The Batman
**I joined the Piecing It Together Podcast on its mega-episode on “The Batman,” and it was great to discuss some of the unique things that made this one come together. You can listen to it here.
Batman has been an integral part of pop culture since I was old enough to really notice hype and anticipation for a film. I remember Michael Keaton on Letterman talking up the 1989 film, I remember watching that Tim Burton film in theatres for the first time, as well as the VHS being one of the first ones we bought. I’ve seen every big-screen iteration of the character since (although I did not see “Mask of the Phantasm” until years later). Is it just the persistence of the character in pop culture as to why he’s one of my favorite superheroes of all-time? I think it’s because, even when the movies have not been particularly good (I’ll admit- I’ve never watched “Batman: The Animated Series”), there’s always a new spin that seems to be put on the character, while maintaining the fundamental aspects of the haunted duality between Bruce Wayne, the orphaned billionaire, and Batman, the vigilante he unleashes on the criminal element of Gotham City. In Matt Reeves’s film, we get yet another new look at the character, and while I’m not sure if I’d call it my favorite one, it’s not far off.
From Tim Burton to Christopher Nolan to Zack Snyder, every live-action Batman has had passing reference to him as a detective, but usually, the films just devolve into flying fists and his marvelous contraptions. Matt Reeves engages with that idea fully, and yes, there are fight scenes, but Batman as a detective is fundamental to this film’s narrative. Another aspect that I’m curious to see how people react to is this- while most films have been as much about Bruce Wayne as they are about Batman, Batman really is front-and-center in this film. We see Wayne deal with Alfred (Andy Serkis), and occasionally in public, but Robert Pattinson’s Wayne has immersed himself in his alter ego, to where many of the most vital discussions he has in the film is behind the cowl. Even when he is at Wayne Tower, talking with Alfred, he feels like he’s always in the mode of the Bat.
The comic story that many people will likely be thinking about during “The Batman” is The Long Halloween, which is a fantastic detective story that incorporates a lot of Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery as he looks for Holiday, a killer who murders on holidays. Here, it’s not quite as drawn out as that, but the idea is kind of the same. Gotham is a week out from a critical mayoral election, and one of the candidates, current Mayor Mitchell (Rupert Penry-Jones), is brutally murdered- at the crime scene, his face is wrapped with duct tape, with “No More Lies” written on it. He will not be the only victim, as other prominent Gotham leaders will also die, all leading to a moment of reckoning for the city. Each body also has an envelope addressed, “To the Batman,” with a riddle to be solved. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) brings Batman in on the crime scenes, and one of my favorite touches in the film is how the other cops complain to Gordon about it, and he just brushes them off; after all, he’s wearing gloves. Batman is two years into his crusade against the crime of Gotham; the Riddler (Paul Dano) is about to give him a run for his money.
As superhero movies have progressed over the years, it feels like filmmakers have become more deft at integrating more than one villain into the action. Usually, it just works that there’s a main one, and then side ones pop up. In “The Batman,” Riddler is not the only part of the Rogue’s Gallery we see. Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) plays a big part in the narrative, as does Penguin (Colin Farrell), who’s working with crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). Riddler is the primary force opposing Batman here, but the underworld run by Falcone plays a fundamental part of the narrative, and in the life of Bruce Wayne, more than we expect. Thomas Wayne’s murder still plays a crucial part in this story, but is utilized in a way we haven’t really seen before. The script by Reeves and Peter Craig creates a world that feels very insular, but also dense and open for expansion- the way so many players in Gotham come in is part of why I was reminded so much of The Long Halloween. I’m also reminded of “The Godfather,” with how epic such a small landscape seems, and seeing where the film builds to, I’d be very curious what a Part II of this crime saga looked like.
Almost as much as Batman, Catwoman has been taken in a variety of directions. Even if the 2004 Halle Berry film is appalling, you cannot argue that it doesn’t do something interesting with the character. In “The Dark Knight Rises,” Selina Kyle was a thief, and that’s the typical way we see the character in the comics, as a foil for Batman. In “Batman Returns,” Selina Kyle started out as a meek, alone cat lady of a secretary, but was transformed into a vixen who proved to be more than formidable for both Batman and Penguin. (Interested that this is the second time those three have been in a movie together.) Here, Kyle has a bit of the criminal aspect to her, but she’s also someone with a broken childhood because of the criminal underworld of Gotham, much like Bruce Wayne. Here, there really isn’t an antagonistic aspect to Batman and Catwoman, and like the other ways this film deviates from the norm of what we’re used to seeing, it works in interesting ways. Pattinson and Kravitz work very well together, getting closer while also keeping each other at a distance.
In creating his Riddler, Reeves does the classic “two sides of the same coin” narrative trope that we’ve seen several times before with Batman and his villains, and builds it out of the same, fundamental idea in which he develops Batman- start with the mask, give only as much as you need of the individual. Paul Dano is pretty good in the role, drawing from the same well he did in “There Will Be Blood”; if he doesn’t reach the upper echelon of Batman movie villain performances, it’s only because it’s difficult to crack that list, at this point. I will say, there’s something about Riddler in this movie, and his part to play in this film, that struck me as interesting. He has a familiar motivation- reveal the true face of corruption in Gotham- but the way he does so made me think of “Joker.” In that film, Arthur Fleck becomes a symbol of the oppressed, and people rising up against the city. Here, I think that idea is played much more effectively, in part because of how it ties in to Batman’s arc in the film. You didn’t have a yin for Joker’s yang in that film, and it made the film thematically off-balance. If you’re going to go to the “unhinged anti-hero” well, you need someone to ground the film, even if they’re a bit unhinged themselves.
Ultimately, the film comes down to the Batman himself. Seeing the way that Batman, and Bruce Wayne, carries himself in this film, it’s not like any other iteration of the character we’ve seen before. For the first time since, probably, “Batman Forever,” we feel like Bruce Wayne has just never really put himself back together after his parent’s death. For him, Batman is something he needs in order to survive. The dynamic between Alfred and Bruce Wayne is crucial to any Batman narrative, and Pattinson and Serkis create a strong one here. In a way, Wayne does not go through much of a change in this film, except in perspective. By the end, he sees Batman not as a way to dispense vengeance, but to seek justice, and instill hope, for Gotham. Whether that’s to come is unknown, but it feels as though Wayne is fully prepared to do his part to bring it to the city.
This is a beautifully made movie. Reeves and his creative team seem to be pulling inspiration from many of the previous Batman worlds that have been created onscreen, but put it together to be its own thing. There are moments that will feel like Burton, Nolan and Snyder (if I’m leaving out Schumacher, it’s because the film doesn’t hue that closely to those in tone and aesthetic), but there are moments when the cinematography by Greig Fraser looks like something out of a David Fincher film, or “Dark City” and “The Crow.” Musically, this might be some of the strongest evidence to date that Michael Giacchino is one of the great composers around. His score certainly borrows sound from past Batman composers, but it feels definitively like the composer, and his work for “Let Me In” and the “Planet of the Apes” films. “The Batman” gives us a four-course meal all the way through. Don’t be surprised if you still want dessert at the end of it.
