THE BATMAN Review

"Decent people shouldn't live here. They'd be happier someplace else." - Jack Napier, Batman (1989)

The latest Wayne iteration takes that line and delivers it without any of the smirk Burton influenced in '89. Reeves and Co. make Gotham a godless place, with the darkness of that 30+ year old version mixed with the brutality of Nolan's vision amplified. It feels completely divorced from the other capes today in that it lives in that mid-ground. A heavy opera in sight (Wayne Manor, his signal atop the husk of a skyscrapter) and sound (Giacchino's score, borrowing heavily from Elfman), against the sheen and commercialism of the toy soldiers at Marvel. So anachronistic that it feels born out of the 90s (Se7en, anyone?). Gritty was the giant buzzword post-Nolan for all things superhero, and almost all failed in replication. This has grit, but what it seems to be more interested in being is grisly. Not to say that it doesn't look gorgeous (it does), but it accomplishes it by seemingly making it an afterthought.

The cast rips. So many of them feeling born to step into these costumes. Kravitz the perfect mix of charisma and sultry, making neither feel forced. Farrell (hopefully, because he looks it) having an absolute ball. Wright delivers the wooden lines of the everyman as only a gifted actor can, and Turturro embodies the aging gangster without a hint of bluff. Looking around at Gotham and his cohabitants with the perfect condescension that they know nothing. Dano has never missed on a role like this. And while some aspects of the character stutter the film's momentum, he redeems any doubt with his finale. We are so accustomed to Mr. J being Batman's mirror, it's awfully refreshing to the Riddler take center stage. The orphan who killed vs. the orphan who might've (but had the genetic luck of rich parents).

And Pattinson, long handed a label he shouldn't have and had no interest in. I was admittedly shocked when he took this part. Now the answer surfaces. He's pitch-perfect as the surly loner of Bats we've seen before, but completely stripped of charisma. Both it and appearances being immaterial to him. He's a capital L loner in skin and suit. His goal this time far more selfish, and he's so headstrong in its pursuit that he rejects all distractions to it (including Alfred's love). This part requires a certain (and actual) level of weird and I'm guessing that's what drew Pattinson in. Again, I don't know who could play this better.

This Gotham is a godless place, and I think Pattinson's Batman may prefer it that way.

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The above was taken from my Letterboxd review.