No spoilers: After years of waiting, Matt Reeves’ take on the Dark Knight has hit theaters, and it really won’t disappoint fans and movie buffs. So why are so many people going to get upset about it after all?
Somehow, Microsoft’s Batman and Windows share the same problem. The base is excellent and has influenced quite a bit of the content we consume today with classics that hold up to this day, but once in a while a version comes out that is just a disaster that everyone is trying to ignore that it even existed. Windows had Windows ME, 8 and Vista, and Batman had “Batman and Robin”, “Batman vs. Superman” and “Justice League” (and some would say that Rises was also unsuccessful). But somehow, we always have hope that the next version will be better.
And now, after quite a bit of waiting, Windows 11 finally comes out. Sorry – I meant “Batman” (what really happened to “The” from “The Batman”?). And after far too many mistakes by Zack Snyder and perhaps too many good things Christopher Nolan did, we get a whole new take on The Dark Knight, this time from one of the more successful directors of recent years, Matt Reeves – and it was worth the wait.
Yes. This is the best Batman we’ve seen – but Batman has another side
Pattinson does a great job as Batman
“Batman” takes place in a very interesting time in Batman’s canon – and instead of exhausting your life with another version of Bruce Wayne’s parents’ death and his transformation into the Dark Knight, this film places us two years since Wayne wore the bat suit. It not only saves us scenes we’ve seen dozens of times (if I see pearls one more time…), but also creates interesting interactions in the world itself: the cops and civilians still do not trust Batman, and it is not clear if he is an enemy, or a friend – but there is some dark aura around him Which terrorizes some of the city’s criminals.
But while Batman seems to be mostly preoccupied with petty criminals, the city of Gotham is first exposed to Riddler, who threatens to expose the corruption behind the city’s tops by brutal murders and leaving notes with puzzles for Batman (which are usually puzzles with wonderful geeky solutions). On the way to Riddler’s stop, Batman hooks up with the mysterious Selena Kyle (later Catwoman) and on the way also meets the crime empires of Gotham City (which is not New York at all) that also include the Penguin. through.
Much has been said about the casting of Englishman Robert Pattinson for the role of Bruce Wayne and Batman. After all, what’s the connection between an actor who played a depressed and lonely vampire and the role of the pen man… Okay, I see it now.
But with all the jokes aside. Pattinson is an excellent Batman. Although with the mask he does not have eyebrows or even a forehead to work with on expressions, he manages to express a fairly large range of emotions especially with excellent eye work – and there is no other way to say it, he just looks great in this suit. It moves superbly, it’s superbly lit, and it’s arguably the best visual Batman display to date.
Pattinson’s Batman is not the hero we deserve nor the one we need, but the hero he will be. He is confused, angry, inexperienced, often wrong, sometimes even scared, can be easily incited and generally not rubbed – and this is exactly the human weakness that allows identification with who is supposed to be one of the most detached superheroes from the audience watching him. Still – his only superpower is to be terribly rich. It’s simple, it’s human and it works.
But Bruce is not getting enough time
But Batman is really not just Batman, he’s also Bruce Wayne. In this segment Pattinson manages to disappoint, but for no injustice in his palm. I think it is possible to count on one hand the length of minutes that Bruce Wayne himself is on screen during this very not very short film. In this way, the name “The Batman” pretty much takes on a new meaning, because it’s just a movie about Batman himself – and unfortunately much less about Bruce Wayne. In the few scenes in which Bruce does appear, he does not appear on the Playboy standard he is supposed to be, but a depressed and very confused young man who barely speaks. This may disappoint quite a few fans, but at least the Batman you get is excellent and without exaggerated voices (yes, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck – I’m looking at you).
The rest of the cast also does a great job with what they are given: Andy Sarkis as Alfred suffers from the same problem of Bruce’s lack of time; Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant Gordon works well as a collaborator and Batman’s only friend; Paul Dunno does an outstanding job in the terrifying role of this Riddler; And only Colin Farrell finishes this film with a “good” rating, when apart from a great car chase, his scenes are not particularly impressive compared to the rest of the cast.
The darkest movie you’ve ever seen. But not necessarily as you thought
Unlike most other Batman films that did not understand the most important couple relationship around Batman’s character, “Batman” decided to put a very big emphasis on Batman’s relationship with Catwoman for the future, and Zoe Kravitz pretty much steals the show in every scene she is in. She’s not too impressed with Batman, she’s impulsive and sharp, but she’s not yet the brilliant crook she’ll be later on.
Director Matt Reeves’ take (which is responsible for great films like Cloverfield, and the last two films in the Monkey Star series) on Batman is a take that continues Nolan’s dark line, but in my opinion takes it cinematically 10 steps further. It’s really, really not a movie to take your kids or nephews to, because “Batman” is a very violent, dark and very grounded movie. This is not a Marvel movie full of jokes and shots of colored lasers. It’s a pretty realistic take, with no superpowers and no aliens. Just people and people shit. Less a classic comic book movie and more a movie that moves between an action-detective movie and a horror-psychological movie.
Reeves chose here to create a film not only dark in terms of plot and characters, but also a very dark dot. It’s one of the darkest movies I’ve ever seen in my life. I do not know where you are going to see it, but I saw the movie on IMAX, and it’s one of the brighter projectors I’ve come across in Israel (not that it’s too much of a compliment), and this movie was very dark nonetheless. When I say dark, I mean dark at the levels of the “long night” from Game of Thrones. Remember? That episode that managed to drive the world crazy and even lead companies to present a warning before the broadcast that it was not a malfunction.
The shadows play a very big role here, and already at the beginning of the film Reeves plays with our expectation of Batman’s constant whip coming out of the shadows, and throughout almost the entire film he makes sure to leave us in the dark in every possible sense, with just a few flickers of classically lit scenes. If LG or Sony are not doing some bundle or minimum commercial for their OLED screens when this movie goes digital, I do not know why they are advertising themselves at all. Before you book tickets, make sure that the hall you are going to will provide a normal picture, otherwise there is a good chance that you will come out very frustrated.
Doesn’t look like any comic book movie you’ve seen
What is? light?
And despite the darkness, Reeves and Greg Fraser (the film’s lead photographer) created here what appears to be the most cinematic comic book film in history. There is an exceptional shooting angle here, games with shadows, reflections, lighting and even steam and drops. There are beautiful scenes here staged by an artist and lots of smart decisions that create a mesmerizing movie to watch. Not to mention the fact that Batman finally looks normal and not as clumsy or ridiculous as in pretty much every version that has come out to date.
It’s almost ironic that compared to the previous movie I watched in cinema, Uncharted, which felt the need to explain the background of the characters instead of letting their actions define them, “Batman” knows that Less Is More, and sometimes barely lets his characters speak, but express their feelings. – and without many words manages to convey much more feelings and information about them, among other things with the help of the photography, soundtrack and great expressions of the entire cast. Speaking of soundtrack, the mix sound of this movie is just as great as in the Joker when every shot or explosion will shake your stomach and heart.
Reeves chooses here to tell a pretty original story (but one that might remind you too of movies like Se7en and “Zodiac”), but instead of making the same mistakes of Zack Snyder that went the way of Frank Miller, Reeves chooses to take a few individual items from Miller, and focus on the stories that made The really iconic comic book series like Long Halloween and a bit of teasing for stories like No Man’s Land and even Court Of Owls – with quite a bit of emphasis on the detective part of “The Best Detective in the World”. Whenever I was afraid that Reeves would take the film to the wrong districts (i.e., those of Miller. Convinced me otherwise), he navigates the characters to a safe shore that veteran Batman fans will appreciate, proving that he is probably a much bigger Batman fan than all of us.
Why are you still going to hear a lot of dirt about it?
The biggest problem with “Batman” is its length, which stands at very close to 3 hours. I can not say that there was a stage where I was “bored” with the film, but I certainly felt its length even though I enjoyed it very much, and I think I know exactly why: the film has a slight tendency to recur, and even some scenes that are really repetitive, whether as a slight joke Or really as part of the plot. Alongside this pretty obvious repetition, there is the repetitiveness of the Riddler behavior, which kills or tortures people, and then there is another riddle that progresses to the next victim and the next riddle – when almost everyone feels quite similar. The film even suffers from a strange phenomenon that you may remember from that time when you saw “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and thought that the film ended 3 times before the headlines came up.
And on top of all that sits a fine soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, but in much of it he does back and forth between various adaptations of Ave Maria and Batman’s new (excellent!) Melody that he composed that you will surely hum throughout the days after viewing. Listening to the soundtrack the day after the screening, these patterns began to get a bit oppressive, and although each of the melodies works great on its own – this ensemble creates a sense of repetitiveness that must contribute to the film’s sense of distress.
I would be very happy if the film was shortened to two hours, two and a half hours, and although it does not have a clear “belly”, I feel that if they had cut one more murderer of Riddler, a bit of the mambo-jumbo of names and events of gangsters, or even completely uproot the film The penguin, he would not change too much. And if we had already sharpened the film a bit, would not you have pampered us with some more Bruce and Alfred scenes?
Anyone who’s looking for a classic and fun Marvel-style superhero movie or whatever DC is trying to make them imitate – is going to be very disappointed. This is not a classic “blockbuster” movie, although it does tell the story of one of the most popular and beloved characters in pop culture. The same people are probably going to leave the hall and say that it’s a smeared, boring and exhausting movie – but in my opinion it’s mainly because “Batman” is not really a classic comic book movie, but simply a movie that happens to be Batman.
And yet – a must-watch
So no, “Batman” is not really a perfect movie (and it’s time to dislodge the digits “1” and “0” from the keyboards of some exaggerated sites and visitors), and it suffers from a few mistakes that make it a bit exhausting – but it’s a great movie. It’s suspenseful, it’s beautiful, it’s great play, it features sweeping and creative action, refreshing takeaways on familiar stories and an incredibly precise atmosphere. It’s just not meant to be a plastic Crowd Pleaser that will satisfy the last of the viewers.
“Batman” joins a sequence started by The Joker (and to some extent also James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad) that doesn’t look, feel or sound like a standard comic book movie. But a film that is real proof that when talented directors are given a free hand, without tying them to any “cinematic universe” and oppressive sticks, they can deliver truly special works. Those who do not just entertain you for the next two hours, but those who continue to accompany you even after you leave the world.
Thank you so much Christopher Nolan, Matt Reeves will take it from here.
A good old age
Born with a joystick in hand. He has far too many gadgets and far too little free time to play with them all. An unexplained hammer holder for calibrating device batteries. When he’s not busy writing about technology, he likes to talk about it, and a lot
