THE BATMAN

It’s the first Batman film that so successfully peels away all the different layers of Bruce Wayne, beyond his vigilante and his billionaire personas.

Ever since Batman first appeared on the pages of a 1939 comic book he has been billed as the world's greatest detective. So it is a bit of a surprise that it took until The Batman to fully lean into that aspect of the character, even more so because the picture is clear evidence that the angle pays big dividends.

This version, as penned and directed by Matt Reeves and portrayed by a brooding, slightly unhinged Robert Pattinson, is perhaps the first that so successfully peels away the different layers of Bruce Wayne, beyond his vigilante and his billionaire personas, as the caped crusader is pitted against not only a scarily realistic Riddler but a city riddled with corruption and hidden dirty secrets.

Further aided by excellent performances across the board, an astute sense of mood and an engrossingly unfolding narrative The Batman may last three hours but never feels overlong, even if it could have used some trimming and might have benefitted from a few lighter interludes.

So while the movie hardly re-invents the formula, it does enough interesting things to warrant high praise.

release: 2022

director: Matt Reeves

starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano