"The Batman" (2022) Directed by Matt Reeves #batman #thedarkknight #dcuniverse

"A gothic, dirty, fetishised and stylised “sins of the father” tale that was almost very good indeed".

So let’s be contrary and start with what doesn’t work. Firstly, at 4 minutes shy of 3 hours it’s too long and the last half hour lets the film down badly. Secondly, and in line with my third and final gripe, the magnificent John Turturro doesn’t get nearly enough screen time and we’re well over the hour mark before Andy Serkis utters a line of dialogue I couldn’t help but noting:

“Is Bruce Wayne actually going to make an appearance?”.

When he does, cloaked in the incredibly youthful charm of Robert Pattinson, he appears almost too young and not of the more matured youth of Christian Bale in the recent Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy of films. It’s a compliment of sorts I guess, as is the transformation into the more muscular and imposing Batman, but we’ll get to that shortly.

What does work and what really impressed me on just a singular watch so far is Director Matt Reeves “vision” for the film: Dark, grimy, weather beaten, a Gotham cloaked in gothic fetishism, surrealism and a modern city akin (early on) to a shiny Blade Runner dystopia juxtaposed against the filth and decay of a dying city, and a city where it seemingly always rains. Gotham is painted with the random street violence and the rain soaked broken windows shown previously through the directorial lenses of Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, but here the decay is both paralleled to the excess of the wealthy as well as the gothic, fetish window dressing that soaks through this film like a constant rain. “BROKE” may be painted on a Government building, but the business of Gotham continues.

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "The Batman" originally penned and published to my Medium blog site on 22nd April 2022 and can now be read in full and for free (please also consider subscribing for free too!) via my Substack blog site and article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/the-batman-2022-9bbf5093159f

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