The Batman is the latest superhero flix and is the best film to come out so far in 2022. This movie will definitely be in my top 3 movies of the year.

The movie is directed by Matt Reeves and stars a whole list of great actors from Robert Pattinson playing the Batman,  Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Colin Farrel as Penguin, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordan, AND even The Jesus himself John Turturro as Carmine Falcone. There are so many other great actors in this movie that I could probably fill out an entire paper with names.  

“Wait but this Robert Pattinson guy, why is he playing Batman? All he has done is take his shirt off in that vampire/werewolf love movie.”

Yeah, this is all true, and to be totally honest I wasn’t on the Pattinson train as well, until I actually saw him dawn the cape and cowl in the trailer that was released back in early 2020, what a great year… but now that I’ve seen the movie (five times) Pattinson is THE  definitive Batman; He feels intimidating in every scene he’s in. He looks deprived of any normal human life, consumed by his promise to his dead parents. And don’t even get me started on his new duds. Pattinson is The Batman; though his Bruce Wayne left more to be desired. There are only around 5 minutes of him as Bruce Wayne and in those scenes, he quietly mumbles stuff to his butler, Alfred. 

The Batman gives us a 3-hour crime noir story that feels just like out of the comics or the animated tv show and it is breathtaking. Now, this is not an origin story, and I appreciate that. We’ve seen Bruce Wayne’s parents gunned down like 5 million times and it’s getting staler than that box of cereal that is in the very back of my pantry.  

The plot of the movie can be summed up as: The corrupt upper class/politicians are being exposed and gruesomely executed in Gotham city by The Riddler. Batman has to solve the puzzles the Riddler left for him to prevent any more murders and untie the secrets about his and the city’s past.

Batman is known as the world’s greatest detective and we haven’t really dived into that aspect of him before in the movies until now. I don’t know what people would expect from a movie where the main villain literally calls himself  THE RIDDLER. I’m just gonna take a wild guess that Batman might have to solve a riddle or two… 

Since we’re on the topic of the Riddler; The best performance in this movie has to be hands down Paul Dano’s Riddler. It definitely was better than Jim Carrey’s take on the character back in 95’. Paul Dano’s stature isn’t hulking, but he is still terrifying and menacing. His creepy zodiac costume, heavy breathing, and eerie theme just make my skin crawl. What made his performance was “The Arkham Asylum scene” where Dano believably plays a lune, as he starts spewing out what seems like nonsense to Batman and starts singing Ave Maria. Modern-day art is how I would describe this scene. 

 The Riddler’s motive in the movie is somewhat idiotic, but I can easily get over it. He was an orphan that was affected by the “Renewal Plan” which was money to fix the city, including an orphanage that the Riddler was at, BUT the money would go straight to the wealthy and never to the orphanage causing horrible living conditions that would lead to babies dying in the winter. Riddler blames all the higher-ups including Batman’s dead father Thomas Wayne, who created the Renewal Plan. The Riddlers Actions to “unmask” the corruption was inspired by Batman’s direct approach to stopping crime in the city. Like I said it’s kinda idiotic if you think REALLY hard about it, but so it goes. 

All this information I’ve given would mean nothing without the cinematography. This is possibly one of the best looking superhero movies of the decade. Every shot feels impactful and full of purpose. They sparingly used CGI in this movie and it really shows as it immerses you in the hellish nightmare city known as St loui–  I MEAN Gotham… anyway…  The coolest shot was in the “The Batmobile chase scene”. First off the chase sequence makes the batmobile terrifying with its roaring. I’m no greasy car guy (far from it),  but holy crow that vehicle is a specimen. The scene has Batman chasing Colin Pharrel’s Penguin, who is portrayed as a second man in the Falcone crime family. The shot has the batmobile jumping through an explosion as the Penguin looks through the mirror, possibly pissing himself. What happens next is Batman crashes into the Penguin’s car causing the car to go flying. IT WASN’T EVEN CGI. They actually pulled that stunt when they easily could have faked it. It’s the little things that make this movie beautiful. 

Overall, 2022’s The Batman is a real treat and I’m excited to see what comes next as it was confirmed a trilogy is in the works with this iteration of Batman. I would give this movie a solid 9.354/10 bats. 

SIDE NOTE: To be honest this review on The Batman has been driving me mad since I have done countless rewrites. I’ve seen the movie FIVE times and still haven’t finished this review. Each viewing feels longer than the last. I know every single little beat of this film, every little queue. I should probably be institutionalized in a looney bin for my own sake since I can’t stop thinking of the score, and the action. I’m completely losing it. Fifteen hours of my life have been sitting in a theater watching this movie. As of writing this, it’s only been out for 20 days, that’s one viewing every 4 days. I wish I could say it was just an experiment to see how much one man can take watching one film, but it wasn’t. I watched it out of enjoyment.