If you've already seen Tim Burton's Batmans (with Michael Keaton as the Batman), Joel Schumacher's (with Val Kilmer and George Clooney) and Christopher Nolan's three (with Christian Bale) you can't miss this The Batman. With something of the classic spirit of that film from the sixties by Leslie Martinson (with Adam West) and at the same time a remarkable independence from the paths already explored throughout the saga, Matt Reeves's film starring Robert Pattinson offers a new perspective on Batman, further from the millionaire vigilante who is Bruce Wayne and closer to the detective he was in the original comic book.
If you weren't among the audience that gave The Batman an extraordinary blockbuster in the world ($735 million), or if you were among those audiences but want to see it again, the film has been available to stream on HBO Max since April 18. We remind you of five reasons why it's worth it:
1) The Batman by Robert Pattinson
Really? The boy from the Twilight saga? Yes, seriously. Pattinson achieved a young Batman — he has only been in the protection of Gotham City for two years — and intelligent, but at the same time inexperienced and arrogant. “I don't care what happens to me,” says Bruce Wayne, more motivated by revenge than by survival, the future or even sanity.
The character's difficulties — his contradictions, his anxiety, his dark areas — are seen every time Bruce Wayne appears: he is not the millionaire philanthropist and playboy who assumes the weight of his surname. Pattinson's Batman doesn't seem to be in his skin but when he's in his armored suit and behind his mask, and his daytime life is full of sacrifices and omissions in favor of the night. All the space that Bruce gives to the bat in this version, Pattinson fills it with dramatic energy.
It is worth remembering that, in addition to Twilight, the British actor has worked on other complexes with great directors, such as Werner Herzogi's Queen of the Desert/i, bDavid Cronemberg's Cosmopolis, Christopher Nolan's Tenet and James Gray's Z The Lost City. Although there are other great performances in The Batman, Pattinson carries the main weight of the plot, and drags viewers along it, pending his thirst for revenge and his research into his family's past.
2) The cast
Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as The Riddle, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Colin Farrell as The Penguin, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, and Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon accompany Pattinson, and are another good reason not to miss this film. Kravitz's Catwoman has gone through traumas — like her character in Kimi, and like Batman himself — and has learned from her vulnerability. Both from its physical deployment and in its intelligence it is a good pair for Batman.
Farrell's Penguin is another one highlighted by critics, as it gives it a mafia-style twist that enhances its humor. Wright's Gordon does much more than turn on the bat signal and hope everything goes well: he establishes a relationship with Batman like never seen before, which also allows the character's detective side to grow.
But without a doubt, it is the Dano Riddle that has won the loudest applause. He is not the delusional and super striking character that Jim Carrey played: when he turns himself in to the police — part of his plan — he is seen wearing a psychiatric hospital uniform. More like a nerd, with great skill in technology and the internet and a master use of social networks, the brain that apparently has generated the murder wave of this plot also collaborates, in its strange way, with Batman: his crimes are clues to a much greater conspiracy. And, in the meantime, it creates chaos on the streets of Gotham, because that's really their thing.
Not only does Pattinson's performance honor the character of the comics more: history does too. Because Batman's always been a detective. It is true that the versions that contemporary audiences are used to have focused rather on action, but — and without fail — Reeves's film returns to a Batman who analyzes the facts, associates them and advances an investigation. Even his technology—his suit, his batmobile—are the product of his own research and accomplishments.
If Batman's detective skills had been softened to give rise to the melee fight or the loneliness of those who need to rise above the law, this version recovers his great capabilities as a detective, and the clues that follow from the first murder show that talent. And as in every good policeman, when it is believed that the truth has been revealed new clues turn the story around.
It is in this aspect of Batman that Wright looks like Gordon and Serkis as Alfred: with the former the Batman analyzes the scenes of some crimes; with the second, he works on deciphering the riddles of the Riddle.
And, as expected, all this accompanies a perfect action, with fighting sequences followed by an exquisite camera that moves to the rhythm of Batman's desire for revenge and rage. A skillful use of minimal lighting highlights the movements of the bodies and adds drama to them. Even the Batmobile participates in these choreographies in complete harmony, in particular in a scene of the Penguin chase.
4) The Darkness of Gotham City
In Reeves's film, Gotham City is much more than just the place where the events take place: it almost looks like another character, with its dark past and uncertain future, its failures and its struggles of which its villains and heroes are nothing more than a reflection. As in Burton's visions, the story of the Batman and that of the dark city intertwine.
Batman descends to his harsh underworld for his mission, and shows them in accordance with the comedians: dark and at the same time magical. Not even once in the three hours of the film, the scenes are reduced to the corpse in the alley or the fight in a deserted terrain.
The sadness of the city, in which a barely accompanied vigilante must contain the deployment of the mafia, is seen in its repeated rain and, of course, in the tonal nuances of its nights.
5) Music and photography
The 29 tracks on Michael Giacchino's soundtrack beat like the heart of that city and the story that The Batman tells. His pulse stirs in the action scenes; the character's signature theme version slows down to settle into the shadows and announces the ominous thing to come. Giacchino (Up, Ratatouille, Lost) managed to follow step by step the broad emotional arc that Reeves imagined. In addition to the original composition you will recognize Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, Nirvana's “Something in the Way” and other pieces from the popular repertoire.
For his part, without the cinematographer, Greig Fraser (who won the Oscar for his work at Dune), the gloomy beauty of Gotham City could hardly have been achieved. His study of Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Vermeer seems to be seen in the difficult balance of their lighting. The darkness of the crime scenes compete equally with the little light of hope that Batman brings, and so photography becomes a central element of this film noir.
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