THE BATMAN – Review by T. J. Callahan
I can’t believe I sat through a three hour Batman movie?! Especially since we really don’t NEED another Batman movie.
The Batman is the 8th live action solely the Batman film and Robert Pattinson is the 7th actor to don the cowl. He’s a younger, more tormented and brooding Batman…if that’s possible. Pattinson’s Batman is a soft spoken, gravely voiced, emotionless Millennial. He’s a vigilante more than a super hero. He’s Moses leading his people of Gotham out of the flood waters of crime and grime. Pattinson’s Batman lives in the Twilight shadows more than the Dark (K)night. The bat signal is not just a call, it’s a warning. If you shoot him , you’ll just make him mad.
The Batman is set 20 years after the murder of young Bruce Wayne’s parents. It’s Halloween and Gotham’s “on the take” political leaders are being killed by the sadistic Riddler…forcing Batman to scrutinize the city’s corruption and the Wayne family’s possible involvement. The Batman is a throwback private eye film and a psychological thriller. It’s more True Detective and less Super Hero.
This Batflick is dark and engrossing with a more creepy and less comical Paul Dano as The Riddler. Colin Farrell is totally unrecognizable as questionable night club proprietor, Penguin. Zoe Kravitz is the smart and sultry sidekick, Catwoman. Jeffrey Wright is a noir gumshoe as Commissioner Gordon while Andy Serkis is finally unmasked as surrogate father/butler, Alfred.
The Batman is not the ZOWIE, KAPOW, THWACK cartoonish caped crusader, but the film as a whole is BOFFO…despite being 30 minutes too long. My husband, Ricky gives The Batman two No Doze eyes open. Without it, there would have been Zzzz’s toward the end.
