The Batman. (15.)
Directed by Matt Reeves.
Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis and Paul Dano. Available now on Premium Video on Demand. 176 mins.
Excluding a few 90s digressions, the aim of each new Batman incarnation is to prove that it is darker than all the previous ones, that this is the Darkest of Dark Knights. It’s a process which has brought us to a Batman film that is basically a remake of Se7en with a masked, bondage-geared Riddler taking the role of Kevin Spacey serial killer. Objectively this new take on Batman is all a bit much. It's too long, too goth, too dark and too wet. Gotham is a rainy city with Blade Runner levels of precipitation. The colour scheme is shades of black with the odd splash of red and yellow. It’s ponderous and preposterous and shouldn’t work at all but seeing it for a second time, streamed onto my telly, confirmed my initial impression that this latest caped crusade is absolutely one of the very best.
Of course, Robert Pattinson isn’t The Batman. He couldn’t be The Batman any more than he could be The Hamlet or The Dracula. After six big-screen Dark Knights in just over three decades, being definitive is not an option. He is though A Batman and rather a good one. For a start, he’s got the jawline and the height for it. Of all of them, he is the one who seems least reliant on the Batsuit to do the work for him.
His suit looks closest to the one worn by Batfleck in BvS and Justice League, which is an interesting choice as this was originally going to be a solo vehicle for Ben’s old man Batman before being repositioned as youthful Batman. Rather than grizzled cynicism, we get moody, adolescent gothic: a lot of moody, adolescent gothic. Even after a second viewing I still don’t know why it is almost three hours long, it appears to cover less ground than any of Nolan’s films. But, it doesn't drag. It's more mood piece than action film and the mood is so strong and all-pervading it legitimises any meanderings.
The Joker isn’t the focus this time, but almost every other big-name villain piles in. Along with Dano's Riddler, there’s a Catwoman (Kravitz) and a genuinely unrecognisable Colin Farrell as the Penguin. He's buried under so much prosthetic that he looks like De Niro's Al Capone from The Untouchables, but done in the style of John Cazale's Fredo in the Godfather and resulting in a figure that is a perfect composite of every Italian American gangster the big screen has ever given us. If you didn't know it was Farrell, you would waste a hundred guesses and not come close.
And after all that effort, his Oswald Cobblepot is a peripheral figure. This is a very streamlined three hours with a lot of the usual characters and aspects pushed to the side. Serkis’ Alfred doesn’t feature much and the film is oddly disinterested in the mechanics and rigmarole of being Batman. The Batcave and his mansion don’t figure prominently, and even alter ego Bruce Wayne isn’t seen much. Previously, the villains have tended to take centre stage with the Bat lurking in the shadows, but here Pattinson and Jeffrey Wright’s Gordon are the centre of the film, a Pitt and Freeman double act trying to track down a serial killer.
This Gotham is a mix of Burton, Nolan and Joker. It's not as real-world as The Dark Knight or Joker, but you’ll be surprised how often it seems to be following the Nolan blueprint. The storyline with Catwoman is much the same as that in Dark Knight Rises, and though the visual approach is much more stylised than Nolan's realistic take, there are frequent overlaps, shots that could easily have been taken from one of the earlier ones.
So this isn’t offering up anything revolutionary or original but it is old ground gone over very well. Michael Giacchino’s score is up there with those of Elfman and Zimmer. The use of Ave Maria and Nirvana’s Something In The Way is inspired. Through Cloverfield, Let Me In, his two Planet of the Apes remakes and now this, Matt Reeves has crept up the Hollywood blockbuster pole to a position near or at the top. He’s quite an anonymous visionary, you can’t discern much in the way of a personal style other than taking on other people’s ideas and putting a distinctive but not revolutionary new spin on them.
Somewhere along the way western culture has become fixated with this tormented figure and his world and Reeves’ version will satisfy the craving to see it all played out again. The good Batman films are essentially acts of seduction. Since Jack Nicholson’s Joker announced that he made “art until someone dies… I’m the world’s first fully functional homicidal artist,” they have enticed audiences to embrace the darkness and extinguish the light. He may be the hero and he may triumph in the end but the overriding message is that however hard he tries, however many wrong’uns he puts behind bars, he never makes anything any better. In The Batman, Gotham City (and by extension the world) is seen as inherently corrupt and a place where the caped crusader is doomed to fail. Batman is a comic book hero defined by the futility of his heroics. Gotham City was, is and will always be a hell hole and there isn’t anything he can do about it. Except come back for a sequel.
Directed by Matt Reeves.
Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis and Paul Dano. Available now on Premium Video on Demand. 176 mins.
Excluding a few 90s digressions, the aim of each new Batman incarnation is to prove that it is darker than all the previous ones, that this is the Darkest of Dark Knights. It’s a process which has brought us to a Batman film that is basically a remake of Se7en with a masked, bondage-geared Riddler taking the role of Kevin Spacey serial killer. Objectively this new take on Batman is all a bit much. It's too long, too goth, too dark and too wet. Gotham is a rainy city with Blade Runner levels of precipitation. The colour scheme is shades of black with the odd splash of red and yellow. It’s ponderous and preposterous and shouldn’t work at all but seeing it for a second time, streamed onto my telly, confirmed my initial impression that this latest caped crusade is absolutely one of the very best.
Of course, Robert Pattinson isn’t The Batman. He couldn’t be The Batman any more than he could be The Hamlet or The Dracula. After six big-screen Dark Knights in just over three decades, being definitive is not an option. He is though A Batman and rather a good one. For a start, he’s got the jawline and the height for it. Of all of them, he is the one who seems least reliant on the Batsuit to do the work for him.
His suit looks closest to the one worn by Batfleck in BvS and Justice League, which is an interesting choice as this was originally going to be a solo vehicle for Ben’s old man Batman before being repositioned as youthful Batman. Rather than grizzled cynicism, we get moody, adolescent gothic: a lot of moody, adolescent gothic. Even after a second viewing I still don’t know why it is almost three hours long, it appears to cover less ground than any of Nolan’s films. But, it doesn't drag. It's more mood piece than action film and the mood is so strong and all-pervading it legitimises any meanderings.
The Joker isn’t the focus this time, but almost every other big-name villain piles in. Along with Dano's Riddler, there’s a Catwoman (Kravitz) and a genuinely unrecognisable Colin Farrell as the Penguin. He's buried under so much prosthetic that he looks like De Niro's Al Capone from The Untouchables, but done in the style of John Cazale's Fredo in the Godfather and resulting in a figure that is a perfect composite of every Italian American gangster the big screen has ever given us. If you didn't know it was Farrell, you would waste a hundred guesses and not come close.
And after all that effort, his Oswald Cobblepot is a peripheral figure. This is a very streamlined three hours with a lot of the usual characters and aspects pushed to the side. Serkis’ Alfred doesn’t feature much and the film is oddly disinterested in the mechanics and rigmarole of being Batman. The Batcave and his mansion don’t figure prominently, and even alter ego Bruce Wayne isn’t seen much. Previously, the villains have tended to take centre stage with the Bat lurking in the shadows, but here Pattinson and Jeffrey Wright’s Gordon are the centre of the film, a Pitt and Freeman double act trying to track down a serial killer.
This Gotham is a mix of Burton, Nolan and Joker. It's not as real-world as The Dark Knight or Joker, but you’ll be surprised how often it seems to be following the Nolan blueprint. The storyline with Catwoman is much the same as that in Dark Knight Rises, and though the visual approach is much more stylised than Nolan's realistic take, there are frequent overlaps, shots that could easily have been taken from one of the earlier ones.
So this isn’t offering up anything revolutionary or original but it is old ground gone over very well. Michael Giacchino’s score is up there with those of Elfman and Zimmer. The use of Ave Maria and Nirvana’s Something In The Way is inspired. Through Cloverfield, Let Me In, his two Planet of the Apes remakes and now this, Matt Reeves has crept up the Hollywood blockbuster pole to a position near or at the top. He’s quite an anonymous visionary, you can’t discern much in the way of a personal style other than taking on other people’s ideas and putting a distinctive but not revolutionary new spin on them.
Somewhere along the way western culture has become fixated with this tormented figure and his world and Reeves’ version will satisfy the craving to see it all played out again. The good Batman films are essentially acts of seduction. Since Jack Nicholson’s Joker announced that he made “art until someone dies… I’m the world’s first fully functional homicidal artist,” they have enticed audiences to embrace the darkness and extinguish the light. He may be the hero and he may triumph in the end but the overriding message is that however hard he tries, however many wrong’uns he puts behind bars, he never makes anything any better. In The Batman, Gotham City (and by extension the world) is seen as inherently corrupt and a place where the caped crusader is doomed to fail. Batman is a comic book hero defined by the futility of his heroics. Gotham City was, is and will always be a hell hole and there isn’t anything he can do about it. Except come back for a sequel.
