new batman movie review 2022

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Matt Reeves ’ “The Batman” isn’t a superhero movie. Not really. All the trappings are there: the Batmobile, the rugged suit, the gadgets courtesy of trusty butler Alfred. And of course, at the center, is the Caped Crusader himself: brooding, tormented, seeking his own brand of nighttime justice in a Gotham City that’s spiraling into squalor and decay.

But in Reeves’ confident hands, everything is breathtakingly alive and new. As director and co-writer, he’s taken what might seem like a familiar tale and made it epic, even operatic. His “ Batman ” is more akin to a gritty, ‘70s crime drama than a soaring and transporting blockbuster. With its kinetic, unpredictable action, it calls to mind films like “ The Warriors ” as well as one of the greatest of them all in the genre, “ The French Connection .” And with a series of high-profile murders driving the plot, it sometimes feels as if the Zodiac killer is terrorizing the citizens of Gotham.

And yet, despite these touchstones, this is unmistakably a Matt Reeves film. He accomplishes here what he did with his gripping entries in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise: created an electrifying, entertaining spectacle, but one that’s grounded in real, emotional stakes. This is a Batman movie that’s aware of its own place within pop culture, but not in winking, meta fashion; rather, it acknowledges the comic book character’s lore, only to examine it and reinvent it in a way that’s both substantial and daring. The script from Reeves and Peter Craig forces this hero to question his history as well as confront his purpose, and in doing so, creates an opening for us as viewers to challenge the narratives we cling to in our own lives.

And with Robert Pattinson taking over the role of Bruce Wayne, we have an actor who’s not just prepared but hungry to explore this figure’s weird, dark instincts. This is not the dashing heir to a fortune prowling about, kicking ass in a cool costume. This is Travis Bickle in the Batsuit, detached and disillusioned. He’s two years into his tenure as Batman, tracking criminals from on high in Wayne Tower—an inspired switch from the usual sprawl of Wayne Manor, suggesting an even greater isolation from society. “They think I’m hiding in the shadows,” he intones in an opening voiceover. “But I am the shadows.” In the harsh light of day, Pattinson gives us hungover indie rock star vibes. But at night, you can see the rush he gets from swooping in and executing his version of vengeance, even beneath the tactical gear and eye black.

As he’s shown in pretty much every role he's taken since “Twilight” made him a global superstar in 2008, working with singular auteurs from David Cronenberg to Claire Denis to the Safdie brothers, Pattinson is at his best when he’s playing characters who make you uncomfortable. Even more than Christian Bale in the role, Pattinson is so skilled at making his beautiful, angular features seem unsettling. So when he first spies on the impossibly sexy Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, slinking into her leather motorcycle gear and shimmying down the fire escape in her own pursuit of nocturnal justice, there’s an unmistakable flicker of a charge in his eyes: Ooh. She’s a freak like me.

Pattinson and Kravitz have insane chemistry with each other. She is his match, physically and emotionally, every step of the way. This is no flirty, purring Catwoman: She’s a fighter and a survivor with a loyal heart and a strong sense of what’s right. Following her lead role in Steven Soderbergh ’s high-tech thriller “Kimi,” Kravitz continues to reveal a fierce charisma and quiet strength.

She’s part of a murderer’s row of supporting performers, all of whom get meaty roles to play. Jeffrey Wright is the rare voice of idealism and decency as the eventual Commissioner Gordon. John Turturro is low-key chilling as crime boss Carmine Falcone. Andy Serkis —Caesar in Reeves’ “Apes” movies—brings a paternal wisdom and warmth as Alfred. Colin Farrell is completely unrecognizable as the sleazy, villainous Oswald Cobblepot, better known as The Penguin. And Paul Dano is flat-out terrifying as The Riddler, whose own drive for vengeance provides the story’s spine. He goes to extremes here in a way that’s reminiscent of his startling work in “ There Will Be Blood .” His derangement is so intense, you may find yourself unexpectedly laughing just to break the tension he creates. But there’s nothing amusing about his portrayal; Dano makes you feel as if you’re watching a man who’s truly, deeply disturbed.

This is not to say that “The Batman” is a downer; far from it. Despite the overlong running time of nearly three hours, this is a film that’s consistently viscerally gripping. The coolest Batmobile yet—a muscular vehicle that’s straight out of “ Mad Max: Fury Road ”—figures prominently in one of the movie’s most heart-pounding sequences. It’s an elaborate car chase and chain-reaction crash ending with an upside-down shot of fiery fury that literally had me applauding during my screening. During a fight at a thumping night club, punctuated by pulsating red lights, you can feel every punch and kick. (That’s one of the more compelling elements of seeing this superhero in his early days: He isn’t invincible.) And a shootout in a pitch-black hallway, illuminated only by the blasts of shotgun fire, is both harrowing and dazzling. Greatly magnifying the power of scenes like these is the score from veteran composer Michael Giacchino . Best known for his Pixar movie music, he does something totally different with “The Batman”: percussive and horn-heavy, it is massive and demanding, and you will feel it deep in your core.

Working with artists and craftspeople operating at the top of their game, Reeves has made a movie that manages to be ethereal yet weighty at the same time, substantial yet impressionistic. Cinematographer Greig Fraser pulls off the same sort of stunning magic trick he did with his Oscar-nominated work in Denis Villeneuve ’s “Dune”: Through pouring rain and neon lights, there’s both a gauziness and a heft to his imagery. His use of shadow and silhouette is masterful, and does so much to convey a sense of foreboding and tension. I could write an entire, separate essay on the film’s many uses of the color red to suggest energy, danger, even hope. And the costume design from the great Jacqueline Durran —with Dave Crossman and Glyn Dillon designing Pattinson’s rough-and-tumble Batsuit—put just the right finishing touch on the film’s cool, edgy vibe.

This is the most beautiful Batman movie you’ve ever seen—even if it’s not really a Batman movie at all.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Batman (2022)

Rated PG-13 for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material.

176 minutes

Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman

Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle

Paul Dano as The Riddler

Jeffrey Wright as Lt. James Gordon

John Turturro as Carmine Falcone

Peter Sarsgaard as District Attorney Gil Colson

Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth

Colin Farrell as Oz / The Penguin

Matt Reeves

Writer (Batman created by)

Bill Finger
Peter Craig

Cinematographer

Greig Fraser

Costume Designer

Jacqueline Durran
William Hoy
Tyler Nelson
Michael Giacchino

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A grim, gritty, and gripping super-noir, The Batman ranks among the Dark Knight's bleakest -- and most thrillingly ambitious -- live-action outings.

It's long, but The Batman looks and sounds great, and its grounded take on Gotham is a solid fit for this Caped Crusader.

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Matt Reeves

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‘The Batman’ Review: Who’ll Stop the Wayne?

Robert Pattinson puts on the Batsuit and cats around with Zoë Kravitz in the latest attempt to reimagine the Caped Crusader.

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By A.O. Scott

The darkness in “The Batman” is pervasive and literal. Gotham City in the week after Halloween, when this long chapter unfolds, sees about as much sunshine as northern Finland in mid-December. The ambience of urban demoralization extends to the light bulbs, which flicker weakly in the gloom. Bats, cats, penguins and other resident creatures are mostly nocturnal. The relentless rain isn’t the kind that washes the scum off the streets, but the kind that makes a bad mood worse.

The Batman — not just any Batman! — is less the enemy of this state of things than its avatar. On television in the 1960s , Batman was playful. Later, in the Keaton-Clooney-Kilmer era of the ’80s and ’90s, he was a bit of a playboy. In the 21st century, through Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy and after, onscreen incarnations of the character have been purged of any trace of joy, mischief or camp. We know him as a brooding avenger, though not an Avenger, which is a whole different brand of corporate I.P.

But a modern superhero is only as authentic as his latest identity crisis. Both the Batman (Robert Pattinson) and “The Batman” itself struggle with the vigilante legacy that has dominated the post-Nolan DC cinematic universe. “I am vengeance,” our hero intones as he swoops down to deal with some minor bad guys. He doesn’t seem happy about it. He’s grouchy and dyspeptic in his costume, and mopey and floppy in his Bruce Wayne mufti. Having fed on Gotham’s violence and cruelty for years, he now finds that the diet may not agree with him.

For nearly three hours, “The Batman,” directed by Matt Reeves from a script he wrote with Peter Craig, navigates a familiar environment of crime, corruption and demoralization in search of something different. Batman’s frustration arises most obviously from the intractability of Gotham’s dysfunction. Two years after the city’s biggest crime boss was brought down, the streets are still seething and the social fabric is full of holes. Drug addicts (known as “dropheads”) and gangs of hooligans roam the alleys and train platforms, while predatory gangsters and crooked politicians party in the V.I.P. rooms.

This isn’t only a bum deal for the citizens of Gotham. It’s a sign of imaginative exhaustion. Fourteen years after “The Dark Knight,” the franchise and its satellites (including “Joker”) have been mired in a stance of authoritarian self-pity that feels less like an allegorical response to the real world than a lazy aesthetic habit.

That’s where “The Batman” begins, but — thank goodness — it isn’t necessarily Reeves’s comfort zone. In his contributions to the “Planet of the Apes” cycle (he directed the second and third installments, “Dawn” and “War” ), he demonstrated an eye for ethical nuance and political complexity unusual in modern-day blockbuster filmmaking.

Glimmers of that humanism are visible in the murk (the low-light cinematography is by Greig Fraser), but for Reeves the path out of nihilism is through it. A masked serial killer (eventually revealed as Paul Dano) is stalking Gotham’s leaders — including the mayor and the district attorney (Peter Sarsgaard) — leaving behind encoded messages and greeting cards for Batman. His signature is a question mark, which even a casual comic-book fan knows is the sign of the Riddler.

Upholding a genre cliché, he sees himself less as Batman’s nemesis than as his secret sharer, using more extreme means to accomplish similar ends arising from parallel motives. The Riddler exposes the connections between Gotham’s power structure and its underworld, links that seem to have eluded the Caped Crusader and Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), his ally in the police department. The mythology of the Wayne family — in particular the martyrdom of young Bruce’s parents — is held up to revisionist scrutiny. What if we’re wrong about Batman? What if he’s wrong about himself?

These are potentially interesting questions, but it takes “The Batman” a very long time to arrive at them. Luckily, there are some diversions in the meantime, most notably the arrival of Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman, also known as Selina Kyle. Like the Riddler, Catwoman is Batman’s self-appointed vigilante colleague, seeking payback on behalf of women who have been exploited, abused and killed by members of Gotham’s criminal and official elite. The prickly alliance that arises between these masked, pointy-eared cosplayers adds a much-needed element of romance with a just-perceptible hint of kink. Maybe there will be a place for fun in the DC universe.

But not just yet. Don’t get me wrong. There are things to enjoy here, in addition to Kravitz’s nimble work: John Turturro, hammy and slimy as a top mobster; Colin Farrell, almost unrecognizable as the oleaginous Penguin; Andy Serkis as Alfred; a crackerjack car chase; Michael Giacchino’s eerie score.

The problem isn’t just that the action pauses for long bouts of exposition, as long-past events are chewed over by one character after another. Or that Pattinson, in and out of the Batsuit, is almost as much of a cipher as any of the Riddler’s scribblings. It’s the ponderous seriousness that hangs over the movie like last week’s weather — the fog of white-savior grievance that has shrouded Gotham and the Batman for as long as many of us can remember.

“The Batman” tries to shake that off — or rather, as I’ve suggested, to work through it. Maybe it shouldn’t have been so difficult, and maybe the slog of this film will serve a therapeutic or liberatory end. Let’s hope. I can’t say I had a good time, but I did end up somewhere I didn’t expect to be: looking forward to the next chapter.

The Batman Rated PG-13. Grim and occasionally gruesome. Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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In back-to-basics 'The Batman,' Robert Pattinson shines in the darkness

Glen Weldon

Even in a cowl that blocks his peripheral vision, The Batman (Robert Pattinson) can still serve side-eye. Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros. hide caption

Even in a cowl that blocks his peripheral vision, The Batman (Robert Pattinson) can still serve side-eye.

Let's get this out of the way at the top.

No, you don't see Thomas and Martha Wayne die.

You heard that right: Mercifully, in Hollywood's latest effort to begin Batman yet again, director and co-writer Matt Reeves skips the venerable, too-oft-told origin story.

No pearls. No popcorn. No alley. No mugger. I come before you today to make it known: Our long bational nightmare is over.

Be honest: If I hadn't told you this, you'd have spent the entirety of The Batman 's two-hours-and-fifty-five-minute running-time (!) crouched defensively in your theater seat, hovering in a constant state of low-level dread, waiting for those damn pearls to start hitting the pavement yet again. Well, I'm here to tell you: They don't.

(There's a part of me convinced that we wouldn't have arrived at this welcome, long-overdue cultural milestone if it weren't for one very dumb, very dark, and very good blink-and-you-miss-it joke in the underrated gem of film called Teen Titans Go! To the Movies back in 2018. The part of me in question is my inflated ego, because I predicted the joke would have that effect , back then.)

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Setting the scene (in gotham).

Smartly, The Batman begins in media-property res, as it were, establishing that wealthy scion-of-the-city Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has been strapping on a bulky bulletproof batsuit for two years, spending his nights clomping around rooftops and delivering beatdowns to street gangs and robbers and their ilk. (The film's Foley artists really earn their keep; the Caped Crusader's every footfall resounds like thunder, and every time he turns his head we hear the squeak of worn leather.) He's already found an ally in not-yet-Commissioner Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), and his butler Alfred (Andy Serkis) has more or less gotten used to Bruce's Chiroptera -themed war on crime.

Even so, he's carrying a lot on his shoulders, over and above all that Kevlar. There's a serial killer (Paul Dano's Riddler) targeting some of Gotham's most prominent citizens and leaving clues for Batman at his crime scenes. There's a cocktail waitress who's gone missing and her friend Selina (Zoe Kravitz) is prepared to slap on a cat-eared beanie and deal with the mobsters who took her. Selina's boss, the Penguin (Colin Farrell, buried under mounds of prosthetics) may or may not be mixed up with all that, and is definitely mixed up with Gotham crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).

Reeves and his co-writer Peter Craig have settled upon a back-to-basics approach to Batman and his world. Where Tim Burton went goth, Joel Schumacher went swoonily over-the-top, and Christopher Nolan strove for a kind of stoic, masc, gunmetal-gray realism, Reeves' The Batman seems less hung up on stylistic flourishes that betoken his particular directorial perspective and more concerned with combining disparate, pre-existing elements of Batman lore in novel ways.

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That, of course, is the job, with respect to a franchise like Batman. He's been around for 83 years, and spent most of that time cycling through the same rogues gallery. Over the years, some creators have found success adding the occasional new villain to the mix, but it remains a rare occurrence.

That might have something to do with how simply and effectively Batman's extant, O.G. foes manage to highlight the different facets of his character. Historically, a given story's villain pulls Batman into a distinct and recognizable genre. A Joker story? Psychological thriller. Catwoman? Noir. Penguin? Mob story. Scarecrow? Horror. Riddler? Mystery.

Nerds like me, who value the semiotic tidiness of all this, may quibble with the film's Riddler, whose methods and motivations Reeves seems determined to simultaneously Jokerize, and Baneify, and Ra's al Ghulicate.

Let me be clear: Most moviegoers won't care about keeping Batman's villains true to their historical essences — to them, it'll sound like I'm whining about having my peas touching my mashed potatoes. But the fact remains that it's tough to get a bead on Dano's interpretation of the character, even after his mask comes off. That may be intentional, but it's not particularly satisfying.

This Batman is back-to-basics

Reeves doesn't seem interested in offering us a singular, discrete and distinctly Reevesian cinematic Batman. Instead, what he's accomplished is something that looks and feels more akin to the kind of Batman story you could pick up in a comic book shop today than any previous Batman film has managed to achieve.

Or, more specifically, a multi-issue Batman story arc, because that nearly three-hour running time lends the film a distinctly unhurried, deconstructed sense of storytelling. So many characters gets introduced in the first hour that when the film's various plotlines begin to complicate, they don't so much deftly intersect as slam headlong into each other. The story's big reveals aren't permitted to stick around very long before getting summarily reversed or minimized, so they tend to land without much much of an impact. Connections between characters grow muddier just when they're meant to become clear.

Along the way, the fans get duly serviced: Wright's Jim Gordon does his narrative duty as Officer Exposition, reading Riddler's clues aloud to Batman like a kindergarten teacher at Story Time. Kravitz's Catwoman flirts and fights and must be dissuaded from choosing violence. Farrell's Penguin is ... is basically Robert De Niro's Al Capone, really.

Production designer James Chinlund's Gotham is filled with capital-G Gothic elements, but though the city's architecture sends plenty of buttresses flying hither and yon, it feels lived-in and functional, unlike the Gothams of Burton and Schumacher, which never stopped looking like the painstakingly designed movie sets they were.

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Robert pattinson's batman puts the emo in emote.

But it's Pattinson who makes the film what it is. It's not surprising that he can brood — he made his bones in the Twilight franchise, where he spent much of his screentime glittering and sulking. But since then, he's made a series of bold choices in idiosyncratic films; on paper, his taking up the Bat-cowl might seem like a step backwards.

But Pattinson's Bruce/Batman is a searching, wounded, haunted soul with a My Chemical Romance haircut. The black makeup he smudges across his eyelids before donning the mask feels less like a costume choice and more like an extension of his truest, most emo self. Pattinson's jawline is sharp enough to slice Manchego, and this iteration of the Batman costume has been designed to highlight that fact — in close-up, he looks like a lovingly rendered illustration.

As the tenth actor to wear the Batman costume in movies (yes, I'm counting the two dudes who did the '40s movie serials), he tackles the role's signature limitation — the way it strips its performer of access to facial expressions — with aplomb. There's a scene later in the film that calls for Batman to seem impassive to the person he's speaking to, but it's necessary for all of us in the audience to register that in truth he's freaking the hell out. In close-up, Pattinson's eyes glisten, his taciturn mouth ever-so-slightly tightens. He sells that moment, and others like it.

As a result of this expressive vulnerability, Pattinson's Batman is unique in following a clear narrative and emotional arc over the course of the film. Whereas Christian Bale's Batman, for example, was bellowing "SWEAR TO ME" from the jump, Pattinson's starts the film whispering his every utterance: The ASMR Crusader. But as he's confronted by a series of revelations about Gotham and his family's connections to it, his anger waxes and wanes; he begins to question himself and his methods. By the time the credits roll, he's not the same Batman he was when the film began — his motivation has changed, and Pattinson ensures that we can see that change, in every frame. He holds himself differently. He's more centered, more assured. He's grown up.

Could it all have taken place in less time? Does every one of the film's 175 minutes justify its existence? If it were just 20 minutes shorter, might some of those needlessly complicated plotline pile-ups have been avoided? These are legitimate questions that I started grappling with the moment the lights came up.

But while Matt Reeves' The Batman was unspooling before me, I didn't check my phone, didn't think about the passing of time. No, the film isn't a Nolanesque game-changer, nor does it manage to step out of the long shadow of previous Bat-films to do anything so grand as define Batman for a new generation. And that's fine; it doesn't seem much interested in doing so.

What it does do, quite effectively, is tell a solid Batman story, with the most soulful and vulnerable Batman to ever grace the big screen. And that much, at least, is new.

Cast & crew
User reviews

When a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement. When a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement. When a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement.

Matt Reeves
Peter Craig
Robert Pattinson
Zoë Kravitz
Jeffrey Wright
8.1K User reviews
544 Critic reviews
72 Metascore
38 wins & 181 nominations total

Bruce Wayne …

Selina Kyle

Lt. James Gordon

The Riddler

Carmine Falcone

District Attorney Gil Colson

Unseen Arkham Prisoner

Officer Martinez

Chief Mackenzie Bock

Commissioner Pete Savage

Mayor Don Mitchell, Jr.

Mrs. Mitchell
Mitchell's Son
All cast & crew
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Did you know

Trivia Colin Farrell stated that he went to Starbucks to try out his prosthetics and makeup for the Penguin for the first time. Nobody recognized him, but he got a couple of stares from people.
Goofs When Batman takes his shirt off toward the beginning to the film, he has a large scar on his shoulder. The scar is gone later in the movie, when he appears shirtless while laying out the clues he's gathered on the Riddler case.

Batman : Our scars can destroy us, even after the physical wounds have healed. But if we survive them, they can transform us. They can give us the power to endure, and the strength to fight.

Crazy credits After the credits finish, a final message from Riddler appears through a computer terminal screen that says "GOOD BYE ?" followed by a quick flash of Riddler's URL that is featured in the movie.
Connections Edited into The Batman: Deleted Arkham Scene (2022)
Soundtracks Ave Maria Written by Franz Schubert Arranged by Jeff Kryka Performed by The Tiffin Boys' Choir

User reviews 8.1K

Mar 5, 2022
How long is The Batman? Powered by Alexa
What happened to Jonah Hill possibly playing The Riddler?
Why isn't J.K. Simmons returning as Commissioner Gordon?
Is The Riddler supposed to be a serial killer in this Batman film?
March 4, 2022 (United States)
United States
Official Site
Batman: Vạch Trần Sự Thật
Necropolis Cemetery, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (Batman and Selina leaving the cemetery)
Warner Bros.
DC Entertainment
6th & Idaho Productions
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$185,000,000 (estimated)
$369,345,583
$134,008,624
Mar 6, 2022
$772,245,583

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 56 minutes
IMAX 6-Track
Dolby Digital
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Surround 7.1
12-Track Digital Sound

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Review: Robert Pattinson embodies a broody, brawny Dark Knight for a new era in 'The Batman'

There have been so many Batman films – and quite a few Batmen – since Christopher Nolan’s 2005 reboot “Batman Begins” that the new one is bound to drive some moviegoers, well, batty.

Director Matt Reeves’ ambitious and excellently crafted “The Batman” (★★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters and streaming on HBO Max ) more than justifies its existence as a world-building wonder that slathers a realistic grime across its Gotham City, a metropolis filled with familiar yet refreshing takes on its iconic coterie of heroes and villains. And at the center of it all is Robert Pattinson , the latest actor to don the famous cape and cowl , who brings a grungy, broody brawn to an emotionally conflicted Caped Crusader.

The character has long been known as the “world’s greatest detective” in comic books, and in that vein is where “The Batman” thrives – with a noir-style voiceover narration introduction by Pattinson – as the "Chinatown" of the Bat-movie canon.

Definitively ranked: All of the big-screen Batmen (including Robert Pattinson)

'The Batman': Zoë Kravitz talks sweaty first day on set, breaking the ice with Robert Pattinson

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This new Bruce Wayne is more two-fisted gumshoe than masked vigilante (though he certainly can whale on street criminals' heads if need be), but honestly, the job’s not going well at all: Batman is in his second year punching punks and solving crimes, though the crime has actually grown worse since he started.

A corrupt police department on the whole doesn’t love that he’s around, and piling on to the problems is a masked serial killer named the Riddler (Paul Dano) who is murdering Gotham power players and leaving cryptic cyphers and puzzles for Batman by name.

Bruce, a dark sort even when not in his Batsuit, goes down an investigative rabbit hole to uncover a city poisoned by good intentions turned bad and learns about his late parents’ involvement. What he mainly needs to figure out, though, is will Batman just be a symbol of vengeance or should he be something more?

Robert Pattinson: Actor no longer hates 'Twilight,' says he has 'very warm memories' of it

Reeves tries to do a lot over three expansive hours, and he mostly succeeds, filling out an expansive Gotham mythology that Batman and his colorful co-stars exist in naturally rather than overshadow. (As much as he packs in, Reeves also seeds intriguing aspects for sequels down the line.)

Bruce has allies in good cop/frequent partner Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), loyal butler Alfred (Andy Serkis) and the shadowy Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz), a club waitress and cat burglar who grows close to Batman as they work together and find commonalities in their past traumas. Dano’s Riddler is a Zodiac Killer type with a penchant for punctuation who grows creepier as his story is revealed, while Colin Farrell fabulously embraces his inner Robert De Niro (and is delightfully unrecognizable under a ton of prosthetics) as the gangster Penguin.

The OG Batman: How Michael Keaton's 1989 blockbuster 'Batman' changed superhero movies forever

There’s an interconnectedness among the characters that really works, plus “The Batman” is undoubtedly just really cool. Pattinson plays Batman as an enigma slowly unlocked along with the film's central mystery – as Kravitz’s pre-Catwoman persona discovers, you dig him the more you get to know him. Also, the hero’s muscle-car Batmobile is the niftiest since Michael Keaton’s 1989 road monster, and Reeves’ movie is the best-scored comic book film since 2008’s “The Dark Knight.” A composer with the creativity to be this generation’s John Williams, Michael Giacchino constructs individual character themes and a genre-mashing piano-and-orchestra soundscape that are essential elements in making “The Batman” a triumph.

Reeves’ “The Batman” is doing its thing far outside the DC movie universe where Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman hang out. That’s a good thing: Pattinson’s main man holds down a revamped Gotham that feels distinctively gritty with its blueprint of madness and mayhem, a place you would never want to live in but still would love to revisit as soon as possible.

'It was terrifying': 'The Batman' star Robert Pattinson embraces a superhero who's 'a mess'

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The Batman review: Robert Pattinson plays the proto superhero in Matt Reeves' sleek neo-noir revival

So serious.

Even Batmen get the blues. Still, Robert Pattinson 's damaged young billionaire may be the Darkest Knight yet: He journals, he broods, he plucks a single blueberry from a silver urn and gazes at it mournfully. For nearly three hours he gives great mood — and while that is not quite the same thing as a great movie, writer-director Matt Reeves ( Cloverfield , Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ) nearly wills it to be in his sprawling, operatic update (in theaters March 4).

The batsuit, at least, is intact; so is most of the mythology. If Bruce Wayne has a tuxedo though, it's buried somewhere deep in his dry cleaning. He's still obscenely rich but not yet the playboy we know: On the rare occasions that he's home, he wanders through his decaying mansion like a wraith, trailed by the faithful Alfred (an elegant, underused Andy Serkis ); mostly he's on the streets of Gotham City, swooping in wherever vigilante justice must be served. And when the mayor is murdered in what looks like a ritual killing, he finds out he has a new fan: A question mark who calls himself the Riddler ( Paul Dano ) is taking out the city's most powerful men, and leaving little mash notes for Batman behind at the scenes of the crime.

There's a squat, snarling Penguin who might know something about that, played by a patently unrecognizable Colin Farrell . (What is Hollywood's recent fetish with casting the prettiest actors, then burying them in Shrek-face prosthetics?) There's also Selina ( Zoë Kravitz ), a cocktail waitress who seems to take in an unusual amount of strays and has her own nocturnal alter ego. Catwoman has always been an antagonist and a mousetrap for Batman, but she's never really been his lone love interest. Here, the script has so reduced Bruce's social calendar that only a handful of core characters remain: Selina, Alfred, good cop Jim Gordon ( Jeffrey Wright , radiating decency). A dapper John Turturro is the suave, menacing mob boss Carmine Falcone, and Peter Sarsgaard , a drowsy-eyed D.A.

In fact nearly everything but the score — a baroque teeth-rattling monolith by Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino — and a few requisite fiery set pieces feel stripped away. The dialogue comes in short, sharp bursts of hard-boiled noir, as if the actors only have enough oxygen for small sentences, and the inky austerity of Reeves' none-more-black color palette recalls movies like Blade or The Crow more than it does Tim Burton 's boi-oi-oing camp or Christopher Nolan 's swaggy, cerebral opulence.

Kravitz is feline and fiercely lovely, a girl with her own private pain and motivations; Dano feints and giggles, a simpering loon. (In a world where Heath Ledger's Joker still exists on celluloid, alas, pretty much every kind of pulp villainy that follows is bound to feel like pale imitation.) But it falls on Pattinson's leather-cased Batman to be the hero we need, or deserve. With his doleful kohl-smudged eyes and trapezoidal jawline, he's more like a tragic prince from Shakespeare; a lost soul bent like a bat out of hell on saving everyone but himself. Grade: B

‘The Batman’ Review: The Future of Superhero Movies Is Finally Here, for Better or Worse

David ehrlich.

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It was less than three years ago that Todd Phillips’ mid-budget but mega-successful “Joker” threateningly pointed toward a future in which superhero movies of all sizes would become so endemic to modern cinema that they no longer had to be superhero movies at all. With Matt Reeves ’ “ The Batman ” — a sprawling, 176-minute latex procedural that often appears to have more in common with serial killer sagas like “Se7en” and “Zodiac” than it does anything in the Snyderverse or the MCU — that future has arrived with shuddering force, for better or worse. Mostly better.

This isn’t “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” posturing as a 1970s conspiracy thriller or “Logan” half-committing to its Western heart, nor is it a simple throwback to Christopher Nolan’s Bush-era take on the Dark Knight, which grounded Bruce Wayne in a tactile Gotham while still broadly adhering to the storylines and spectacles expected of its genre. No, the better part of this Batman belongs to another genre altogether, as Reeves stubbornly eschews the usual razzmatazz in favor of a hard-boiled murder-mystery in which The World’s Greatest Detective just happens to be a (very) tortured billionaire with an unexplained hard-on for bats.

Which isn’t to suggest that people will confuse this mirthlessly dark Bat-noir for a Raymond Chandler adaptation, or even any of the David Fincher movies that lent “The Batman” its grim style or haunted air of fear — not with Colin Farrell playing Oswald Cobblepot under 50 pounds of Jake LaMotta cosplay, Paul Dano ’s Riddler drawing foam question marks in his lattes, and a glowering Robert Pattinson karate-chopping street gangs while entombed inside a rubber Batsuit thicker than the tires of a monster truck. But it’s those brief (and very rare) dashes of action that best illustrate the film’s defiantly anti-blockbuster approach, as Reeves designs them with a much greater emphasis on close-up emotion than big screen excitement.

The combat is shot in silhouette, the sole Batmobile sequence is framed tighter than “Locke,” and the setpieces double down on Greig Fraser’s bonfire cinematography — his Stygian color palette extending Bruce’s personal hell across the whole of Gotham — to a degree that makes them seem like a scorched-earth rebuttal to the candied aesthetic of most other superhero movies (and a serious crisis for any corporate multiplex that doesn’t regularly change its projector bulbs). Even this film’s relatively familiar, broadly Nolan-esque Batman tries to save the city climax is discomforting for the way it stages all the usual POWs! and BAMs! against a recognizable backdrop of real-world horror.

And there is plenty to be afraid of in this Gotham, as “The Batman” makes clear by opening with a Halloween-night home invasion that unfolds like a chapter from the Book of Saw (a fitting prelude to a film whose Riddler is equal parts Joker and Jigsaw). The mayor is murdered by a serial killer just days before his potential re-election, leaving behind the first of several mangled bodies and taunting clues.

What it doesn’t leave behind is a power vacuum. If the mayor’s vacated office is certain to be awarded to the inspirational young Black woman who was challenging him for it (Jayme Lawson as the wonderfully named Bella Reál), that foregone conclusion allows Reeves to shift his attention towards the rat’s nest of festering white men who are ominously unconcerned with the outcome of the vote. Gotham has been controlled from inside Falcone’s nightclub for longer than Bella has been alive, and the rot has grown deep enough to keep things from changing.

That stagnation bleeds through the film’s retro-modern production design, as Koch-era taxi cabs and MS-DOS coexist alongside Trumpian identity politics and viral livestreams, all of them housed together in a Gotham that seamlessly blends parts of London, New York, and Chicago into a single mega-city buried under a mountain of violent grime (the film’s immaculate CGI is largely invisible and pointed towards world-building instead of than spectacle). The past is always coming back to haunt people in “The Batman,” though some are determined to prove that it never really went away.

Fittingly, and despite all of the ways “The Batman” pushes superhero movies forward, it still has one foot stuck in the familiar. For all of its bruising power, it still pulls a number of its punches. It’s possible Reeves’ epic had its wings clipped from the minute it was conceived with a PG-13 in mind. The film’s antiseptic bloodlessness often neutralizes the stench of a city rotting from the inside out, even if the MPA rating doesn’t stop Reeves from creating several of the scariest moments in superhero movie history. But the more significant issues lie under the surface.

Writ large, the biggest impediment to Reeves’ caped incursion on a foreign genre is that “The Batman” is so eager to blur the line between a superhero movie and a serial killer neo-noir that it isn’t particularly good at being either of those things. Its portrait of Bruce Wayne as a revenge-obsessed recluse is psychologically thin even by the standards of a Batman story (Pattinson’s sullen performance is 90 percent clenching), while Andy Serkis’ turn as Hot Alfred Pennyworth finds the iconic butler limited to cooking breakfast and delivering exposition on demand. Meanwhile, the Riddler’s game of cat-and-bat (and cat) is weighed down by Reeves and co-writer Peter Craig’s groan-worthy struggle to Gothamify the Zodiac Killer, though Dano’s demented embodiment of the villain adds a riveting new dimension to his character before it’s too late.

It doesn’t help that the film’s parallel genres are crudely forced together by a half-baked corruption plot that trickles down from the same tradition of “Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential,” but lacks the layered intrigue of those inspirations. That plot is further diluted by John Turturro’s sniveling comic take on crime boss Carmine Falcone, as the most dangerous figure in this grimdark mosaic also becomes the only character who isn’t nearly serious enough. And yet that same part of the story is also what gives us Zoë Kravitz ’s fierce and focused Selina Kyle, a family-minded nightclub waitress born into a city where cyclical violence continues to hide behind empty promises of renewal a full year after an anonymous vigilante first began terrorizing petty criminals from the shadows.

In the burnt orange underworld of Gotham — as in “The Batman” itself — good and bad are as inextricable from each other as the different genres that define their terms, and the film’s hard-earned flares of light are only so capable of pointing the way forward because of how vividly they’re painted against the darkness that surrounds them. Forged from the embers of previous Batman movies despite never indulging in the kind of meta-commentary that has defined so many recent mega-sequels, Reeves’ effort may be too overstuffed and underwritten to succeed on its merits as either a Bruce Wayne story or a blockbuster noir, but there’s something ineffably beautiful to how “The Batman” smelts its many separate components into a new kind of superhero movie. It’s not just another multiplex extravaganza about masked saviors fighting to rescue a few glimmers of genuine hope from a cultural legacy of fear and greed, but one that’s also thrillingly unafraid to put its money where its mouth is.

Maintaining the courage of his convictions is not a problem for this Bruce Wayne. In fact, conviction is pretty much the only thing he’s got left by the time the movie starts — that and the billion-dollar fortune he’s willing to squander in order to scare Gotham straight for killing his parents when he was a kid (Reeves mercifully declines to revisit the murders themselves, though he finds a clever way of depicting the effect they might have on a young boy with a penchant for dress-up). Pattinson’s Bruce isn’t a playboy philanthropist or a recovering fuck-up trained by Ra’s al Ghul or whatever else this character has been in the past. He doesn’t have a social life or a sense of humor. All he has is the big house his parents owned, the slowed-down version of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” that follows him like a bad smell, and the mission that gives meaning to his life. Batman is simply the scar that’s grown over Bruce Wayne, and the wound it covers is wider than it is deep.

If this angle is true to the history of the character, doubling — or quadrupling — down on the Caped Crusader’s intrinsic darkness still feels like a bold choice in the wake of Ben Affleck’s dour stint behind the cowl and the hilarious LEGO Batman movie that roasted it alive. Pattinson’s Bruce is so broken inside that you half expect him to microwave a whole lobster for dinner and laugh at the ending of “Jerry Maguire” for dessert, and the fact that he always looks like he’s just come back from a 2006 My Chemical Romance concert doesn’t help (it only makes his penchant for journaling feel more emo than it does “First Reformed”).

That it doesn’t come off as a parody of a parody is a testament to both the holistic nature of Reeves’ vision and the eagerness with which Pattinson buys into it. Bruce is pure id (“I am vengeance” is a common refrain), but the actor behind the eyeliner is earnest enough to balance out his anger, and “The Batman” survives its eventual transition into more familiar superhero movie territory because of the slow-thawing self-awareness that Pattinson brings to the title role — his realizations galvanized by a career-best Michael Giacchino score that pounds into your head as if Batman were sitting at the piano and playing it himself. If Bruce already knows that fear is an effective weapon, he’s about to learn that you can’t build anything with it.

The truth comes to light slowly — ploddingly — as Batman and lieutenant James Gordon follow Riddler’s clues deeper into Gotham’s web of corruption (Gordon is played by a thankless Jeffrey Wright, the actor defaulting to his “Westworld” mode in a movie where no one is cast against type). Their goofy investigation unfolds in tandem with the one that Batman launches with Selina, though both are regularly interrupted and brought closer together by Riddler’s explosive games. Kravitz’s electric screen presence is enough to make Selina’s origin story feel less basic than it is, and she and Pattinson are both so beautiful that you might be able to stifle your laughter when Catwoman moves in to kiss Batman’s motionless face (new type of superhero movie, same type of sexual dysfunction). This is a case where cinematic heft excuses all manner of silliness; it’s more exciting to watch a close-up tracking shot of Bruce walking down the corridors of Falcone’s nightclub than it is to see other superheroes save the world.

By far the most nuanced relationship here is that between Batman and Riddler. The one proper scene they share together at the end of their long flirtation is fascinating for its aired grievances and curious misapprehensions, as “The Batman” finally merges its procedural body to its superhero soul just in time for a wild fight over Gotham’s future — the film reconciling a split identity to a degree that some of its characters never can. While Reeves unfortunately retreats to the safety of franchise-building mode with the penultimate scene, “The Batman” succeeds in transforming the Bat-Signal into a beacon of hope rather than something to fear. Not just for the citizens of Gotham, but also for the multiplex audiences who will inevitably have to visit the city a few more times before Hollywood gives us somewhere else to go. Compared to the superhero movies that came before it, “The Batman” is already halfway there.

Warner Bros. will release “The Batman” in theaters on Friday, March 4.

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Robert pattinson in ‘the batman’: film review.

The Caped Crusader is back on Gotham City’s crime-infested streets, exposing corruption at the highest levels in Matt Reeves’ reboot, also featuring Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano and Colin Farrell.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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With his Planet of the Apes installments, Matt Reeves demonstrated that big studio franchise movies based on iconic screen properties didn’t have to exclude intelligent, emotionally nuanced storytelling. The same applies to The Batman , a brooding genre piece in which the superhero trappings of cape and cowl, Batmobile and cool gadgetry are folded into the grimy noir textures of an intricately plotted detective story. Led with magnetic intensity and a granite jawline by Robert Pattinson as a Dark Knight with daddy issues, this ambitious reboot is grounded in a contemporary reality where institutional and political distrust breeds unhinged vigilantism.

Full credits

Distributor: Warner Bros. Production companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, 6th & Idaho, Dylan Clark Productions Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Peter Sarsgaard, Barry Keoghan, Jayme Lawson Director: Matt Reeves Screenwriter: Matt Reeves, Peter Craig, based on characters from DC, created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger Producers: Dylan Clark, Matt Reeves Executive producers: Michael E. Uslan, Walter Hamada, Chantal Nong Vo, Simon Emanuel Director of photography: Greig Fraser Production designer: James Chinlund Costume designer: Jacqueline Durran Music: Michael Giacchino Editors: William Hoy, Tyler Nelson Sound designers: Chris Terhune, Lee Gilmore, Craig Henighan Visual effects supervisor: Dan Lemmon Casting: Cindy Tolan, Lucy Bevan

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Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman and Robert Pattinson as Batman.

The Batman review – Robert Pattinson’s brooding caped crusader has a lot on his mind

Pattinson is appealingly conflicted, and Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman adds bite, but Matt Reeves’s noirish reboot underwhelms

“T wo years of nights have turned me into a nocturnal animal,” growls Robert Pattinson’ s Batman to no one in particular. The streets of Gotham City are slick with rain and sleaze; defending them is weary work. Nirvana’s dirge-like Something in the Way plays to better illustrate the point. Back at the Batcave, he swaps his cape for a hoodie and dusts off his diary, pushing his greasy, Kurt Cobain-style curtains out of his eyes as he writes down his woes.

And that’s just the opening. Not to worry – there’s no shortage of brooding in Matt Reeves ’s bloated three-hour take on the DC Comics superhero. Batman movies are usually goofy or dour; this film is in the latter camp, styled as a neo-noir revolving around rats, moles and the mob. In the run-up to the mayoral elections, the incumbent is brutally murdered by an empowered incel type who broadcasts his crimes on social media. When this killer leaves a perplexing note for the Batman, police lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) enlists the help of the city’s unofficial guardian angel to help solve the riddle. As a standalone police procedural, it works quite well, but as a franchise reboot it’s not enough of a reset.

Zoë Kravitz is a highlight as cocktail waitress turned cat burglar Selina Kyle. Feline with a feral edge, she stomps around in thigh-high PVC boots, bonding with the Batman over their shared daddy issues and penchant for fetishwear. As her character puts it, Gotham’s “white privileged assholes” keep turning up dead. Bruce Wayne, the man behind the Batman’s mask, could be described this way too. R-Patz plays him with an appealing vulnerability, a well-meaning philanthropist buckling under the weight of white guilt.

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'The Batman' Review: The Darkest Dark Knight is a Horror Epic on HBO Max Now

Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz are Batman and Catwoman in an apocalyptic, operatic comic book saga that's a million miles from Marvel movies and available on HBO Max.

The new Batman movie for 2022, streaming on HBO Max.

You've seen a loads of Batman movies, but you still need to steel yourself for the darkest Dark Knight yet. Starring Robert Pattinson as DC's Caped Crusader, 2022's new movie The Batman was a hit in theaters and arrived streaming service HBO Max on Monday . From its horror movie opening to the teasing final credits , it's an intense, apocalyptic cinematic experience.

Following the murder of his parents (you know that bit by now), a young and troubled Bruce Wayne is two years into a bat-themed crusade against Gotham City street crime. He's formed an alliance with upstanding cop Jim Gordon, but nothing prepares them for a chillingly planned series of atrocities by a macabre masked murderer who leaves fiendish puzzles with each victim. As Batman unpicks the cryptic clues, the investigation peels away a greater conspiracy. But the real riddle is how the ranting killer's twisted motive ties back to Batman himself.

As that synopsis suggests, The Batman is barely a superhero movie. Director Matt Reeves , who co-wrote the script with Peter Craig, shovels previous Bat-films into one roaring furnace: There are notes of Tim Burton's gothy angst, Christopher Nolan's criminal politics and Zack Snyder's operatic brutality , combined with the standalone Joker movie's psychological backstory, vaguely timeless design and layers of dark irony.

But it's also more of a detective mystery than previous Bat-flicks, borrowing in particular from David Fincher's serial killer chillers Seven and Zodiac. And it's a gangster movie. Also a '70s conspiracy thriller. And a relentlessly bleak film noir.

Most of all, though, The Batman is a horror movie.

In 1989, pearl-clutching parents were shocked and appalled by Tim Burton's Batman. The tights-wearing funny book hero who biffed, powed and zapped cartoon villains was replaced by a traumatized weirdo in black rubber fetish gear, trading blows with a giggling, acid-scarred psychopath. In Britain, they even had to invent a new rating category for the movie.

Let's not get into the perennial argument among fans about whether superhero movies should be for kids or for grown-ups. Let's just say you absolutely 100% can't show The Batman to a child. This new flick is PG-13 in the US, but it's on a whole other level to the relatively bloodless Dark Knight movies -- and on a different planet from any Marvel film -- immersing you in a nerve-shredding three hours of escalating dread and simmering pain garnished with some astonishingly nasty touches.

The Batman takes on a serial killer.

This explicitly scary Batman film opens with a sinister scene of jaw-tightening suspense, adding serial killer scares and even a few dashes of torture porn. The people of Gotham are introduced as a swirling crowd of faceless, Halloween-masked figures. Jagged horror movie strings and Michael Giacchino's relentless score ratchet up the tension. There aren't any baddies plundering diamonds from charity galas, but a ghoulish serial killer who plunges the city into a simmering cauldron of creeping panic. Batman himself stalks from the shadows with a heavy tread and heavier fists, meting out pitiless vengeance with a chilling lack of affect behind his mask.

Pattinson's Batman (Battinson? Pattman?) is a lank-haired mess, a world away from Christian Bale's slick professional or Ben Affleck's graying grump. Hunched in the basement listening to Nirvana with mascara running down his face, this younger Bruce Wayne is unformed and yet already unraveling, muttering a Taxi Driver-esque voiceover as he drowns in a filthy tide of lawlessness and degradation. Pattinson genuinely inhabits the Batman, expressing despair with just his perfectly angled jaw and soulful eyes staring from beneath the black mask. Still, you could probably shave down the epic two hour and 47 minute runtime if there was a bit less of Batman slowly... walking... and... meaningfully... staring...

For all his formidable fighting skills and detective prowess, this Batman is barely holding it together. And that gives the film a vital charge.

Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne.

As Selina Kyle -- the Catwoman to Pattinson's Bat -- Zoë Kravitz is eminently watchable. But the film struggles to get under the character's masks, piling on schlocky twists rather than exploring character with any depth. The same is true for Jeffrey Wright's buddy cop Jim Gordon, given the thankless task of standing next to Batman and frowning as they growl exposition at each other. The bad guys clearly have more fun: a barely recognizable Colin Farrell channels Robert De Niro's Al Capone from The Untouchables, while John Turturro's purring menace recalls Brando in The Godfather.

So if you were wondering whether there's any room for a fresh take after 14 movies, it's actually surprisingly invigorating to see a Caped Crusader who's more human -- not just Bruce Wayne, but as the Batman himself. This Batman doesn't magically disappear from a room, but has to run for his life sometimes. One of the highlights of the film is when Batman does something we've seen the character do a million times, but it's clear from Pattinson's little wince this is the first time he's done it. Suddenly a superhero cliche becomes a genuinely perilous and thrilling moment.

While the sleuthing drives the story, the action scenes really are hair-raisingly exhilarating. The fights unfold as long lingering shots and show the Batman wading through each fight with economical ferocity. The use of light and shadow adds to the drama of the punch-ups.

Perhaps most thrilling of all is an apocalyptic car chase. Instead of a glossy high-tech speedster or city-conquering tank, Pattinson's Batman drives a car that's as unhinged as he is. This Batmobile is a demonic hot rod snarling with rage as it races to devour its prey, lit only by blood-red taillights and infernal flame. It's an incendiary highlight in a deliriously intense film.

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There's a lot to unpack in The Batman's psychological and political leanings, not least the film's treatment of women. There aren't many, despite the sprawling cast. The plot hinges on the grisly-sounding murder of a woman, which is replayed more than once. A fairly major twist introduces a horrific backstory for a significant woman in Bruce Wayne's life. And Selina Kyle is a driven badass, but she's still introduced with a lingering pan up her stiletto boots to her tight skirt, before the camera (and Batman) voyeuristically watch her undress.

Batman is clearly linked to the Riddler's voyeurism and violence, questioning the caped crusader's methods more than previous films. The level of moral ambivalence is much closer to the darkly ironic Joker film. When Batman first appears, for example, a mugging victim sees little distinction between his attackers and this demonic figure who savagely beats them. It's also the first Batman film to engage with the revisionist take that Bruce Wayne is a wealthy man whose hobby is hospitalizing poor people. Like the Joker movie, The Batman explores the radicalizing effect of inequality on a repressed populace. But Joker focused on a villain, and so the ironic conclusion required you to be in on the joke. The Batman, meanwhile, focuses on a hero -- a conflicted, dubious hero, but still -- and so there's opportunity for a more hopeful moral underpinning buried under the crushing gloom.

It's long, it's frequently slow and it's crushingly bleak. But The Batman deserves that definitive article. It's "The" Batman because it evokes many previous incarnations of the Caped Crusader while still bringing something distinctive. This darkest Dark Knight may not be for everyone (and certainly not for kids), but it's a gripping and nerve-shredding Bat-thriller.

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Photo composition of two images of Robert Pattinson as Batman from the movie “ The Batman”

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The Batman needed a harder reboot

Matt Reeves, Robert Pattinson, and a strong cast rely on execution for a familiar comic book movie

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Batman is back, and he is pissed as hell. The Batman , Matt Reeves’ moody reboot of the famous comic book hero, launches a new version of the Caped Crusader for the 2020s. Somewhere between the Snyderverse’ s failure to launch a solo franchise with Ben Affleck’s elder-statesman take, and the enduring appeal of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, there’s a lot of room for something new. Unfortunately, Reeves’ new take has a lot in common with the old takes.

The Batman is full of moments most Bat-fans will have seen before, and not that long ago. At its most exhausting, it restages moments from the Nolan trilogy: A mobster tells Bruce Wayne the truth about how the world works, Batman fights his way through a nightclub in a fury or through a hallway illuminated only by gunfire, footage of the film’s villain terrorizing their next victim is broadcast over the evening news. Almost all of the characters, apart from the Riddler, are recognizable from previous Batman movies. The new layers on display here are easily derived from what came before. There is nothing particularly bold about The Batman . Its strength is in its execution.

A rain-slick mystery in the mode of David Fincher’s Seven , The Batman is a methodical hunt for the Riddler (Paul Dano) after his grotesque murder of Gotham City’s incumbent mayor in the leadup to the city’s elections. Batman (Robert Pattinson) has been operating in Gotham for two years, and has established both a street rep that keeps common crooks scared and a rock-solid partnership with police Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) that lets him in on crime scenes, even if most other cops hate it.

Lt. Gordon and Batman stand in the Gotham Police precinct.

The case takes the pair on a tour through Gotham’s underworld, crossing paths with crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), striver Oz “The Penguin” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell), thief Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), and all of Gotham’s mobsters and elites, who have become codependent. Like its protagonist, The Batman is driven — while the hunt for the Riddler sprawls out in different directions, the film never deviates from it. Bruce Wayne rarely appears out of costume, wholly given to his mission and seeing little use for the life he was born into.

In building a story around the construction of Batman over his human alter ego or any people around him, The Batman becomes a movie of abstract ideas about cities, and where their denizens should place their faith when they know the game is rigged. These are compelling ideas to explore, particularly in this version of Gotham City — which is built to look like a dark-carnival rendition of 1970s and ’80s New York City transposed to the present day. Recognizable landmarks are given a grimy makeover, and theatrical gangs overrun the streets in a merging of fantasy and reality that ultimately adds up to a metaphor in search of a meaning.

If Batman is, as he repeatedly states, “vengeance,” then what is Gotham? The answer is pretty simple: It’s every city as portrayed by conservative commentators, a den of crime that needs Batman to clean it up, but maybe not the way he’s been doing it for the last couple years. Bruce Wayne’s arc is one where a young man who was molded by Gotham learns that perhaps it’s time for him to mold it in turn.

Robert Pattinson is shirtless Bruce Wayne, very cool.

This also feels familiar: The arc of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was expressly about the idea that Batman was a necessary response, but also one with an expiration date. It’s about a guy who learns how to move from boogeyman to inspiration, and how the latter is a more effective vehicle for change.

The contours of how Reeves gets there is how he distinguishes The Batman . Like Heath Ledger’s Joker, the Riddler in this film is a cipher with a point to make: Gotham City’s vision of law and order is a lie fueled by corruption, and Batman’s journey to stop him, using the tools and means of his wealth, calls that wealth into question. In the world of The Batman , all money is dirty money, powering the ascent of dirty politicians and mobsters while also blinding the well-intentioned to the reality of their impact on the community. The tension between Batman and Catwoman does not just come from their positions on opposite sides of the law, but also Gotham City. He lives in a tower and sees the entire city, while she comes from the gutter and tells him he can’t see a damn thing.

The echoes of past Bat-films are made worse when the people telling the story are so good. Robert Pattinson is a great Batman, surly and serious, but not impenetrable. His Bruce is still open to learning, still capable of feeling, but isn’t invincible. He might not crack a smile in this film, but it’s conceivable that he could, once he achieves a better work-life balance. Zoë Kravitz also makes for a great Selina Kyle, even though the movie does little to establish Catwoman as a known presence the way it does Batman. As Batman’s de facto partner, Jeffrey Wright’s Jim Gordon is perhaps too similarly steely, a great movie cop, but one who could lean a bit more into the fact that he’s a Gotham City cop, where a guy named “The Riddler” leaves birthday cards behind for Batman.

The Riddler shows off his advanced skills in the art of applying duct tape.

The film’s take on the Riddler may be the movie’s most divisive aspect. Much like Batman, Paul Dano is masked for most of the movie, a character who’s more in line with Jigsaw from the Saw franchise than the quizmaster of the comics. He’s a cruel constructor of death traps, out to impart some kind of moral lesson that won’t be revealed until the movie’s end. Unfortunately, he looks quite silly, somehow requiring more suspension of disbelief than the guy in pointy ears trying to catch him.

Fortunately, The Batman ’s detective-story structure means he’s mostly an offscreen puppetmaster, and as ridiculous as he appears, everything else in The Batman looks incredible, as ambitiously staged fight scenes unfold in a city draped in shadows and streetlamps. The film is only hard to parse during one of its most ambitious setpieces, a car chase that attempts to give its pursuit the physicality of a fistfight, with close shots and weighty collisions. It’s a failure of ambition in a movie that mostly has none, because the cinematic vision of what Batman can be has become terribly narrow.

The pieces were there to do something different. Director Matt Reeves established himself as a surprising blockbuster director with his Planet of the Apes sequels, two films that turned a rote franchise revival into meaningful, bold show-stoppers. His cast is headed up by popular actors with outsider appeal, and more than a decade of dark and grim Batman stories inspired by the same handful of comics have primed audiences for something different.

Instead, The Batman is frustratingly safe, a movie full of potential for more and settling for less. It preaches to the choir, reinforcing the same ideas trodden over and over again across five movies, multiple video games, and every comic book in the mold of Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s Batman: Year One . If those are your Batman touchstones, the film may very well speak to you. If, on the other hand, you’re curious as to whether Batman can speak to a different audience, it might be time to pack up the signal. No one’s coming to save you.

The Batman premieres in theaters on Friday, March 4.

Surprise! Batman: Caped Crusader is alive and well and premieres this summer

Harley quinn, poison ivy, and catwoman’s team-up book returns this august from dc, first photo confirms: james gunn’s superman will wear his underwear on the outside.

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The Batman Is The Stylish, The Maximalist, and The Endless

Robert pattinson’s bruce wayne looks at the many batman movies that came before and taunts, “mine is longer.”.

The maximalist approach of Matt Reeves’ The Batman extends to its very title: This three-hour-long epic is a comic-book adaptation with the full menu of extras, right down to that plushy definite article padding out the name of the Caped Crusader. Less an origin story than a coming-of-age tale, The Batman captures the title character only two years into his crimefighting career. As played by the smoldering English actor Robert Pattinson, Bruce Wayne is both younger and more vulnerable than the bat-dudes we’re accustomed to seeing. He almost appears to use his pointy-eared face mask as protection from the world, and is rarely seen unmasked even when at home, where his only confidante at the gloomy Wayne family mansion is his butler Alfred (motion-capture master Andy Serkis, doing what at times appears to be a Michael Caine vocal impression).

When a highly placed Gotham City politician is murdered in his home by a mysterious assailant, Bruce works with police detective Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) to decode the encrypted message the killer has left behind. This criminal mastermind, played with enjoyable scenery-chomping lunacy by Paul Dano, is the Riddler, a deranged genius fixated on exposing corruption in the Gotham City government. The Riddler’s obsession extends to proving that Bruce’s beloved father, Thomas Wayne, was involved in a dirty coverup scheme, an accusation that forces Bruce to relive the trauma of his parents’ long-ago murder.

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True to its everything-but-the-kitchen-sink aesthetic, The Batman is also overstuffed with antagonists. In addition to Dano’s Riddler, Gotham’s complex web of crime and corruption includes menacing mob figures like John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone, cowardly city-government middlemen like Peter Sarsgaard’s compromised district attorney, and a truly unrecognizable Colin Farrell (as in, I had no clue it was him until the closing credits) as the Penguin, a portly, insecure crime-boss-in-the-making. To break up the sausage party, there is also the welcome presence of Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle, a woman with a tragic past who works as a bottle-service girl at the Penguin’s nightclub when not prowling Gotham’s alleys as Catwoman. Kravitz’s take on the feline antiheroine is less slinky predator (cf. Michelle Pfeiffer in the Burton series) than aggrieved survivor of a brutal childhood, making her a persuasive soulmate for Pattinson’s extra-goth Gothamite. (They also share a taste for black leather, which never hurts.)

Though The Batman ’s vision of Gotham as a run-down, amoral dystopia borrows some imagery from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series , Reeves also brings his own visual flair to the material. Especially in a few enigmatic early sequences, the rain-glazed streetscapes and neon-lit diners recall the lonely universe of an Edward Hopper painting. The simple but effective soundtrack depends heavily on two recurring musical themes: Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” often transformed by composer Michael Giacchino into a minor-key dirge, and Nirvana’s plaintive ballad “Something in the Way,” used as a kind of leitmotif for Pattinson’s Kurt Cobain-esque hero. If this all sounds too angsty to tolerate, The Batman is not without flashes of intentional and often effective humor, usually relegated to the villains: In one otherwise tense confrontation, Farrell’s Penguin delivers a non-sequitur putdown about Batman’s grasp of foreign-language grammar that had the audience on the floor.

The Batman is a movie where mood and tone prevail over theme and story. Reeves is in it for silhouetted shots of the Batman against a lowering night sky, not for the kind of present-day political allegories that interested Nolan or the steroidal action of Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman and Justice League . One car-chase sequence goes long on fiery crashes (and estimated body count) without providing much in the way of cleverly paced or choreographed action. And though the 176-minute runtime sometimes feels endless, a more accurate descriptor might be “end-full.” On our way out, two colleagues and I named four distinct possible endings, including a pointlessly extended set piece involving the flooding of “Gotham Square Garden” during an election-night rally, and debated which one should have served as the actual conclusion. My vote went to the moment, a good twenty minutes before the final credits, when [redacted rising star] made an 11 th -hour appearance as [redacted upcoming villain].

Still, Reeves’ and Pattinson’s vision of the Batman as a Hamlet-like heir unable to move past the primal shock of his parents’ murder has a certain emotional power. With his black carapace, inexhaustible riches, and impossible-to-defeat technology, Bruce Wayne can be a forbiddingly invulnerable character. But as imagined here, he is a still-unformed, almost emo young man in the process of searching for his adult identity—a Spider-Man-like character in a gritty Gotham world. Pattinson, who first rose to fame as the lovelorn vampire of the Twilight series and has since found a niche as the muse of art-film directors from David Cronenberg ( Cosmopolis ) to Claire Denis ( High Life ) to the Safdie brothers ( Good Time ), brings real pathos to the part of Bruce Wayne, who is also (while plenty buff) a bit wirier and more physically fragile than your average wall-of-muscle superhero. When the Catwoman comes to his rescue in one late scene, you have no trouble believing he might be in need of her whip-wielding assistance.

This is the 12 th live-action movie to feature the Batman character since Michael Keaton played him in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman . Since then we’ve seen, among others, George Clooney’s Bat-credit-card-carrying comic superhero in Joel Schumacher’s notorious flop Batman and Robin , Christian Bale’s vocally filtered edgelord in Nolan’s grim Dark Knight trilogy, and Ben Affleck’s stolid brooder in Snyder’s multi-superhero vehicles for DC. To follow the trajectory of onscreen Batmen over the past 30-plus years is to trace the evolution of the character from self-aware camp icon to emotionally damaged recluse—one gauge, perhaps, of America’s ever-changing requirements when it comes to pop-culture heroes. The Batman could stand to lose a half-hour of running time and at least three of its apparent endings, but I left it still humming that Nirvana song and wondering what this messed-up new Bruce Wayne, cape streaming moodily behind him as he rode away on his bat-motorcycle, would get up to next.

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DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure , Crime , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

March 4, 2022
Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman; Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman; Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon; Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth; Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/The Riddler; Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin; Peter Sarsgaard as District Attorney Gil Colson; John Turturro as Carmine Falcone

Home Release Date

April 19, 2022
Matt Reeves

Distributor

Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Dark days for the Dark Knight.

The boy Bruce Wayne was eaten from the inside. The man Bruce Wayne is but a husk. The Wayne empire is crumbling, its king a recluse. He broods in his mansion, counting the hours ’til darkness. ’Til he dons his cowl and becomes his true self.

His father loved Gotham City. Loved it, perhaps, too much. He ran for mayor. He founded a charity with $1 billion of his own funds, hoping it would transform the city. And then, with a trigger pull, he was gone. Thomas Wayne and his wife were shot dead—their 10-year-old son left alone with their bleeding, cooling bodies.

That act of violence pushed that boy, young Bruce, to take his father’s legacy in a different, darker direction. As the Batman, he haunts the streets like a righteous demon, striking fear in the hearts of its sullied men. He doesn’t lurk in the shadows, he tells us: He is the shadow. And from its inky folds he strikes without warning.

In the vacuum Thomas Wayne left, The Batman stepped in. And he hopes to make the city better—one beatdown at a time.

But is he making Gotham better? The Batman can’t say. Night after night, he metes out his brutal justice. Day after day, the news blasts remind him how much injustice was done—how much more there is to do.

Better because of Batman? Perhaps in small ways, yes. But overall, things seem to be getting worse.

Take the city’s latest killer—a man who, like Batman, wears a mask. He, too, makes use of the shadows—in his case, the dark recesses of the Internet, posting sermons filled with righteous rage and murderous intent, almost as if he thought he was Gotham’s own Passover angel, sweeping up the unrighteous in his bloody quest to cleanse.

The Mayor is first—killed on Halloween while his own son was out trick-or-treating. The little boy found the body—tied to a chair, his head bandaged in duct tape. Someone had cut off the Mayor’s thumb.

The killer says he won’t be the only person to pay for past crimes. His work, the murderer says, is just getting started.

And he leaves a card—a riddle, if you will—for Batman to solve.

These are dark days indeed, filled with opaque cyphers and inky black clues. And Gotham will get a whole lot darker unless Batman—called by some the World’s Greatest Detective—can bring a little light to bear on the case.

For someone who says he’s part of the shadow, that won’t be easy.

Positive Elements

Gotham City just might be the most corrupt, slimy city this side of Gomorrah. The rot runs deep. But Gotham does have a few things going for it.

One, of course, is Batman. While the superhero we meet here is unquestionably flawed and conflicted, he is trying to do what’s right for the city—no matter the physical cost or the mental and emotional toll. And even as the Riddler poses question after question to him, Batman is struggling with a question of his own: What sort of figure does he want to be? What sort of hero does Gotham truly need? And as this question grows more and more important, Batman finds himself doing something that all of us struggle to do: pushing himself toward positive change.

He’s not all alone in wanting to help the city and serve a little justice. Assistant Commissioner Gordon is one of the few folks in the upper echelons of Gotham who isn’t corrupt, and he’s going to get to the bottom of this case, even if his own superiors would rather he just ease off the throttle. Gordon forms an alliance with Batman, which suggests that both men are reasonably decent judges of character. And while Batman takes on the lion’s share of physical risk, Gordon’s putting his neck on the line in plenty of other ways.

Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s dutiful butler, does his best to steer the brooding billionaire into a more positive state of being (not easy, that), even as he supports Bruce’s alter ego in his detection work. Alfred is the closest thing to “family” that Bruce has had in his life since his parents’ murder, and Bruce comes to appreciate that in greater measure.

Spiritual Elements

The Riddler—obviously Batman’s main antagonist here—seems to see himself as truly an Old Testament-like instrument of justice, and most of his diatribes have a certain (if mostly unspecific) biblical flavor to them. He talks about washing the city’s sins clean and forcing the guilty to “atone” for their wrongs, thundering like a masked Moses at the sight of a gilded calf. He also trots out references to the “sins of the father,” which points to Exodus 20:5: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.” (Never mind that the Bible also says, in several locales, that every person’s sin is his or her own, and that kids aren’t punished for their parents’ misdeeds.)

The classic song “Ave Maria,” about the Virgin Mary, is used frequently in The Batman , even serving as a sort of clue. A funeral takes place in a towering Cathedral.

Sexual Content

Riddler’s not the only longtime Batman nemesis on screen. Catwoman, a Batman villain who nevertheless often allies and flirts with the Caped Crusader, plays an important part in the film as well. And indeed, the two seem to harbor a mutual attraction: The couple kiss on occasion but go no further.

We see her alter ego, Selina Kyle, disrobe down to her underwear (as Batman spies on her outside her window), and she wears plenty of tight, revealing attire elsewhere. At a nightclub, she flirts with a patron, touching the man’s thigh as she plies him for information. She also runs into a gangster named Carmine Falcone, and the tone of their conversation suggests they were once in some sort of relationship.

Selina rooms with another woman who works at the club, who is also shown in revealing outfits. Selina calls her “babe” at once point, but there’s no other suggestion the two are anything more than friends.

We see Bruce Wayne without his shirt a few times.

Violent Content

For those expecting Avengers -like levels of violence here, think again. While The Batman is not particularly bloody, the violent vibe of the film feels less superhero flick and more like an R-rated crime thriller.

Case in point: the murdered mayor. We see the murderer half-chop, half-bludgeon the victim with a sharp hand-held instrument, then throw the bloody tool aside before pulling out a strip of duct tape—stage two of the killing. (It’s suggested that the man is smothered to death.) As mentioned earlier, he loses his thumb in the process, and the digit is later found and dangled.

Another victim is filmed wearing odd, cage-like headgear that also holds a pair of rats—with the intention that the rodents will devour the terrified man’s face. (We later see the briefest glimpses of crime photos that apparently show the damage.) A third victim has a bomb strapped around his neck. And in a Scream -like twist, the victim is forced to answer a series of questions in an effort to save his own life.

People are shot and sometimes die from their wounds. Bombs explode, leading to loss of life and tons of property damage. A character is seriously injured by a bomb. A dead body is discovered in a car. A reckless car chase on Gotham’s highways surely causes tons of unseen casualties and at least one spectacular fireball. A massive flood destroys much of the city and presumably kills many citizens. Those flood waters wash into an arena where many survivors retreated to get away from the deluge.

Batman is attacked by countless bad guys during the course of the film. He’s shot repeatedly, and while his armored suit protects him from serious damage, it’s still obviously painful (and a shotgun blast to the torso nearly knocks him out of the fight). He takes part in plenty of fisticuffs, too. One scrum with several assailants culminates in a Batman device literally shocking someone into submission. At another juncture, Batman punches a man repeatedly and almost madly, until the guy’s face is a bruised and bloodied mess.

He also punches a law officer in the face, too—though with the officer’s permission. (“You could’ve pulled that punch,” the policeman later says. “I did,” Batman tells him.) When we see him shirtless at one point, we see scars and bruises from some of his countless encounters with the underworld.

Someone careens through the air using a flying suit but comes to a pretty harsh and ordinarily bone-breaking landing.

We hear about a time when Thomas Wayne, a doctor, patched up a wounded gangster on his dining room table. We also hear about a past murder. People fall from some significant heights (though many are snared by cords and thus suspended upside down). Bad guys threaten innocent civilians, and we see a replay of an attack on a Gotham citizen. People are leg-whipped to the ground. Batman and Catwoman engage in a fracas or two.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Dozens of people rally to perpetrate a mass killing.

Crude or Profane Language

The Batman goes well beyond the profanity count of most superhero flicks. It includes one f-word and nearly 20 s-words, along with oft-repeated uses of “a–,” “b–ch,” “b–tard,” “d–n,” “h—” and “pr–k.” God’s name is misused nearly a dozen times—most of those with the word “d–n”—and Jesus’ name is abused a whopping 20 times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

The drug trade lies at the heart of the movie’s misadventures. In fact, a massive drug bust—made several years before—becomes the branch on which the Riddler’s web is spun.

The drugs in question are called “drops,” and addicts are referred to as “dropheads.” We see a laboratory where drops are manufactured (it looks quite a bit like a movie-based cocaine refinery or meth lab) and hear about how lucrative the business is. Other people at a club use the drug (so named because it’s delivered via drops in the eye) and offer it to others. One man wears a drop mask, and we see logos representing the drug, too.

Batman injects himself with an unknown green substance that acts an awful lot like adrenaline—enough to get him out of a tight spot and fight on.

People drink whisky and other forms of alcohol.

Other Negative Elements

The Riddler’s methods are horrific. But he is, in his own twisted way, trying to bring the misdeeds of others to light. Corruption coats Gotham like an oily film, and we see that many of the city’s leaders have been soiled by it. Lies, graft and corruption are all part of the stew, as well as many a failed promise.

And, of course, it’s not just past misdeeds on display. Characters lie, steal and commit many other crimes as the film goes on.

Some of those misdeeds are implicitly condoned by the movie, of course. Batman is, after all, a vigilante, committing crimes (assault and reckless driving, to name just a couple) to catch criminals.

As Batman takes down a bevy of street-level bad guys, one terrified villain asks him who he is.

“I am vengeance,” Batman hisses.

This three-word statement gets to the textured core of The Batman .

Batman’s description of himself is accurate at that early juncture. He is indeed the Dark Knight of lore, an avenging slinger of batarangs and bringer of pain.

And let’s be honest: Batman is indeed cool in this, his most primal guise.

But the film asks a really interesting question—one that Batman himself asks at the outset. Does vengeance do any good? Could it even be counterproductive?

This is a theme that other Batman films have flirted with, but none have delved so deeply into those ramifications. The Riddler, in a sense, is Batman’s ethos taken a few steps beyond. If Two-Face (another famous Batman villain) believes that chance is the world’s only justice, and Joker just laughs in the face of the very concept, the Riddler here cares about justice—though he doesn’t care how many people he has to kill to unleash his definition of it. He sees himself as the good guy.

And because Riddler himself feels like he and Batman are kindred spirits, that forces Batman to consider just what sort of hero he is—and what sort of hero he should be.

This film is dark, no question. It can feel incredibly brutal. It is, without a doubt, the most profanity-laden PG-13 superhero movie I’ve ever seen. This film is as grim as a deserted road through Nevada, as dark as 4 a.m.

But when you hit 4 a.m., you might just see a tiny glimmer of light on the horizon, too.

In the midst of all this cinematic darkness, that glimmer of light is Batman himself. He holds true to his historic principles and makes a turn toward something better: He doesn’t just want to be the shadow that people fear, but a figure that can offer hope. He realizes—and we do, too—that as necessary as justice is, it must be leavened with a bit of kindness. Charity. Love.

FOR MORE ON ‘THE BATMAN,’ CHECK OUT EPISODE 119 OF THE PLUGGED IN SHOW

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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‘The Batman’ Review: A Tortured Robert Pattinson Goes Even Darker Than ‘The Dark Knight’

'Cloverfield' director Matt Reeves brings a tough new vision to DC's most easily reimagined character, channeling elements of film noir and hard-R horror movies.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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The Batman - Film Review - Variety Critic' s Pick

Where do you go after “The Dark Knight”? Ben Affleck blew it, and even Christopher Nolan, who brought unprecedented levels of realism and gravitas to that franchise-best Batman saga, couldn’t improve on what he’d created in his 2012 sequel. So what is “Cloverfield” director Matt Reeves ’ strategy? Answer: Go darker than “The Dark Knight,” deadlier than “No Time to Die” and longer than “Dune” with a serious-minded Batman stand-alone of his own. Leaning in to those elements doesn’t automatically mean audiences will embrace Reeves’ vision. But this grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir registers among the best of the genre, even if — or more aptly, because — what makes the film so great is its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.

Sure, that’s been done before — “Who watches the Watchmen?” Alan Moore memorably asked, influencing decades of spandex-clad savior stories — though Reeves does something relatively unique here, at least by comic-book-movie standards: He strips the genre of its supernatural elements (even more than the Nolan trilogy did) and introduces a more complex version of a classic pulp hero who’s only a whisker’s breadth removed from the story’s bad guy, morally speaking. Whereas these movies are typically defined by their villains, “ The Batman ” gets under your skin by asking: What if the good guys aren’t really the good guys? What if the person we were counting on to protect us might actually be making the situation worse?

Popular on Variety

While Batman — who’s played here by gloomy “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson , representing the orphaned character’s tortured psychology to an almost painful degree — focuses on punching out petty thugs in shadowed alleys and on subway platforms, the Riddler (a genuinely disturbing Paul Dano ) emerges to expose/dispose of the white-collar scoundrels embedded at the highest levels of power. Both men are vigilantes, though one is preoccupied with helping the police, while the other targets the systemic corruption that undermines our faith in such institutions — in Gotham City, for sure, but off screen as well.

In ways far more unsettling than most audiences might expect, “The Batman” channels the fears and frustrations of our current political climate, presenting a meaty, full-course crime saga that blends elements of the classic gangster film with cutting-edge commentary about challenges facing the modern world. It’s a hugely ambitious undertaking and one that’s strong enough to work even without Batman’s presence, not that it would have any reason to exist without him. But by incorporating the character and so many of the franchise’s trademarks — Catwoman (a slinky Zoë Kravitz), the Penguin (Colin Farrell, all but unrecognizable), loyal butler Alfred (Andy Serkis, fully analog) and an epic car chase involving the latest iteration of the Batmobile — Reeves electrifies the dense, ultra-dark proceedings with an added level of excitement that justifies the film’s relatively demanding running time.

From the beginning, the director breaks from the stylistic influences of the genre, establishing a tone that almost never feels derivative of other comic book movies. That said, one could certainly point to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s killer serial “The Long Halloween” as a common thematic influence between this and “The Dark Knight.” That’s where crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) comes from, though practical action sequences hew closer to Korean films (like “Old Boy”) than Nolan’s nouveau-’70s style.

“NO MORE LIES,” reads the blood-red indictment scrawled across the face of the Riddler’s first victim, no less a figure than Gotham’s unsavory mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones). That’s just one of several grisly murders perpetrated by this maniacal avenger, who’s as twisted and self-righteous as that sicko from the “Saw” movies. Edward Nashton, aka the Riddler, wears greasy Coke-bottle glasses and what looks like a leather fetish hood (it turns out to be a winter combat mask), livestreaming his mind games on a message board for conspiracy crackpots. But here’s the twist: There really is a conspiracy among Gotham’s most powerful, one that traces back to the Wayne family, and it falls to Bruce to untangle it before it tears the city apart. Why him? The Riddler has drawn Batman in, leaving handmade cards loaded with ciphers and other puzzles at each of his crime scenes.

Part of the film‘s “reality” is to avoid calling comic-book characters by their traditional names. You no doubt noticed the “the” in the title of “The Batman” and asked yourself what it’s meant to signify. In using the definite article, Reeves isn’t necessarily trying to say that he’s created “the” definitive screen incarnation of the character. If anything, that tiny extra word casts an air of existential mystery around its masked and anonymous hero, who doesn’t even know what to call himself early on. When the imposing leader of a violent street gang taunts, “The hell are you supposed to be?” the bat-clad vigilante growls back, “I’m Vengeance.”

That’s how Bruce Wayne thinks of himself when we first meet this version of the character — no origin story, but rather, in medias res — two years into defending Gotham from the brink of anarchy. Ravaged by a major narcotics epidemic, courtesy of a street drug called “drops,” the city finds itself facing a level of disorder somewhere between a pre-Giuliani Manhattan and the final minutes of Todd Phillips’ “The Joker,” though the two films exist in different dimensions of the same Gotham multiverse. Reuniting with production designer James Chinlund (with whom he worked on the “Planet of the Apes” sequels), Reeves presents the most robust version of Gotham we’ve seen since Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman.”

Clearly modeled on New York City, amplified through set extensions and stunning CGI, this seedy metropolis plunges us into the Big Apple’s rotten core: The midtown equivalent of Times Square is illuminated by even more giant digital screens, a black cluster of buildings looms where lower Manhattan would be, and you don’t want to go anywhere near the Madison Square Garden-like arena where the finale takes place. At times, Batman surveys the city from an upper floor of a half-built skyscraper. Otherwise, he zooms around at street level on his Batcycle, eventually upgrading to a souped-up muscle car (the unveiling of which is one of the film’s big thrills).

Except for hidden-camera contact lenses, his technology is mostly realistic, and unless one counts a rooftop BASE jump, he can’t fly. Unlike so many DC comic book heroes, Batman is neither a god nor an alien; he has no fantastical abilities. Bruce Wayne’s superpower is his billion-dollar fortune, but the guy behind the mask breaks and bleeds just like anybody else — a point Reeves reminds us of with a shot of Pattinson’s bare back, covered in scars. Rather than leaning on a theme, Michael Giacchino’s score surprises, ranging from tense tribal drums to Nirvana to opera, while editors William Hoy and Tyler Nelson avoid obvious angles, leaving quiet spaces for audiences to process (and question) what’s happening.

As the Batman or Vengeance or whatever he’s called, Pattinson is the most sullen of the actors to have played the character, which reads as a kind of daredevil nihilism whenever he’s in costume: He doesn’t seem fearless so much as ambivalent about whether he lives or dies. Once the cowl comes off, however, Pattinson’s interpretation gets more intriguing: Brooding and withdrawn, he’s a damaged loner with unresolved daddy issues, saddled with all kinds of complicated emotional trauma. It’s tough to see a hero hurting so much, and yet, his troubled past informs every relationship, including the one with a lunatic who counts Bruce Wayne among his targets.

The Riddler’s schemes are genuinely scary, far more than seems reasonable for a PG-13-rated movie (like the remote-controlled exploding collar clamped on Peter Sarsgaard’s drugged-out district attorney, Gil Colson). The idea here is that some of Gotham’s top-ranking officials — plus cat burglar-cum-cocktail waitress Selina Kyle (Kravitz) — are somehow mixed up with Falcone, and the Riddler has taken it upon himself to purge the system of such elements. The “Chinatown”-intricate specifics of just how intertwined city government is with organized crime can make your head spin, though Reeves lays it out relatively elegantly, such that audiences can follow the many twists of Batman’s investigation.

This is first and foremost a detective story, unsentimental as they come — one half-expects Gwyneth Paltrow’s head to show up in a box at some point — and though the authorities take the Riddler into custody well before the end, the movie’s most shocking stretch is still to come, just when Gotham seems ready to celebrate its next chapter. It’s hard to imagine how Reeves (who was shooting “The Batman” during the early days of the pandemic) could have anticipated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and yet, the signs must have been there all along, for the film’s chilling climax hinges on activating susceptible citizens to conduct a mass terrorist attack. In “The Dark Knight,” Heath Ledger’s anarchist Joker felt like he’d stepped right out of your nightmares, but there’s something even more intimidating about the way the Riddler operates. He literally triggers others to become vigilantes as well — and judging by the real-world copycats previous Batman movies inspired (such as the Aurora, Colo., shooting), that could have consequences.

A movie like this will inspire countless debates: Does “The Batman” really need to be this dark? Can it hold a candle to Nolan’s trilogy? There’s room enough for both to exist, and space for sequels to build on this foundation, which assumes a certain familiarity with the character’s mythology. That’s the beauty of Batman, who transcends all the other heroes in the DC Comics stable: Like Dracula or Hamlet, this iconic antihero stands up to endless reinvention. Whether campy or pop, self-questioning or complicit, he tells us something new about ourselves every time he steps out of the shadows.

Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, Feb. 17, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 176 MIN.

Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release and presentation of a 6th & Idaho, Dylan Clark Prods. production. Producers: Dylan Clark, Matt Reeves. Executive producers: Michael E. Uslan, Walter Hamada, Chantal Nong Vo, Simon Emanuel.
Crew: Director: Matt Reeves. Screenplay: Matt Reeves & Peter Craig; Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, based on characters from DC. Camera: Greig Fraser. Editors: William Hoy, Tyler Nelson. Music: Michael Giacchino. Music supervisor: George Drakoulias.
With: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Peter Sarsgaard, Barry Keoghan, Jayme Lawson.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Confident and mature yet dark, violent Batman reboot.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Ponders the nature and cost of vengeance and what

Batman is a troubling character, as he uses violen

Several iconic Batman characters, including Selina

Characters are killed, dead bodies are seen. Guns

Kissing. Woman seen in underwear while dressing. B

Sporadic use of "s--t," "a--hole," "ass," "d--k,"

Part of a long-running and massive superhero franc

Part of the plot revolves around a fictitious drug

Positive Messages

Ponders the nature and cost of vengeance and what it means to genuinely help people (i.e., "Am I doing this for myself, or for others?"). Also touches on how social media can spread misinformation (and, subsequently, violence), the idea that power corrupts, and what it takes to remain a good person.

Positive Role Models

Batman is a troubling character, as he uses violence to solve problems, but he also uses his head, and he learns the difference between vengeance and trying to do good in the world. Lt. Gordon is also a great character here, remaining decent and law-abiding within a deeply corrupt system.

Diverse Representations

Several iconic Batman characters, including Selina Kyle and Lt. Gordon, are Black, as is a woman named Bella Reál, who's running for mayor of Gotham. It's implied that Selina is in a romantic relationship with a woman (she calls her "baby"); Selina also kisses Batman. Other people of color are seen in small roles or in background.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Characters are killed, dead bodies are seen. Guns and shooting. Brutal beating with a metallic tool. Characters in death traps. Heavy punching, kicking, beating, martial arts fighting. A woman is hit with a pool cue and choked. Taser. Hitting with baseball bat. Severed thumb. Explosions. Car chase with multiple crashes. Sounds of woman being killed on a recording (screaming). Major flooding. Minor blood spatters, scratches. Corner store holdup. Building set on fire. Crime scene photos. A child is said to have found his dead father's body. Dialogue about 12-year-old orphans becoming "dropheads," rats chewing on fingers, babies dying of cold, etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kissing. Woman seen in underwear while dressing. Brief sex-related dialogue.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sporadic use of "s--t," "a--hole," "ass," "d--k," "pr--k," "goddamn," "son of a bitch," "oh my God," "scumbag," and "freakin'." "Christ" and "Jesus" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Part of a long-running and massive superhero franchise. Oreo cookies are mentioned in end credits but not prominently featured in movie. (Oreo is releasing a limited edition, movie tie-in Batman cookie.)

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Part of the plot revolves around a fictitious drug business; the drug consists of drops placed in people's eyes. Addicts, called "dropheads," are shown. Minor drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Batman is a new/rebooted take on the iconic superhero. This Batman ( Robert Pattinson ) is conflicted and violent but also uses his head and learns as he goes along. The movie's action violence is intense, with killings and dead bodies, guns and shooting, explosions and crashes, lots of fighting (punching, kicking, hitting with objects, choking, etc.), a severed thumb, violence against women, descriptions of upsetting events, and more. Language isn't constant but includes several uses of "s--t," "son of a bitch," "goddamn," and more. Characters kiss, there's sex-related dialogue, and a woman is seen in her underwear as she dresses. Part of the plot revolves around a fictitious drug business; the drug consists of drops placed in the eyes (addicts are called "dropheads"). The movie is more diverse than previous takes on the Dark Knight, deals thoughtfully with the nature and cost of vengeance, touches on how social media can spread misinformation, and, even with a 175-minute runtime, is one of the best Batman movies to date. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (72)
Kids say (184)

Based on 72 parent reviews

"The Batman" Isn't Meant for kids, It's meant for those who understand Batman

Read this for a accurate age review for the batman.., what's the story.

In THE BATMAN, it's Halloween night, and the mayor of Gotham City is brutally murdered. The killer leaves a clue behind for the Batman ( Robert Pattinson ), who's still in the early years of his superhero career. The clue is a riddle that reveals the fact that the mayor had a secret mistress. Batman finds out that the woman is under the protection of Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman ( Zoë Kravitz ) -- but she still gets kidnapped. To try to find her, Selina helps Batman infiltrate a secret nightclub where politicians and criminals are entertained. There, Selina catches the attention of the district attorney ( Peter Sarsgaard ). Then the mayor's killer, known as the Riddler ( Paul Dano ), strikes again, killing the D.A. and leaving more clues for Batman and Lt. Gordon ( Jeffrey Wright ). They learn they must find "the rat" -- i.e., someone who has been leaking sensitive information. But even when this mystery is solved, can The Riddler be trusted?

Is It Any Good?

This riveting take on Batman is, refreshingly, more of a detective story than an action spectacle -- although it does offer that element, too, as well as complex characters and relevant themes. Directed by Matt Reeves , The Batman makes wise adjustments in just about every respect, finding a solution for Christian Bale 's aggravating growl/whisper line delivery (Pattinson speaks softly, but he never strains) and for the soulless, gray color scheme of the Zack Snyder movies. Reeves' movie is dark (and often rainy), but he bathes the images in a warmer brown tone, with orange and yellow highlights, bringing a weariness and a desperation to the proceedings. And, while there are many villains here, the film -- unlike the 1990s sequels -- never feels cluttered. The Riddler, Catwoman, Penguin (a completely disguised Colin Farrell ), etc., each occupy their own space in the story.

Moreover, Batman is more human and vulnerable here, "oofing" at the impact of blows and occasionally getting winded. Blessed with Pattinson's wounded, armored performance, this is arguably the most interesting character arc we've seen in a Batman movie. At the start, he sees himself as an avenging angel, but as the story goes on, he learns that things aren't that simple, that there are gray areas. There are consequences. A third-act climax touches on the dangers of misinformation and social media, paralleling certain terrifying real-life events. Reeves needed a lot of time to lay all this out, as well as some much-needed downtime to build characters and relationships; the result is that The Batman clocks in at a jaw-dropping 2 hours and 55 minutes. But it honestly never feels too long. It's arguably the most confident and mature Batman film to date and one of the best.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Batman 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How are drugs depicted? What do the drops appear to do? Are they glamorized? Does the movie focus more on the effects of the drug or on the business around it?

What does Bruce/Batman learn over the course of the movie about vengeance?

The Riddler is able to summon up an army via his social media posts. How does this reflect real life? What can be done to avoid the potential negative effects of social media?

Did you notice diverse representations in the movie? Do you consider any of the characters to be role models ?

Movie Details

In theaters : March 4, 2022
On DVD or streaming : May 24, 2022
Cast : Robert Pattinson , Zoe Kravitz , Peter Sarsgaard , Paul Dano
Director : Matt Reeves
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Superheroes
Run time : 175 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material
Last updated : May 11, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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“The Batman” Is a Waste of Robert Pattinson

By Anthony Lane

An illustration of Batman surrounded by clouds of smoke.

I’m gonna wash Batman right outa my hair. That was my plan, at any rate, after watching as much of “ Zack Snyder’s Justice League ” (2021) as I could take; even the most loyal fans of the Caped Crusader must have wondered, over the decades, if the crusading would ever end. Is there not a lingering suspicion that this most enigmatic of superheroes might merely, in fact, be the dullest? How much dramatic juice remains to be squeezed from Bruce Wayne, the chumless billionaire, brooding over his man cave and his gaggle of gizmos? The catalogue of squeezers runs from Adam West to Ben Affleck, taking in actors as skilled as Michael Keaton, George Clooney , and Christian Bale. Now Robert Pattinson joins the list.

The film in question, directed by Matt Reeves, is called “The Batman,” the big news being that the principal character has acquired not only a new car, a new motorbike, and a new butler but also—holy grammarians!—a definite article. This guy isn’t just any old Batman; he is the Batman, and you should be wary of cheap imitations. (Any word, you may ask, from the Robin? Nothing. Not a tweet.) In another unusual development, this Batman has developed bruise-like circles around his eyes, which, when combined with his gnomic mottoes, such as “I’m vengeance,” and his preference for unarmed combat over lethal weapons, give the distinct, though surely unintended, impression that we are watching the latest adventures of Kung Fu Panda.

And the plot? Same as it ever was. Rich kid, orphaned in his youth, vows to clean up the dirty metropolis—a mission that he shares, incidentally, with Travis Bickle, in “ Taxi Driver ” (1976), the difference being that Travis is not too proud to crack a smile. Notice that the cleaning is never literal; although the streets of Gotham, in “The Batman,” are squalid and strewn with trash, not once is it proposed that Bruce might care to divert the Wayne family wealth into sanitation or garbage collection. “It’s a big city,” he says, a little plaintively. “I can’t be everywhere.” No, but what is solved by confronting a lone band of subway muggers and giving them a thoroughly good hiding, as our hero does in an early scene? Even if he sends them off to bed without their supper, how much safer will Gotham really be? One could argue that the hard work of everyday governance makes for stale viewing (though admirers of “Parks and Recreation” would disagree), yet there are times in “The Batman” when a short disquisition on, say, steam-based graffiti removal would come as a relief.

If the job of the Bat is to round up the rats, then the director needs to supply high-quality vermin. Hence the baddies who thronged Christopher Nolan’s “ Dark Knight ” trilogy, and hence, likewise, the cast that has been convened by Reeves. We have John Turturro as a mob boss; Peter Sarsgaard, at his most sleepy-sleazy, as the local D.A.; Colin Farrell, larded with prosthetics, as the Penguin; and Paul Dano as the Riddler, a villain so mystifying that he leaves a question mark in the froth atop his cappuccino. The opposing team includes Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, a rare incorruptible cop, and, hovering in the middle, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle—jewel thief, part-time Catwoman, and, fitfully, the movie’s voice of social conscience. She derides the sins of “white privileged assholes” and, in the closing stretch, suggests that she and the Batman “knock off some C.E.O. hedge-fund types.” She adds, “It’s going to be fun.”

Leaving aside the question of whether Bruce Wayne, who is chalk white and super-privileged, has himself invested in hedge funds, and how they may have bankrolled his sterling defense of the law, one has to ask: what is this “fun” of which Selina speaks? It’s certainly not a concept that “The Batman,” dropsical with self-importance, and setting a bold new standard in joylessness, has much use for. Reeves bows down to the atmospheric laws that now govern American gothic—namely, that the darker and wetter a film becomes, and the growlier the vocal pitch of its characters, the more seriously we must take it. Thus, the highlight of the action, a car chase, has to be set at night and soaked in rain. To be fair, I did enjoy the sight of one vehicle emerging from a fireball in pursuit of another, yet somehow, thanks to the frenzied editing and the hammer blows of the musical score, I saw it coming. For an altogether more surprising combustion of the senses, check out “ Mad Max: Fury Road ” (2015). That has great balls of fire.

Having once sat through a Dutch film of Virginia Woolf’s “The Waves,” and survived, I consider myself no stranger to cinematic fatigue. Clocking in at nearly three hours, however, “The Batman” is designed to try the patience of the toughest fan. What’s weird, despite the narrative expanse, is how much of the story feels rushed. When Anne Hathaway played Selina Kyle, in “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012), her thievery was a pleasure, whereas almost the only thing stolen by the new Selina is a passport; similarly, when the Riddler leaves a cypher at a crime scene, the solution is arrived at in haste, with minimal thrills—far fewer than David Fincher provided in “Zodiac” (2007), a puzzle-stuffed movie that took full advantage of its running time. You begin to wonder what the point of “The Batman” is, beyond the sustaining of its gloomy mood.

For most Batmaniacs, I guess, the point will be a simple one: a chance to fix their gaze on Robert Pattinson—on his gaze, that is, smoldering under his mask. Now and then, he doffs it, showing his naked despondency and allowing his hair to fall artfully across his brow, as if he once failed an audition for a boy band and never got over the disappointment. Such is the media’s obsession with Pattinson, since he left the “Twilight” zone, that this new role is naturally seen as crowning his career; for an actor who has worked with David Cronenberg , the Safdie brothers , and Claire Denis , though, portraying the Batman is not a coronation. It’s a comedown.

Pattinson’s allure, before which I am as helpless as anyone else, springs from the fact that, in keeping with his godlike exterior, he is a light knight as well as a dark one; what he brought to Nolan’s “ Tenet ,” in 2020, was not just fine tailoring but a casual comic élan. (“Don’t be so dramatic ,” he said, when planning a plane crash.) “The Batman,” to its shame, and to the deep detriment of its leading man, turns out the light. It demands that the hero be nothing but dramatic, all the time. “They think I am hiding in the shadows,” he declares. “I am the shadows.” Hogwash. What the Batman cannot admit is that, were a nice day ever to dawn in Gotham, he would be revealed for what he is: a fantasist, too old for his teen-age doominess, with zero social life, a suit of armor that makes it impossible to go to the bathroom, and not enough to do.

More nocturnal trouble, and more rain. Under stormy conditions, at the start of Rob Schroeder’s “Ultrasound,” a motorist named Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) gets a flat tire. He seeks aid at the nearest dwelling—the home of Art (Bob Stephenson) and his young wife, Cyndi (Chelsea Lopez), who kindly offer Glen a bed. To be precise: Art, who claims to have failed as a husband, offers his own bed to Glen, with Cyndi in it. Art will sleep elsewhere.

As you watch the opening of the film, plus the scene in which Art shows up at Glen’s apartment to announce that Cyndi is pregnant, you get a pretty firm idea of this sad-sack tale. Just one of those domestic downers, right? Wrong. There is so much more here, wriggling around in the sack. Who, for example, is the red-headed woman who, with neither warning nor introduction, rehearses a passage of dialogue that we then hear on the lips of Cyndi? An actress, perhaps? Could this be a meta-theatrical fable of some sort? Wrong again. The redhead is Shannon (Breeda Wool), and she’s employed in an experimental laboratory. There she observes Cyndi, who wears a cap covered in electrodes, and Glen, who for some reason is now in a wheelchair. “It’ll all make sense as we go along, I promise,” Shannon says. Wrong and wronger.

“Ultrasound” is adapted by Conor Stechschulte from his own four-volume graphic novel, and it’s the kind of brain bender that, like “The Shining” (1980) and “Barton Fink” (1991), persuades you that a hotel corridor is the most worrying place in the world. Set beside “The Batman,” Schroeder’s film offers an alternative path for modern gothic: not heavy underfoot but twisty and looping, with no hint of a moral quest. The electronic score, by Zak Engel, deceives rather than bombards the ear, using chirrups, clicks, and skirls. As in Gotham, you detect the hand of fate, but who is dealing that hand is another matter. My money is on Art, who, in a scarily gauged performance from Stephenson, begins as a cuckold, overweight and under-happy, and winds up as a grinning magician with a frilled shirt and a talent for extreme hypnosis. He happens to resemble the Wizard of Oz, but here’s the thing: Art is really a very good wizard. He’s just a very bad man. ♦

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NOW STREAMING

Pg-13 | superheroes | 2 hr 56 min | 2022.

When a killer targets Gotham City’s elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World’s Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle, The Penguin, Carmine Falcone and The Riddler. As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator’s plans becomes clear, The Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.

Matt Reeves’ The Batman stars Robert Pattinson in the dual role of Gotham City’s vigilante detective The Batman and his alter ego, reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. Starring alongside Pattinson as Gotham’s famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle (Catwoman), Paul Dano as Edward Nashton (The Riddler), Jeffrey Wright as the GCPD’s James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson, Jayme Lawson as mayoral candidate Bella Reál, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot (The Penguin).

Featured Characters

See the full list of The Batman's cast and characters here .

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A New Batman Trailer Is The Best In Years - But It's Still Disappointing Some Fans

Following the release of "Batman: Arkham Knight" in 2015, the franchise continued with a virtual reality experience and a "Suicide Squad" game. Seeing the franchise evolve has been bizarre, especially considering that "Batman: Arkham Asylum" was originally pitched as a rhythm game . Today, Meta announced that the franchise is returning with "Batman: Arkham Shadow," a virtual reality experience exclusive to the Meta Quest 3. Seeing as "Arkham Shadow" is the first new mainline entry in the franchise in over eight years, fans were disappointed to learn that the old stalwart Rocksteady Studios isn't behind the production.

This new game comes courtesy of Meta Studios and "Iron Man VR" developer Camouflaj. Naturally, fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to express disinterest in the upcoming video game, which is set to debut later this year. "Ugh. Swing and a miss. We just want another solid 'Arkham' entry. That's it [...] Without a f*cking headset strapped to our faces," wrote user @tharealstubb . This sentiment was also expressed by @AhoyBricks , who wanted a traditional "Arkham" entry for consoles, writing, "It's a VR game ... One half of a step forward and TWENTY STEPS back."

Some fans have no issue with a VR experience but are disappointed it's a Meta Quest 3 exclusive. "It should be illegal for a beloved series to release a new entry on niche hardware after being dormant for nearly 10 years," shared @SirpoSpin . "Nothing better than promoting a game that shows ZERO game play and is only available on FACEBOOK," wrote @SOFABiscuitEatr .

Who will voice Batman in Arkham Shadow?

Plot details on "Arkham Shadow" are slim as the first trailer doesn't explain how the latest entry fits into the larger "Arkham" mythos. The trailer features Batman vanquishing rats, which has led many to speculate that Ratcatcher will be the game's villain. The biggest question mark, however, is if Kevin Conroy will voice Batman in "Arkham Shadow." Fans were devastated in 2022 when Conroy, the most iconic Batman voice actor, died. Conroy's final scene playing Batman was in the "Suicide Squad" — which Twitter users had a lot to say about .

Ryan Payton, one of the lead creatives at Camouflaj, took to X to reveal that the studio has been working on "Arkham Shadow" since 2020 — years before Conroy's death. While it's possible that Conroy could have worked on the game, fans still don't think it will feature the iconic voice actor. "hard to get excited for a new 'arkhamverse' title knowing that it most likely doesn't have Kevin Conroy," shared @Comrade_Waluigi . Fans like @NEEMOAHTOAD are also wondering if Roger Craig Smith, who voiced Batman in the prequel game "Arkham Origins" will return for the role.

While most fans have mixed thoughts on the "Arkham" franchise returning with a new VR entry, some gamers are totally on board. "1st person VR Batman!? This is all 10-year-old me has wanted since Virtual Boy was released," wrote @TheHandsomeGamr . A full reveal of "Batman: Arkham Shadow" will take place during the Summer Games Fest in June. While fans wait for more details, they can always catch up on the entire "Batman: Arkham Story."

The Batman 2's Rumored Villain Creates A Problem For Robert Pattinson's DC Hero That Would Be Difficult To Fix

The rumored villain for The Batman - Part II - Clayface - could pose a problem for the movie's realism and tone.
Toning down Clayface's more fantastical elements from DC Comics may be more challenging than it was for The Riddler in the first film.
There are ways to make Clayface work as the villain, either by adapting his earlier versions or by taking a horror-based approach. The script for The Batman - Part II is still in progress, and more information is expected to be revealed in the future.

The rumored villain for The Batman - Part II could cause an issue for the movie that would be difficult to rectify. The sequel to 2022's The Batman was officially confirmed by James Gunn in January 2023 as one of the many upcoming DC movies . While Gunn announced the film, it was made clear that The Batman - Part II will be an Elseworlds property meaning it takes place in its own separate continuity from the mainline DCU.

Since the film's announcement, theories have been concocted based on The Batman - Part II 's story and cast . Little has been revealed thus far, though characters like Batman and Catwoman from the first film are expected to return. Concerning what other DC characters The Batman - Part II will include, the more prevalent theories have centered around the film's potential villains. From Barry Keoghan's potential return as The Joker to DC characters like Mr. Freeze and the Court of Owls, The Batman - Part II has several rumored villains, one of whom could cause an issue that is hard to fix .

The Batman 2 Script Update In New Report, Matt Reeves Expected To Resume Soon

Following the end of the Writers Guild of America strike, a new The Batman 2 script update means great news for Robert Pattinson's sequel.

Clayface As The Batman 2's Villain Risks Ruining The Batman's Realism

The villain who has long been rumored to appear in The Batman - Part II is Clayface , a mainstay of the Caped Crusader's Rogues gallery from DC Comics. Despite Clayface being an iconic villain of Batman, his inclusion in The Batman 2 would risk ruining its predecessor's realism. Perhaps the biggest strength of The Batman was its tone. The film was a grounded thriller that incorporated superhero elements but mostly stayed in the realm of dark detective films like Seven and Zodiac.

One of the elements that allowed The Batman to feel like these movies was its villain: The Riddler. Reeves' take on The Riddler was much more grounded than some iterations from DC Comics, making the character a crazed serial killer rather than an over-the-top, eccentric antagonist. Should Clayface be confirmed as the villain for The Batman - Part II , it would be notably more difficult to tone down the character's more fantastical elements than it was for The Riddler.

How Clayface Could Still Work As The Batman 2's Villain

That said, there are ways Clayface could still work as the villain of The Batman - Part II. Interestingly, Clayface could be toned down in a way that still fits DC Comics also, at least the earliest versions of Batman's printed stories. The character of Clayface first appeared in Detective Comics in 1940, only a year after Batman's debut. Initially, the character was named Basil Karlo and was an actor.

Upon hearing that a film he once starred in would be remade without him, Karlo donned the costume of Clayface, a villain he once played in one of his movies, and began murdering the actors of the characters whom Clayface killed in the film, garnering the attention of Batman and Robin. The duo eventually stopped Clayface before he returned and attempted to kill Bruce Wayne's fiancée. This iteration of the character could certainly be adapted for The Batman - Part II as it would fit the tone of The Riddler's inclusion from the first film.

Even if the more fantastical versions of Clayface from recent DC Comics were adapted, the character could still work as The Batman 2 's villain. Recent iterations of the character include powers that allow him to change his body at will thanks to its clay-like structure, with some more recent versions of Clayface allowing him to completely mimic other people through this power. If this was adapted in The Batman 2 , Reeves could choose to take the horror route with the character and turn what could have been silly into a terrifying, horror-based antagonist.

Will Clayface Actually Be The Batman 2's Villain?

Until more is revealed about The Batman - Part II, it is difficult to say whether or not Clayface will be the villain in the film. The script is yet to be completed by Matt Revees, though Warner Bros. is reportedly looking to fast-track the film now that the WGA strikes of 2023 are concluded, though its delay announcement means production shouldn't be a rushed affair.

Despite Reeves returning to work on The Batman 2's script, the film has seen a delay into 2026 amid the ever-growing slate of DCU films.

The new version of the DCU has been very transparent regarding what filmmakers are revealing about certain projects. From James Gunn's openness on various social media platforms to the high level of reports into the DCU's upcoming slate of movies and shows, it is likely that reports about The Batman 2 will be more prevalent throughout 2024.

Other Villains Who Could Better Match The Batman 2's World

It's fair to say there are plenty of figures who could prove more viable than Clayface if the focus is placed on creating a grounded world for The Batman 's overarching franchise. Someone like Professor Pyg - who primarily operates by performing harrowing brain surgeries on those he captures to make them his peons - could be a solidly tenable choice for The Batman - Part II , with the city's chaotic state at the original movie's ending allowing him to amass a crew from those thought to be simply lost to the disasters Gotham underwent in the original movie ending.

A villain like Scarecrow is also another viable option, as troubled psychiatrist Jonathan Crane proved grounded enough to see an unsettlingly realistic adaptation in Nolan's Batman trilogy. If adapting another villain from The Dark Knight trilogy is too close for The Batman , similar figures like Hugo Strange - who is conventionally characterized as a warped psychiatrist with a Dark Knight obsession - would work in his stead. Indeed, Strange could well be the ideal candidate in some regards, as he has previously been the first villain to know the real face behind Batman's secret identity.

Perhaps most interestingly, the storyline The Batman - Part II appears primed to potentially adapt - that of No Man's Land, which sees Batman operate in a half-destroyed Gotham, fending off villains trying to take control of it during this turbulent time - could mean the Caped Crusader faces off against a range of villains in the sequel storyline. This could be the optimal setup for the film, allowing for a proverbial taster menu of antagonists and ensuring the action, drama and mysteries stay as engaging as the original movie itself.

The Batman Part II

The Batman Part II is the sequel to Matt Reeve's The Batman, released in 2022, and will continue where the original film left off. The film shares a universe with the HBO Max original Penguin series and sees the return of the Riddler and a different incarnation of the Joker.

Director Matt Reeves

Release Date October 2, 2026

The Batman 2's Rumored Villain Creates A Problem For Robert Pattinson's DC Hero That Would Be Difficult To Fix

Batman #147 review

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It’s starting to feel like the beginning of the end. This Zur-En-Arrh saga which has been going since the beginning of Zdarsky’s run back in 2022 seems to be preparing for its grand finale. The stakes are building, the antagonists are preparing to make their final moves, and the core themes of what this was meant to all be about are laid out. Of course if you want to see this thing to its final conclusion, you’ll need to pick up the Absolute Power event later this year. Until then, Batman takes its time in establishing what leads to that ultimate confrontation.

This issue is a slow burn, which works well to create a steady rising tension throughout the story. It’s clear that the current status quo, while peaceful, is untenable and will soon come to a breaking point. Characters like Waller, Zur, and the Warden engage in a verbal tit for tat as they anticipate Bruce’s return and what that might mean for Gotham. It’s here that Jiménez is able to show his artistic ability at dramatic scenes in addition to the usual action. The quiet moments are intensified by the contrasting shadows and emotional closeups, even when the character doesn’t have a face to speak of.

The core theme that this issue gets at is the nature of control and one’s willingness to relinquish it. An early flashback to when Batman was still new on the Justice League shows how his reluctance to trust others puts him at a disadvantage. People are stronger together, even if that means not having total control over what might happen. They support one another and cover each other’s blind spots.

It couples well with the idea that not everyone can take for granted their skills and abilities. Bruce is pretty much always assumed to be hyper capable in everything he does, almost effortlessly (at least compared to a normal human). However, as he ages and now has to go up against a powerful, robotic version of himself, he’ll need that reliance on others in order to win. Bruce recalls a time when Tim struggled to learn as quickly as Dick did before him and needed to put in the effort in order to keep up. It’s a heartfelt parallel which all ties together when Tim shows to help him in his hour of need.

Batman learning that he can’t control everything and needs to trust his allies is a nice enough theme, even if one that’s been revisited numerous times in the past, but as a climax to the larger narrative feels unsupported. It doesn’t come completely out of left field, and even stands in focus for parts such as Gotham War , but overall it hasn’t been what the story has been about. Zur-En-Arrh has repeatedly been referred to as a “better” Batman (which is evil for reasons), but nothing about that is connected to the idea of not having friends.

Contrast this with other stories that have done the same thing such as No Man’s Land or Bruce Wayne: Fugitive . In both of those instances, some instigating factor directly led to Bruce’s decision that he needs to do the whole vigilante thing alone and full time, causing a slow progression of his allies proving him wrong. The core theme was woven into the story from start to finish, and allowed the plot to be shaped by those ideas. Here, it just feels haphazardly slapped on at the end after a series of tenuously connected arc theses.

Conversely, Zur takes the opposite approach to the question of trust, looking to tighten his grip at every opportunity. The story even opens with him in a sort of panopticon device, allowing him to view everyone’s electronic devices at once. It’s an escalation of the totalitarian behavior he’s been asserting over Gotham up until now. His desire to personally control everything leads him to building his army of robot servants and listening to Amanda Waller’s arguments that he can’t trust other superheroes. It’s a clear setup for their working together a few months from now when they become the villains of Absolute Power .

It’s those actions that let Damian realize that Zur isn’t really his father, and try to stop him. Specifically, he figures out that his plan to fill the robot servants with the psyches of Batmans from other dimensions must mean he’s using their Zur-En-Arrh versions. This highlights some of the fundamental problems with the larger plot, and how in order to work it demands that all Batman history, past and present, this universe and the next, must have been part of it. It’s almost arrogant in the way it twists and bends stories so that they are retroactively made nothing more than set up for what’s happening now. “Zur-En-Arrh” has become the central pillar of everything Batman has ever done in any story or continuity.

Score: 5.5/10

Backup: Show the World

Like so many of the backups in Zdarsky’s run, this is less a story unto itself and more a teaser for an upcoming plotline. In the strictest sense it is a depiction of events that happen, and even involves a conflict of sorts, and I suppose that is the definition of a “story”. However, there’s no rising action or climax, and the conflict is unrelated to anything else happening. It’s almost just feels like something to keep the visuals interesting while we get the expository set up for what might happen later.

That being said, for what it is, it’s at least enjoyable. Riddler is written well, with that appropriate mix of obnoxious and smug satisfaction in his ability for word play. Everyone is sick of his sense of superiority, which he only uses to further annoy those he sees as beneath him. The aforementioned fight, while unimportant, is wonderfully illustrated by Miguel Mendonça and lets the Warden give a succinct summary of the neuroses that drive the Riddler. Hopefully whatever this is setting up will feature Eddie at his best.

Score: 6.5/10

Recommended If

You’re excited for Absolute Power and want to see the lead-in
Batman learning to trust is allies is a story beat you like seeing
You’re a fan of the expansive Zur-En-Arrh plot

Batman #147 is a story about how one copes with not having total control and needing to trust others. As a lead in to the upcoming Absolute Power event it makes sense and works well, but feels somewhat out of place with what the larger story has been about so far. In many ways the calm before the storm, its quiet moments allow for dramatic tension as well as reflection on what might not work with the overall narrative.

Overall score: 6/10

DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.

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Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths — Part Three is set for release in July 2024, and it has many Batman fans worried.

The final part of the Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy brings together heroes from various DC animated universes.
Fans are anxious about Kevin Conroy's final appearances as Batman after mixed reviews of his posthumous roles in recent projects.
Despite concerns, Conroy's legacy as Batman will live on in the upcoming game Multiversus , providing fans with a chance to experience his iconic portrayal.

After much anticipation, DC has finally started to release trailers for the final part of its Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths animated film trilogy. The saga’s finale will see the history of DC animation collide in a cosmic battle to determine the fate of every universe. Its heroes include the modern animated Justice League and holdovers from the DC Animated Movie Universe , as well as animated incarnations such as those from the Super Friends cartoon. That said, the highlight of Part Three ’s inclusions is undoubtedly the DCAU versions of Batman and The Joker, voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hammill, respectively. However, even though fans are excited to see the most beloved versions of the characters themselves, their inclusion comes with an undercurrent of worry — and not without reason.

Following the death of Kevin Conroy in 2022, fans of the quintessential voice actor for DC’s Dark Knight have been nervously awaiting the day his final work reaches its conclusion. Thus far, Conroy has made two years’ worth of posthumous appearances as Batman, but the track record of these appearances has been far from stellar. His role in Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was met with outright derision, and the first two Crisis on Infinite Earths films also received mixed reviews. Because of this, an intended triumphant finale for the DCAU version of the Caped Crusader has instead created a sense of anxiety that the final appearance of the most beloved Batman will be far from his greatest.

Suicide Squad: Kills the Justice League Delivered What It Promised

At the cost of enraging fans, suicide squad: kill the justice league makes big season 1 changes.

In November 2022, the world of DC lost one of its brightest stars when it was revealed Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy had died at age 66, following a private battle with cancer. But even with Conroy gone, his Batman has still lived on. The role defined both the DC Animated Universe and Rocksteady’s Arkham video games, and it seemed the legendary Batman actor still had one fight left in him. He would reprise his Arkhamverse role for the next canon entry in the series. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a game focused on Batman, Arkham, or even the Bat Family.

Instead, Conroy’s Arkham Batman would have his last hurrah in the game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League . Its premise, clearly defined in the title, worried fans who had spent years following Conroy’s Caped Crusader across three console generations of games. They had feared the character’s legacy would be disrespected within the game and that Conroy’s legacy of Batman would end with less of a scream and more of a whimper.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was released to universal backlash and undeniable fan vitriol. Criticisms of the game ranged from overwhelming live-service elements, its immediate game-breaking bugs, and, most loudly, its treatment of the Justice League. Those loyal to the heroes took issue with the violent, distasteful deaths given to the mind-controlled characters within the game. Throughout its story, the Suicide Squad urinates on the corpse of The Flash and leaves Green Lantern dead in his boxers.

Many of those upset with the game took particular umbrage with the game's depiction of Batman . After being tied to a chair, Batman is given a stock speed from Harley Quinn about the end of their journey before being shot in the head. This Batman was viewed by most fans as the same one who starred in the Arkham Asylum series, so they were understandably upset at his unceremonious end. DLC since release has hinted at a retcon of the game’s deaths, but reactions upon release still serve as a large part of the dark cloud hanging over the game’s reputation.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

From the creators of Batman: Arkham, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a genre-defying third-person action shooter where the ultimate band of misfits must do the impossible: Kill the Justice League

The First Two Crisis on Infinite Earth Films Have Fans Worried About the Third

Jl: crisis on infinite earths - part two's biggest differences from the comic.

After the uproar over Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League , the end of Conroy’s history as Batman seemed to have reached a nightmarish conclusion. However, DC was able to soothe fan tempers when they revealed Conroy would be returning as the DC Animated Universe incarnation of the Dark Knight in Crisis on Infinite Earths . The films are technically an adaptation of the seminal story by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, but they don’t exactly stick to the script. At best, the Crisis on Infinite Earths series can be seen as a celebration of DC’s animated history, bringing together characters of different eras across generations for the largest fight any of them have faced. Returning faces range from Batman Beyond’ s Terry McGinnis to Green Lantern: The Animated Series ’ Razer. But in a more measured context, Crisis has been a middling adventure that combines the framework of its comic with shades of the MCU’s Infinity War to create something not as good as either.

The Crisis movies haven’t exactly earned the praise and immortal reputation of their source material. Part Two was met with scathing reviews, currently sitting at a 20% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. In early May, the first trailers showing Batman and Mark Hamill’s Joker were revealed for Part Three . Conroy’s voice was not heard in the trailers, and the extent of his role has yet to be revealed, with Jensen Ackles voicing the Batman within the current main cast. But regardless of screentime, DC and fans are hoping to see a better ending and warmer reception for Conroy’s finale in the cape and cowl than Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League . Should viewers leave the experience feelings soured, though , their hope can stretch beyond the July 16th release of the animated film. It’s not being advertised as such, but Conroy still has one more Bat-role left in the cave.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths

With the Anti-Monitor set to destroy the Multiverse, the Justice League -- and its many versions -- must face him.

Multiversus Will Likely Be Fans' Final, Slow Goodbye

Why does the batfamily fight each other on crisis on infinite earths - part two.

There’s an inevitable depression that will overcome the Batman fanbase when it’s time to say farewell to the voice of Kevin Conroy for good. Thankfully, that day isn’t especially close. While Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three will release in the summer, one preceding title has a release plan going beyond that. Conroy’s final words in his most iconic role likely won’t end up coming from a DC show or film, but instead Warner Bros’ crossover fighting title Multiversus . First released in 2022 as a public beta, Multiversus features Conroy as Batman interacting with WB’s massive library of characters such as Bugs Bunny and Arya Stark. The game also recently revealed the Joker as part of the game’s roster ahead of its May 2024 launch, with Mark Hamill returning to voice the character. Through Multiversus’ intended longevity and expanding roster, Conroy’s Batman will survive beyond Crisis on Infinite Earths .

While it’s impossible to add more than whatever Conroy had recorded before his untimely death, a library of voice lines exist for his character that will continue to be added to the game in the future. Interactions with Harley Quinn, the Joker, and several yet-to-be-announced characters exist for Conroy’s Batman in the game’s files. In a plot sense, it’s not exactly a proper send-off for this incarnation of the Caped Crusader, but it is fitting for his legacy. Conroy’s Batman has been immortalized in the game alongside equally legendary versions of characters , such as Matthew Lillard’s Shaggy and Eric Bauza’s Bugs Bunny. And as long as the Multiversus continues to grow, so will Kevin Conroy’s epic finale as the Dark Knight, giving fans a chance to continue experiencing the iconic take on the character. Multiversus is set to launch May 24, 2024 for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Kevin Conroy had a remarkable tenure during his 30-year run as the Caped Crusader. While the quality of the projects that he appeared in may have faltered, his performance never saw the same dips. Decades after taking the role, Conroy has established himself as the definitive voice of the Dark Knight for a number of fans. Thankfully, those looking to say a slower goodbye are certainly being given the chance to take their time. Through potential DLC for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Multiversus, and the finale to Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths , Conroy can be Batman for just a bit longer.

MultiVersus

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‘the balconettes’ review: a very bloody, somewhat didactic, game – cannes film festival, danny devito updates new movie with arnold schwarzenegger, talks viral ‘batman’ oscar reunion.

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Bruce Haring

pmc-editorial-manager

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The Schwarzenegger/DeVito chemistry is a proven commodity.

“He’s a good buddy, you know? He’s just a good pal. So you know, and we go together, kind of. We fit, right?” he said.

Reunions of the two are gaining steam. In February, the duo did a Super Bowl commercial for State Farm. They also did promo for the spot and talked about the plans for the new film.

“When we lost Ivan (director Reitman), rest his soul, we were about to work with him again on a sequel for Twins, ” DeVito said. “I think where my head is — and I think Arnold’s in the same spot — we want to work together. We want to do another movie together, whether it’s a sequel or a new element that’s another story. Just has to be good, funny, entertaining for us that fits with our characters, and what people want to see. And that’s what we’re aiming for.”

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a chemistry and you cannot make that up with acting or anything like that,” Schwarzenegger added. “It is the number one most important thing — you’ve got to like each other, respect each other and you just click. When we did Twins , we recognized when we did the first few scenes how much fun we were together and how Danny plays off me and I play off Danny. It’s just a match made in heaven, really.”

Schwarzenegger and DeVito also teamed to present at the 2024 Academy Awards, presenting for Outstanding Editing.

“Arnold and I are presenting together tonight for a very obvious reason,” said DeVito on stage.

“We both tried to kill Batman,” Schwarzenegger joked in response before launching into an anti-Batman rant.

Danny DeVito on how the viral Batman reunion at the Oscars between Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Keaton and him came about – plus, he teases an upcoming movie that he’ll star in with Schwarzenegger pic.twitter.com/Ku9XUMeoTU — Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 14, 2024

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New ‘Batman’ TV Series From Matt Reeves and JJ Abrams: Everything We Know

This year, Batman finally returns to the small screen for a brand-new Amazon Prime Video television series from executive producers Matt Reeves and JJ Abrams.

The Dark Knight is no stranger to television. While he typically dominates the movie theater arena, whether it’s under director Tim Burton ( Batman , Batman Returns ), Joel Schumacher ( Batman Forever , Batman & Robin ), Christopher Nolan ( The Dark Knight trilogy ), Zack Snyder ( Batman v Superman: Dawn Justice ), or Matt Reeves ( The Batman ), he’s beaten just as many iconic Gotham City villains to a pulp on the small screen.

Batman (Ben Affleck) costume in the 'Batman v Superman' trailer

The Batman (1966 — 1968) was the first series in the franchise, which saw Adam West and Burt Ward suit up as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Dick Grayson/Robin, respectively. The only other notable live-action series is Gotham (2014 — 2019) , which focuses on a young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) and Detective James “Jim” Gordon (Ben McKenzie).

There are a few other shows you probably didn’t even know existed (with good reason): Birds of Prey (2002 – 2003), Titans (2018 – 2023), Batwoman (2019 – 2022), and Gotham Knights (2023). The next live-action series is HBO’s The Penguin (2024) , in which Colin Farrell reprises his role as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin from Matt Reeves’ The Batman , which stars Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight.

However, the animated version of Gotham City continues to be the most dominant on television.

Batman animated shows date all the way back to 1968. The first one, The Adventures Of Batman (1968 — 1969), was centered around the live-action 1966 series, however, Adam West and Burt Ward only reprised their roles as the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder in animation in 1977’s The New Adventures Of Batman . But Batman: The Animated Series (1992 — 1995) remains the gold-standard cartoon series of the entire franchise. It was so popular that it was followed by another series, The New Batman Adventures (1997 — 1999).

Related: Batman: Every Returning Version of the Dark Knight Explained

Batman: Caped Crusader

Harley Quinn, Batman, and The Joker in 'Batman: The Animated Series'

Now, a brand-new animated series set for Amazon Prime Video is in the works from Bruce Timm, the creator of the cult classic Batman: The Animated Series , which starred the late Kevin Conroy as the Dark Knight and Star Wars ‘ Mark Hamill as The Joker.

Originally set for HBO but later picked up by Prime, the series comes with a huge twist that breaks new ground for the 85-year-old franchise. The first Batman comic was released in 1939 (“Detective Comics #27”), and now, Gotham City is set to go back to that era in Batman: Caped Crusader (2024).

Related: Confirmed: Michael Keaton’s Batman Will Finally Return in Direct Sequel to 1989 Film

A Different Kind of Gotham City

Batman on a skyscraper with lightning behind him in 'Batman: The Animated Series'

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , Bruce Timm talks about the decision behind the period-piece setting, explaining that all the modern technology seen in most iterations of the world-famous superhero were a no-go for him and character designer James Tucker:

“James [Tucker] and I are both really big fans of movies from that era [the 1940s], so we decided to really lean into that in terms of the clothes, the cars, the architecture, and the level of technology. Early on, we decided there would be no computers and no cell phones. That changed everything.”

How will he manage without his grapple-hook, smoke-bombs, and ear-pieces?

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Batman: Caped Crusader Characters

Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) and Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) in 'Joker: Folie à Deux'

While the upcoming series starring “The World’s Greatest Detective” abandons the modern era for a 1940s-set detective noir aesthetic, Caped Crusader still features many Gotham City characters, including Selina Kyle/Catwoman , Clayface, and Harley Quinn.

The two former Rogues Gallery villains’ new look is inspired by their appearance from the original comic, but this time, Quinn is portrayed as Asian-American and has undergone a complete character makeover (and no, we aren’t talking about her jester outfit).

“I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her,” Timm says, “but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend. So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she’s Dr. Quinzel, she’s a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she’s Harley Quinn, she’s scary.”

In recent years, Harley Quinn has been made famous by Margot Robbie in the DC Universe (DCU) Suicide Squad movies. Later this year, however, superstar Lady Gaga will take on the iconic role in the highly anticipated sequel Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) .

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn looking happy in 'Birds of Prey' (2020)

In Caped Crusader , Dr. Harley Quinzel doesn’t occupy her usual Arkham Asylum setting. Instead, she’s assigned to treating Bruce Wayne of all people. But even the Gotham vigilante won’t be the one you’re so often used to seeing across all forms of media . This time, he’s described as “a really weird human being” who isn’t “obsessed with his parents’ murder” but that “he’s still not adjusted to being a human being.”

Ben Affleck as Batman in 'Batman v Superman'

“He’s literally Batman; inside, that’s who he is,” Timm explains. “Whenever he’s Bruce Wayne, that’s not just him with a mask off, that’s him wearing a person suit. He’s trying to pretend to be something that he’s not.”

Tucker adds, “The idea was to keep him so removed that no one knows who he is, and no one knows what he’s about. We try to wipe out the foregone conclusion that he’s a hero, whether it’s for the police, regular citizens of Gotham, or the viewers.”

Variety has shared a set of first-look photos from the series which show Bruce Wayne/Batman, Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Clayface, Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn, and Commissioner James “Jim” Gordon.

No voice actors have been confirmed. The late Kevin Conroy, who voiced the iconic hero in several animated shows, movies, and games, would have been an obvious choice, however, there are plenty of other “legacy” actors who could reprise their roles in the new series, such as Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson.

What’s Batman: Caped Crusader About?

Here’s the official logline for Batman: Caped Crusader :

“Welcome to Gotham City, where the corrupt outnumber the good, criminals run rampant and law-abiding citizens live in a constant state of fear. Forged in the fire of tragedy, wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne becomes something both more and less than human—the BATMAN. His one-man crusade for justice attracts unexpected allies within the GCPD and City Hall, but his heroic actions spawn deadly, unforeseen ramifications.”

After Caped Crusader was scrapped at HBO, Prime Video ordered two seasons of the show.

When’s It Available to Stream?

The first season (which has 10 episodes) will be available to stream on August 1.

Batman: Caped Crusader is produced under Warner Bros. Animation, Bad Robot Productions, and 6th & Idaho. JJ Abrams, Bruce Timm, Ed Brubaker, James Tucker, Daniel Pipski, Rachel Rusch Rich, Sam Register, and Matt Reeves (director of The Batman ) are all onboard as executive producers.

Are you excited about the new animated series? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!

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COMMENTS

The Batman movie review & film summary (2022)
Matt Reeves ' "The Batman" isn't a superhero movie. Not really. All the trappings are there: the Batmobile, the rugged suit, the gadgets courtesy of trusty butler Alfred. And of course, at the center, is the Caped Crusader himself: brooding, tormented, seeking his own brand of nighttime justice in a Gotham City that's spiraling into ...
The Batman
The Batman PG-13 Released Mar 4, 2022 2h 56m Action Adventure Crime Drama TRAILER for The Batman: Trailer - The Bat and The Cat List View All /m/the_batman/videos videos Best Movies of 2022 Best ...
'The Batman' Review: Who'll Stop the Wayne?
Directed by Matt Reeves. Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery. PG-13. 2h 55m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission ...
'The Batman' review: Robert Pattinson shines in this back-to-basics
Reeves and his co-writer Peter Craig have settled upon a back-to-basics approach to Batman and his world. Where Tim Burton went goth, Joel Schumacher went swoonily over-the-top, and Christopher ...
The Batman (2022)
The start of the investigation into a murder is drawn-out and, again, lacks any real punch. The Riddler starts off as very mysterious and well-executed. The main issue is that he disappears for the majority of the movie only to leave clues for Batman to solve, à la the Zodiac killer, but no genuine riddles.
The Batman (2022)
The Batman: Directed by Matt Reeves. With Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell. When a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement.
The Batman Review
Posted: Feb 28, 2022 9:00 am. The Batman hits theaters on March 4, 2022. Below is a spoiler-free review. "Fear," Bruce Wayne tells us in a gloomy voiceover early in The Batman, "is a tool ...
'The Batman' review: Robert Pattinson excels as new Dark Knight
Review: Robert Pattinson embodies a broody, brawny Dark Knight for a new era in 'The Batman'. There have been so many Batman films - and quite a few Batmen - since Christopher Nolan's 2005 ...
The Batman review: Robert Pattinson is proto-superhero in sleek revival
The Batman review: Robert Pattinson plays the proto superhero in Matt Reeves' sleek neo-noir revival. So serious. By. Leah Greenblatt. Published on February 28, 2022 12:00PM EST. Even Batmen get ...
The Batman Review: The Future of Superhero Movies Is Finally Here
Fittingly, and despite all of the ways "The Batman" pushes superhero movies forward, it still has one foot stuck in the familiar. For all of its bruising power, it still pulls a number of its ...
Robert Pattinson in 'The Batman': Film Review
The Caped Crusader is back on Gotham City's crime-infested streets, exposing corruption at the highest levels in Matt Reeves' reboot, also featuring Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano and Colin Farrell.
The Batman review
The Batman review - Robert Pattinson's brooding caped crusader has a lot on his mind ... Sat 5 Mar 2022 10.00 EST. ... Batman movies are usually goofy or dour; this film is in the latter camp ...
'The Batman' Review: The Darkest Dark Knight is a Horror Epic on HBO
Starring Robert Pattinson as DC's Caped Crusader, 2022's new movie The Batman was a hit in theaters and arrived streaming service HBO Max on Monday. From its horror movie opening to the teasing ...
'The Batman' reviews: What critics thought of the new Dark Knight film
The film currently holds an 86% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 217 reviews. Robert Pattinson stars in "The Batman.". Batman has taken on many forms on the big screen, from goofy ...
The Batman review: A great Robert Pattinson isn't enough for this
Director Matt Reeves followed Zack Snyder's Batman movies with a new Dark Knight adventure starring Pattinson, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, and Zoe Kravitz. But the March 4 release doesn't have ...
The Batman review: 2022 movie is The Stylish, The Maximalist, and The
The Batman could stand to lose a half-hour of running time and at least three of its apparent endings, but I left it still humming that Nirvana song and wondering what this messed-up new Bruce ...
The Batman
The boy Bruce Wayne was eaten from the inside. The man Bruce Wayne is but a husk. The Wayne empire is crumbling, its king a recluse. He broods in his mansion, counting the hours 'til darkness. 'Til he dons his cowl and becomes his true self. His father loved Gotham City. Loved it, perhaps, too much. He ran for mayor.
"The Batman," Reviewed: Eh, It's Fine
By Richard Brody. March 9, 2022. "The Batman," directed by Matt Reeves, is a cinematic house populated only by phantoms with no trace of a complex mental life. Photograph courtesy Warner Bros ...
The Batman (film)
The Batman is a 2022 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman.Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, 6th & Idaho, and Dylan Clark Productions, it is a reboot of the Batman film franchise.Directed by Matt Reeves from a screenplay he wrote with Peter Craig, it stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman alongside Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John ...
The Batman (2022)
Movie Review - The Batman (2022) March 4, 2022 by Ricky Church. The Batman, 2022. ... The detective angle is a welcome change and brings something new to the table and Matt Reeves, with his co ...
'The Batman' Review: Robert Pattinson Goes Darker Than 'Dark ...
'The Batman' Review: A Tortured Robert Pattinson Goes Even Darker Than 'The Dark Knight' Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, Feb. 17, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13.
The Batman Movie Review
Parents need to know that The Batman is a new/rebooted take on the iconic superhero. This Batman (Robert Pattinson) is conflicted and violent but also uses his head and learns as he goes along.The movie's action violence is intense, with killings and dead bodies, guns and shooting, explosions and crashes, lots of fighting (punching, kicking, hitting with objects, choking, etc.), a severed ...
"The Batman" and "Ultrasound," Reviewed
Anthony Lane reviews Matt Reeves's movie "The Batman," starring Robert Pattinson, in his first outing as the superhero, alongside Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard ...
The Batman (2022)
The Batman. PG-13 | superheroes | 2 HR 56 MIN | 2022. WATCH NOW. When a killer targets Gotham City's elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World's Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle, The Penguin, Carmine Falcone and The ...
A New Batman Trailer Is The Best In Years
A full reveal of "Batman: Arkham Shadow" will take place during the Summer Games Fest in June. While fans wait for more details, they can always catch up on the entire "Batman: Arkham Story ...
Clayface As The Batman 2's Villain Risks Ruining The Batman's Realism
The rumored villain for The Batman - Part II could cause an issue for the movie that would be difficult to rectify. The sequel to 2022's The Batman was officially confirmed by James Gunn in ...
Batman #147 review
Batman #147 review. It's starting to feel like the beginning of the end. This Zur-En-Arrh saga which has been going since the beginning of Zdarsky's run back in 2022 seems to be preparing for ...
Batman Fans Are Worried About the Next DC Movie
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths — Part Three is set for release in July 2024, and it has many Batman fans worried. The final part of the Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy brings together heroes from various DC animated universes. Fans are anxious about Kevin Conroy's final appearances as Batman after mixed reviews of ...
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Danny DeVito on how the viral Batman reunion at the Oscars between Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Keaton and him came about - plus, he teases an upcoming movie that he'll star in with ...
New 'Batman' TV Series From Matt Reeves and JJ Abrams: Everything We
The first season (which has 10 episodes) will be available to stream on August 1. Batman: Caped Crusader is produced under Warner Bros. Animation, Bad Robot Productions, and 6th & Idaho. JJ Abrams ...

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