The Batman review

 

“They think I’m hiding in the shadows. But I am the shadows”

Three things to say from the outset about The Batman. Though it lasts for three hours you don’t get any sense of time dragging because everything unfolds as it needs to. Second, this is not the umpteenth re-telling of the Batman origin story so don’t imagine you’ve seen it all before. Matt Reeves' film throws new light on aspects of that story and on some familiar characters but I never got the impression this was old ground being trod once too often. Thirdly- and most importantly- there is no silly gravelly Batman voice!

WARNING- MAJOR SPOILERS AFTER THIS VERY ARTY POSTER...

 

We open when Bruce Wayne has been Batman for two years - “two years of nights” as he puts it in a diary which he narrates in the opening scenes as we see through the eyes of a masked figure whose movements seem in keeping with the words we’re hearing. Yet it soon becomes clear we are looking through the eyes of the Riddler, a deranged figure whose disguise consists of a dark green rubber mask held on with plastic over his head and through which he stares with large clear framed glasses. Its an early indicator of the narrative’s’ main thrust which is as much about the similarities between the two characters as it is about their differences. Over the course of the film, we see violent rage from the Riddler (some of this is insanely frantic) but also from Batman. We hear of Batman’s noble aim of making Gotham a better place but each layer he unpeels reveals more corruption and crime. The Riddler also wants to destroy this corruption and he’s doing a quicker job of it, dispatching key figures in gruesome ways leaving complex clues often online. He is basically the Twitter warrior made manifest!

He’s played by Paul Dano though until the last quarter of the movie you don’t see the familiar features of the actor. The Riddler remains masked and, often, messaging Gotham through social media. He has an account- and followers too- which says something about the Internet that, by all accounts of what the Dark Web is like, rings true. Dano is one of my favourite actors and he has a way of being disruptive.  In the film Youth, his character is an actor who in order to research Hitler dresses up as him and walks into breakfast at the  hostel where he and other characters are staying. Whatever he does you remember his performance but nothing prepared us for this.

The actor rips through this film with the same intensity and banishes all thoughts of question mark green suits forever. The riddles and puzzles are deadly though he finds them fun! Ironically it’s another character who actually says “Riddle me this.” This Riddler has a righteous anger propelling him forward and a formidable grasp of modern media and how Gotham works which he uses to pull a litany of shocks. It’s a disturbing, terrifying, fascinating performance that both repels and entices at once. It’s a performance that you cannot take your eyes off but you really want to look away from. Sometimes he just makes noises. How did the actor come down from that at the end of each day I wonder.  As villains go, this Riddler has to be one of the top five of all genre films. They would never give an acting Oscar to this sort of film and never to someone wearing such garb but I don’t imagine we’ll see a more committed performance from anyone this year.

Robert Pattinson has matured a lot since he was a mainstay of that vampire franchise that was as forgettable as its name, which I’ve forgotten. Here he is able to find the ultimate Batman/ Wayne combo. Its not as showy a role as Dano’s but it doesn’t have to be. Its always in the eyes with Batman and Pattinson is able to convey the weight of responsibility with his eyes and, when out of costume, Bruce is like a very tired rock star who doesn’t want to tour but has to. There’s no time for emotion in Wayne’s life any more, the work he’s done over the past  two years has dulled him to it. During the course of the film someone kisses him, someone else holds his hand yet he seems remote from these acts and we can see what being a vigilante has done to him. He feels guilty about everything he has to do and that shows in the actor’s demeanor.  And he speaks normally whether in mask or not. Hurrah!

There’s a lot in the mix though this duality is the fulcrum. An un-recognisable Colin Farrell gives his best performance in years as the Penguin, Zoe Kravitz is an excellent, sexy, independent Selina aka Catwoman, Jeffery Wright does great work as the only real Gotham Good Guy Lieutenant James Gordon and Andy Serkis is without any masks for a change delivering a surprisingly understated performance as Alfred. John Turtorro is a casually nasty crime boss who you just hate by the end of the film and that’s good acting for you!

Matt Reeves is in no hurry with this film. It unfurls like an art piece yet without being overly showy. Much of the action happens at night so it’s washed in neon and full of dangerous dark corners. Despite the violence there isn’t much gore. He ups the pace with kinetic action sequences, whether a tight scene where Batman fights a posse of gunmen in a dark corridor so the blazing guns provide the lighting or an ambitious highway chase that is one of the best I’ve seen. There’s a fight in a nightclub that is a perfect combination of action, lights and music.

Cinematographer Greig Fraser deserves awards too for the way this film looks. Deep colours abound and plenty of shots of the city itself, always a key character in the Batman story. Aficionados say this movie has captured the soul of comic book Gotham better than any before it. Its certainly one of the few examples of a film shot partly in Liverpool where I struggled to recognise it and was still drawn into the action. The detail can be extravagant yet always returns to the battle between two lost men. The film does contain some nods to the origin story but essentially this is a fresh spin on a subject we imagined has been overdone already. It incorporates the contemporary without comprising the spirit of the story or feeling self-conscious about it. It’s a film which only shows things that could be possible. Nobody fires a laser from their fingers or rises into the air and creates a whirlwind. Even the very cool new Batmobile is a souped up car. As a bonus the film has an ending that is unexpectedly different to what’s gone before as the Riddler’s final act is something more apocalyptic. All the while the narrative returns to the sleaze of the city and the different methods Batman and the Riddler are using to cut through it. 

It's quite a film. Unexpectedly I enjoyed it tremendously.