The Batman

The Batman

Director – Matt Reeves

Writers – Matt Reeves, Peter Craig (Batman created by Bill Finger & Bob Kane)

2022, USA

Stars – Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright

 

Well, there’s enough room for every kind of Batman. Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego have a humongous history that spans, across decades, exuberant camp to the bleakest urban experience to outer space and everything in-between. I have been a lifelong Batman fan, although I no longer collect everything concerning him so don’t know all the nuances of the last decade, although I am familiar with the major beats. There are just too many titles to keep up with and spend on, so I keep up without being comprehensive. I mean, the Bat-family is big now.

 

But concerning the fight between camp and The Dark Knight, I would say the seminal ‘Batman: the animated series’ had the balance right. The final episode of ‘The Brave and the Bold’ ends with the protest that Batman will always be as much bright and fun as dark and traumatised, but the films are still beholden to the latter interpretation. Pop culture still hasn’t recovered from Moore and Bolland’s ‘The Killing Joke’  and Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’. And of course, the character will always be reflective and reflexive of the times. Tim Burton had a good balance (Batman with Prince!!), but Joel Schumacher’s interpretation felt too condescending to work as all-out camp, or indeed as the comedy of the Sixties series. There is no doubt a future where there will be a brighter Batman, reactive to decades of grim interpretation, but that’s not currently the vogue.

 

So, this is from Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson, flippantly branded emo-Batman. A three-hour tale of urban corruption and grimness where Batman is just starting out, where the emphasis is more on detection rather than solely wham-bam action. Here he wanders crime scenes around disapproving cops. The feel is almost more introverted than Nolan’s Batman trilogy because, despite the voiceover, the emphasis is on happening rather than reflection. Indeed, Pattison is arguably more one-note, the narrative being less interested in the character’s duality; it is more Batman and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne, a tilt more in line with darker interpretations of Batman. And of course, this will be one of the criticisms: not enough Wayne. The tone is more in line with the current and impressive ‘Batman: One Dark Knight’ by Jock: centred on Gotham and gangs, dark tones and shading, sprawling and epic, downbeat but actually fun, focused and propelled by its action-based chase-narrative.

The voiceover too is one of the things I was wary of going in, and this will not win anyone over as it’s unremarkable writing. Indeed, comments call it reminiscent of sixth-form writing, which actually seems appropriate to Batman’s themes of dressing up and putting wrongs to right, of beating down on all the dystopia you see around you. I have also seen defence of the voiceover as personifying Batman’s commentary articulated in the comic’s text boxes: I can accept that, but it’s unremarkable in execution. Ultimately, braced for the voiceover as I was, it did not impress me, but neither did it undermine the enjoyment either, occurring far less than I expected. I thought the runtime would be a major error, but it’s a narrative that’s always on the move, always throwing new revelations without much downtime, moving from murder crime scene to the underworld and onto Batman’s rogue’s gallery and terrorism. Reeves justifies the runtime as “immersive” and that’s certainly my experience.

For those criticising the relentless nocturnal darkness and the pathetic fallacy of constant raining, Robert Pattinson explains:

 

“There’s this combination of stunningly beautiful buildings surrounded by decay and grime. That’s sort of how Bruce sees the city. It’s this city that used to be great, but has been taken over by really toxic elements.”*

 

It’s the manifestation of Bruce’s relentless worldview. Central to Bruce Wayne is the longing for and nostalgia for a time when parents were alive, before they were murdered in front of your eyes and you realised the city is overwhelmed with crime and supervillains. Bruce’s tale is one of PTSD too. The only shaft of true sunlight and brightness in the film that we see is in Bruce’s parents’ bedroom. And, of course, it ends with dawn when Bruce has learnt a little more of what he wants Batman to represent and be. If it’s overlong, I found myself fully engaged so that when it moved onto another phase and expanded, that was fine by me.

 

The biggest weakness of the film is the lack of women with agency. There are indeed female cast members listed in the credits, but it’s only Catwoman that is truly memorable. Luckily, Zoë Kravitz has enough warmth and presence to hold the whole film together, providing it with the emotional content to counterbalance Bruce’s vacuum.

 

Pluses: seeing how Alfred – an underused Andy Serkis – and Bruce work together far more as a problem solving team in this incarnation (Serkis is perhaps an unusual casting choice, but reinterpreting Alfred is also in vogue); Colin Ferrell’s amazing Penguin make-up and performance; a genuinely creepy guerrilla-like Riddler (well, Paul Dano does this so well); a gangster underworld based more from ‘The Godfather’ and Scorsese than ‘Dick Tracy’; fighting where Batman actually looks like he’s putting in physical effort (yes, yes, I mean compared to usual; there is no way he could’ve survived a collision with a bridge, of course, but there were moments where he seemed more human and getting hurt than superhero invincible).

 

And: Simon Mayo thinks the Batmobile disappointing, but I had a pal texting me that he thought it was great. I know I got a thrill from it. Having the monomaniacal version of Batman means that there really isn’t much room for Pattinson to flex his acting muscles, although he does brood well. Perhaps the murder mystery doesn’t amount to much in itself, just being a starting point for bigger things; ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ offers a more legitimate murder mystery. Initially, there isn’t much argument with John Quinn’s conclusion and generalisation that it offers the “same old hypermasculine heroes, sexualised women and disfigured baddies”. But, upon closer reflection, I don’t think mopey Wayne-Pattinson matches the requirements for anyone into hypermasculinity, and the violence he metes out is less celebratory than typical. As for Selina Kyle, she uses her sexuality as a weapon rather than being constantly set at “seduction” as the character is often portrayed. The “disfigured baddies” is still a thing, as it always has been for Batman and other heroes – villains often being manifestations of the hero’s suppressed monstrous side – and although comics can and do delve into and confront this trope more, one might argue that only ‘Joker’ has truly grappled with this in related films. But yes, the increasingly nuanced and inclusive thinking in culture concerning such subjects has yet to reach a mega-franchise such as Batman.* (There's a question if the discussion even can cut through the Batman template).

 

There's not much new here, but it's done well. If perhaps I seem a little wavering or uncertain in my investment in ‘The Batman’, a little murky in my assessment, I haven’t been alone in this. I mean, it’s an easy target, right? Perhaps it was first the surprise of not being disappointed or having to make a lot of allowances. I kept waiting for it to fail, but it didn’t, and I knew that a second watch would be even more pleasurable. In fact, I was looking forward to seeing it again, as I finally came to the conclusion ‘The Batman’ is almost great and a that maybe a second viewing might push it over the line. I predict its long-term stature will be solid but always divisive.

 

·       * A promotional interview page featuring across DC comics; this passage quoted from ‘Batman vs Digby! A Wolf in Gotham #6’, DC comics, April 2022.

·       ** I am thinking of the calls from disability groups for the James Bond behemoth to be more conscientious in its portrayal of villainy signified by scars, for example.