The Batman review: A great Robert Pattinson isn’t enough for this reboot

Batman is back and pissed off as hell. Batman, director Matt Reeves’ moody reboot of famous comic book hero, launches a new version of the Caped Crusader for the 2020s. After the failure of the Snyderverse to launch a solo franchise with Ben Affleck’s elder statesman take, and the enduring appeal of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, there’s a lot of room for something new. Unfortunately, Reeves’ new take has a lot in common with the old takes.

Batman is full of moments you’ve seen before, and not that long ago. At its most exhausting, it restages moments from the Nolan trilogy: A mobster tells Bruce Wayne the truth about how the world works, Batman fights his way through a nightclub in a fury or through a hallway illuminated only by gunfire, footage of the film’s villain terrorizing their next victim is broadcast over the evening news. Almost all of the characters — with the exception of the Riddler — are recognizable from previous Batman movies; the new layers on display here are easily derived from what came before. It is not bold. Batman. Its strength lies in its execution.

A rain-slick mystery in the mode of David Fincher’s Se7en, Batman is a methodical hunt for the Riddler (Paul Dano) after his grotesque murder of Gotham City’s incumbent mayor in the leadup to the city’s elections. Batman (Robert Pattinson), who has been active in Gotham for 2 years, has both an effective street presence that scares common crooks and a strong partnership with Police Lieutenant James Gordan(Jeffrey Wright), that allows him into crime scenes.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros.

The case takes the pair on a tour through Gotham’s underworld, crossing paths with crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), striver Oz “The Penguin” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell), thief Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), and all of Gotham’s mobsters and elites who have become codependent. Its protagonist is a thief Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz). Batman is driven — while the hunt for the Riddler sprawls out in different directions, the film never deviates from it. Bruce Wayne is rarely seen in costume. He’s completely focused on his mission, and sees little value in the life that he was given.

A story about Batman’s triumph over his alter-ego and any other people surrounding him is constructed. BatmanThe movie becomes a film of abstract ideas about cities and how their citizens should believe when the game has been rigged. These are compelling ideas to explore, particularly in this version of Gotham City — which is built to look like a dark carnival rendition of 1970s and ’80s New York City transposed to the present day. The streets get transformed into a dark, shabby version of familiar landmarks. In a fusion of fantasy and reality, theatrical gangs take over the streets. This creates a symbol in search for meaning.

If Batman is, as he repeatedly states, “vengeance”, then what is Gotham? The answer is pretty simple: It’s every city as portrayed by conservative commentators, a den of crime that needs Batman to clean it up, but maybe not the way he’s been doing it for the last couple years. Bruce Wayne’s arc is one where a young man who was molded by Gotham learns that perhaps it’s time for him to mold it in turn.

Warner Bros.

This also feels familiar: The arc of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was expressly about the idea that Batman was a necessary response, but also one with an expiration date. It’s about a guy who learns how to move from boogeyman to inspiration, and how the latter is a more effective vehicle for change.

How Reeves got there, is what he differentiates Batman. Like Heath Ledger’s Joker, the Riddler in this film is a cipher with a point to make: that Gotham City’s vision of law and order is a lie fueled by corruption, and Batman’s journey to stop him using the tools and means of his wealth calls that wealth into question. This is the world of BatmanMoney is all dirty money. This money powers dirty politicians and mobsters. However, it also blinds the good-intentioned from the realities of the effects they have on communities. Not only do they have opposing legal positions, the tension between Batman-Catwoman is also rooted in Gotham City. He lives in a tower and sees the entire city, while she comes from the gutter and tells him he can’t see a damn thing.

If the characters telling the story are good, then the past Bat-films’ echoes will be worse. Robert Pattinson, a surly, serious yet not invulnerable Batman is an excellent choice. His Bruce is still open to learning, still capable of feeling, but isn’t invincible. He might not crack a smile in this film, but it’s conceivable that he could, once he achieves a better work-life balance. Zoë Kravitz also makes for a great Selina Kyle, even though the movie does little to establish Catwoman as a known presence the way it does Batman. As Batman’s de facto partner, Jeffrey Wright’s Jim Gordon is perhaps too similarly steely, a great movie cop but one that could lean a bit more into the fact that he’s a Gotham City cop, where a guy named “The Riddler” leaves birthday cards behind for Batman.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros.

The film’s take on the Riddler may be the movie’s most divisive aspect. Much like Batman, Paul Dano is masked for most of the movie, a character that’s more in line with Jigsaw from the Saw franchise than the quizmaster of the comics. He’s a cruel constructor of death traps out to impart some kind of moral lesson that won’t be revealed until the movie’s end. He is quite ridiculous, and it requires more suspendism than the guy with pointed ears trying to catch his attention.

Fortunately, Batman’s detective story structure means he’s mostly an offscreen puppetmaster, and as ridiculous as he appears, everything else in BatmanIt looks amazing, with the ambitiously staged fight scenes taking place in a city drenched in streetlamps and shadows. Only the most difficult part of the movie is when it tries to recreate a real fistfight with its chasers, using close-ups and heavy collisions. It’s a failure of ambition in a movie that mostly has none, because the cinematic vision of what Batman can be has become terribly narrow.

All the pieces had to work together in a new way. Matt Reeves was a surprise blockbuster director. His Planet of the Apes films were two that transformed an old franchise back into something meaningful and big. He has a cast of actors who are outsider-friendly and his decade-long run of grim and dark Batman stories inspired from the same handful comics has prompted audiences to look for something else.

Instead, BatmanIt’s frustratingly secure, but it is a film full of possibilities for doing more with less. It preaches to the choir, reinforcing the same ideas trodden over and over again across five movies, multiple video games, and every comic book in the mold of Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s Batman Year One. If these are your Batman icons, then the movie may speak to you. If, on the other hand, you’re curious as to whether Batman can speak to a different audience, it might be time to pack up the signal. No one’s coming to save you.

BatmanPremieres will be held in theatres Friday, March 4.