We aren’t hardcore fans of any superhero franchise, so seeing The Batman wasn’t really a must for us, but having received a few tickets from a friend, we thought “why not, might as well go see what all the hype on social media has been about”.
Just to give y’all at home an idea of the plot, the story revolves around The Riddler, a sadistic serial killer murdering key political figures in Gotham City which leads Batman to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and question his family’s involvement.
Before we watched the movie, we had already seen many takes on the film; some were claiming that Robert Pattison would never make a good Batman and some said that they were enthralled seeing him on screen. Pattinson is no Christian Bale or Ben Affleck when it comes to playing Batman, but he was attractive enough to appeal to the general audience, we think. There were also several opinions on which Batman movie was the best and why the latest one didn’t live up to its expectations. So, it’s safe to say we went into the theatre with some insight on what was to come.
As the movie began, highlighting Robert Pattinson in all his glory, we could see why social media claimed that they “just watched Robert Pattinson be a snack for three hours straight”. The rest of the movie was very dark; even watched in a theatre, details were a bit hard to make out. It wasn’t even very captivating the first half an hour – we were deliberating if we should have a small nap.
What really sold the movie for us was all the riddles and problem solving; in that sense, you could say The Riddler was what kept the plot alive, and also Catwoman; their (Catwoman and Batman) romantic encounters were also cute and had us rooting for them the entire time.
By the time we got to the last hour of the movie, there were several points where we thought the movie was over; but they found some small points to elaborate on which didn’t really add much to the plot and we found unnecessary. For a movie that is three hours long, you’d expect it to be a bit more plot-heavy and grasp the audience’s attention throughout, but the movie honestly could have been cut down to two hours – maybe then the critics would have been more appreciative of it.
Since we’re not very well versed in the franchise, we spoke to some Batman enthusiasts to see what their opinion of the movie was.
Attorney-at-Law Antoinette George shared that she didn’t have many expectations for the latest Batman movie as she was of the view that nobody could be better than Christian Bale as Batman. However, she was pleasantly surprised by how well Robert Pattinson acted his part. “I really liked the movie, I felt it had all that I was looking for in a superhero film. The plot, the cast, the villains, the Batmobile, the car chase, my eyes were glued to the screen the entire time,” she told us. However, she added that she must say it was not as good as Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, but better than The Dark Knight Rises, but emphasised that the new Batman movie is definitely a must watch.
University student Erantha Amaratunga shared that Matt Reeves’ The Batman is an iteration of the character which portrays a young, brooding, traumatised Bruce Wayne, who is still at the early stages of his vigilante carrier, on his way to becoming a symbol of hope for the crime-driven city of Gotham.
He noted that the beautiful opening sequence proves how the movie could easily be considered a psychological thriller. “The breath-taking cinematography perfectly brings to life a comic-accurate Gotham City. Although the character of Batman speaks very little, Robert Pattinson’s acting and body language speaks to the viewers in a non-verbal sense, conveying what the character feels and is going through,” he stated, adding that the relationship between Robert Pattison’s Batman and Jeffrey Wright’s James Gordon is something we have barely seen on the big screen.
He also observed that Paul Dano’s portrayal of The Riddler is straight-up terrifying and psychotic. He added: “Also, can we talk about Colin Farrell’s transformation into The Penguin? Because my god, he is entirely unrecognisable! Both Zoe Kravitz and Colin Farrell’s portrayals of their respective characters were phenomenal!”
Overall, he stated that The Batman is a story-driven movie; although the movie contains a fair share of beautifully shot action sequences, what truly brings this movie to life is the execution of the storyline and the perfect portrayal of the characters.
