The Batman (2022) Review
SnarkAI Score: 45/100
“C- It is not the worst thing that DC has put out, but it still does not achieve the CW's work, let alone BTAS, STAS, or Justice League Unlimited.”
TL;DR: tldr: A tonally inconsistent Batman film that can't decide between dark psychological thriller and slapstick comedy. While it delivers on detective work (finally!) and has solid aesthetics, the 3-hour runtime drags, Pattinson's voice lacks authority, and the Riddler casting is a miss. The film's biggest strength is avoiding the usual DC pitfalls, but it still suffers from the 'everything takes forever to go nowhere' problem that plagues most DC films. Features a random dog having the time of its life and some genuinely funny moments that clash with the intended serious tone.
The film features no pearls falling to the ground. This is a massive step up from seeing it three times in the extended cut of Justice League. Although, DC has once again insisted on a 3-hour-long film. A tight 2 hours would help a lot for The Batman. Trim some of the meandering and really keep it focused.
The junior joker gang at the start is nice, very Batman Beyond or Dark Knight Rises. I was hoping for a 'Shway' to be thrown in for the real fans. It's not a good sign for the tone that our first real encounter is slapstick encounter with a car accident and we keep getting poorly placed slapstick throughout really interfering with the intended tone of the Batman. We get Darth Vader-style entrance music, which is a little too on the nose. The VO doing lines like "I am the shadows" is way too tryhard and the sadboi soundtrack is grating. Is he vengeance or is he an emo? Pick a tone.
This is an ongoing problem. It's super dark in intent but with accidentally hilarious, almost cartoon interludes. He's got hyper-tech, but writes in a journal and chalk. He's a billionaire, but his suit doesn't fit. He does a cool escape, then messes up, and we get a jackass-style result.
The aesthetics of the Batcave are great. The Batsuit looks great. The eye makeup is surprisingly fun as a reveal, though cowl off it does push Bruce more to emo again. Love the silly bat contacts, and we're at least getting some consistent Detective, which is, ya know, Batman's whole thing and the main reason I'm not a fan of Nolan's work. You could do a find/replace on "Batman" with "Ninja" in Dark Knight, and it would be a stronger film.
Pattinson's voice is uncertain and hesitant rather than driven and lacks any sense of authority. Ironically, Gordon's (Bernard from Westworld) natural-speaking voice would have been an outstanding Batman.
The casting for the 'riddler' is a real miss and would have worked better as Professor Pyg as that's what they're doing with the character. Riddler's almost as bad as Leto's Joker. When you watch it and unironically think 'I miss Jim Carrey,' you know you goofed. Penguin's solid, though he's more Falcone than Cobblepot, but given we've had DeVito camp & Robin Taylor's creepy Penguin, I can see why a director who taken a big swing with Riddler plays it safe with the potentially silly Penguin.
Yes to gliding with his cape! No to doing it as a wingsuit so he looks like a flying squirrel. It's a bit off-brand for Batman to sit around shirtless; part of his whole psychosis is seeing himself as Batman, and Bruce is a mask. He's always in the suit, maybe without the cowl, when he's working in the cave. The only real exception is when they're showing his ribs bandaged. But show me a superhero film that doesn't lean into a bit of beefcake, and this is less gratuitous than Batflek's Crossfit session or half of Marvel's moments like Evan's chopping wood.
The random dog being all "IDGAF this is fun" swimming about is top tier. On the other side of the animal spectrum, Catwoman is in this. I'm struggling to think of any examples of agency she shows at any point that isn't reacting to Batman. Catwoman is rarely well represented in live action Batman.
Curious to know who the Mayoral candidate will turn out to be. No way she's good. She's alive and in Gotham politics.
There is an EW review that I read that described Justice League as "Everything takes forever to go nowhere," and that is true here as well. It is an ongoing problem in DC's films, with rare exceptions like Wonder Woman, Shazam and Aquaman. DC are so desperate to seem deep, dark, edgy, and 'real' that they spend hours dragging you through stories that just do not matter rather than embracing the often silly nature of the source.