  Just in time for the grim, despairing 21st century is a "superhero" who is a socially awkward recluse you might call "emo" with some accuracy.  He does still have some "wonderful toys", including contact lenses that act as surveillance cameras and provide onscreen identification of those who come into view.  Handy to capture Gotham notables in places perhaps they should not be.

Robert Pattison, complete with gothic bangs and ashen complexion, assumes the batman role with what I consider the right amount of brooding.  He's a patented Millennial wallflower, more content with file rifling and grunt detective work than critical meetings with his accountants or nights on the town.  Even his Batmobile is just a shabbily souped up muscle car, one that gets a fairly awesome showcase as he pursues the Penguin (Colin Ferrell, in impressive make-up) the wrong way down an interstate, a scene William Friedkin might've wished he pulled off properly in TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.. The latter is not some campy, colorful cartoon but rather a brutal nightclub owner under the thumb of a loathsome mobster named Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) who has a history of troublesome ties to the Wayne family.

Batman will also contend with The Riddler (Paul Dano, suitably creepy) who in this film more resembles Jigsaw from the SAW movies than Frank Gorshin.  Reeves nicely plays up the "two sides of the same coin" mentality of this duo, almost as well as Nolan did with the Joker.   THE BATMAN takes its sweet time not only to wallow in its dreamy color desaturated atmosphere, but also to develop the toxicity of vengeance from several perspectives.  Which leads us to another familiar nemesis - Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), on her own mission.  "The cat and the bat" will interact and forge some chemistry, but don't expect any dewy eyed romance in this languid, methodically paced movie.  The slow burn and humorlessness almost makes the film feel like arthouse fare.   Pure noir, brilliantly photographed by Greig Fraser.

And I loved it.  All around are sequels and reboots that merely rehash what pleased generations before.  THE BATMAN clicks with the times and dares something different, yet is certain to please fans of the '70s and beyond comic books, that got the mood right.  I'll bet even Nolan and Fincher are impressed.