In retrospect, the impact of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s late 90’s Batman comic storyline The Long Halloween is incredible. When Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan were pulling together their 2008 sequel to the initial entry in their Batman relaunch, The Dark Knight, they found Loeb and Sale’s lauded story a key text from which they pulled much of the emotional weight of that film’s narrative arc – specifically the rise and fall of Harvey Dent, the trifecta alliance of Dent, Jim Gordon, and Batman, and the emergence of a growing gangland war between the mobsters that run Gotham, and colorful supervillains like the Joker. A billion+ dollars later, it proved a shrewd approach.
Now in 2022, Matt Reeves has reinterpreted Batman for another generation of fans. In doing so, Reeves has returned to that same source material, this time adapting the elements that Nolan and co. left aside: namely the mysterious serial killer angle, the centralizing of Catwoman and her relationship to the Gotham Mob, and the idea of picking up in the second year of Batman’s crime fighting career.
In total, Reeves, best known for his critically praised Planet of the Apes sequels, seemingly had two goals in mind when forging The Batman. The first, to divorce the character from the shared universe style storytelling that continues to run through basically every other DC superhero related production. And the second: formulate a version of Gotham that could support its own ongoing spinoffs and in of itself feel like a larger world. The final result is a flashing “Mission Accomplished” sign that fuses together a strict adherence to specific comics, key cinematic touchstones like Chinatown, and a literal interpretation of a Nirvana song.
What makes The Batman work so well is that it is a story centered on its leading hero, for once. Firmly avoiding the temptation to turn this into another showcase for the character’s colorful rogues gallery, Reeves puts Bruce Wayne and his mission of “vengeance” at the center of everything that makes the story tick. In previous incarnations, the balance of persona has largely rested more on Bruce Wayne as a character, be it the implicit despair of the Michael Keaton iteration, or the desperation for escape of Christian Bale’s take.
But here? This is a Batman who has fully embraced his costumed alter-ego, to the point where Bruce is almost non-existent and it is Batman that is the fully formed id. As such, Robert Pattinson, who has completely transformed his career trajectory from his early heartthrob days to becoming a potent character actor, is inspired casting. A Batman who only speaks when absolutely necessary, where much of his emotional heft is given in looks and glowers and physical intimidation, it’s the broody hero from the comic page basically brought to life. It’s early days, but Pattinson may well end up everyone’s favorite Batman by the end.
An additional innovation that Reeves and his collaborators embark upon is that for once, “The World’s Greatest Detective” finally gets an opportunity to sink his teeth into an actual mystery. All too often in Batman big screen outings, any and all evidence and clues are basically solved by his all powerful Batcomputer, but not here. The Riddler (Paul Dano) acts as a Zodiac-killer stand-in, murdering figures of influence throughout the city and leaving riddles and other clues behind for Batman to specifically solve. The story is completely wrapped around Batman, Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), and Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz, a striking physical match for the post-Brubaker/Cooke version of the character), who work to unlock who the next victim might be and the identity behind the Riddler’s leather mask. It’s not the most intricate mystery, but the way it plays into the concept of institutional rot while also giving this hero something to do that doesn’t involve his fists or giant action set-pieces is greatly welcome.
To be clear, The Batman, while having its share of choreographed beats and car related stunts, is surprisingly action light for this genre. The creatives involved clearly sought to focus more on the characters that inhabit this Gotham (by way of Glasgow, and admittedly, it’s the most vivid the fictional city has looked since Anton Furst was involved in the franchise three decades ago), building the idea that literally any character of the comics lore could conceivably exist within the confines of this fictional world. Alongside Catwoman and The Riddler, The Penguin (Colin Farrell) makes an impressionable appearance as well as mob leader Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), both of whom are given significant roles. Between those appearances and a nice dash of background lore rearing its head at points, Reeves has crafted easily the most comics faithful take on the character and his world we’ve yet seen.
If there’s one element of detraction that does slow the momentum down, it’s that The Batman is simply too long. At nearly 3 hours, you have a film that breaks the standard three act structure and grafts on another in its final half hour. And while those final moments hold some striking images and even properly tie the ever-building themes of the film into a nice bow that I wouldn’t dare sacrifice, the escalation produced is ill-fitting for everything that came before. The exhaustion produced by the experience is a little regrettable. An unintended consequence of producing a long but thoughtful film instead of a non-stop roller coaster of similar length. But frankly, I’ll take 2 hours plus of the best Batman movie ever made with a little extra fat. I’ll take that deal anytime.
In large part, it’s the Batman movie I’d probably try to write if given the opportunity.