Director Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ is the newest film adaptation of the iconic vigilante. Released at the beginning of March, the movie stars Robert Pattinson as Batman (aka Bruce Wanye) , Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman (aka Selina Kyle), and Paul Dano as The Riddler. ‘The Batman’ is a chilling, dark, gruesome, and thrilling film which leads the audience through 175 minutes of action, mystery, and amazing cinematography and acting. Minor spoilers are ahead!  

Gotham City in ‘The Batman’ is similar to the nocturnal hero himself; dark, frightening, broken, and “sacred”. Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne and Batman highly differentiate themselves from their counterparts by not being the typical playboy billionaire which Wayne is usually portrayed as. In the film, Robert Pattinson barely spends any time without the mask on and when Bruce does appear, he is regularly alone and seemingly gloomy. This Batman fully focuses on vengeance and fixing the corrupt city by fighting crime. From the beginning of the movie, the audience is able to tell that Bruce Wayne has a long journey of growing and realizing as a person to heal and figure out his mission as Batman. Robert Pattinson plays this to perfection from the voice to the mood of his character. Another fascinating and prominent character in the movie is Selina Kyle. Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman adds excitement, momentum, and cattiness to the film which makes her altogether one of the most likable characters to watch. Kravitz’s acting is completely captivating and sucks the audience into the film. Selina extremely helps with Batman’s character development and self-journey but goes beyond Pattinson’s love interest. She also has an entertaining subplot surrounding avenging women having been exploited by Gotham’s corrupt elite. This subplot could have definitely been followed more in-depth to give Catwoman’s character more of a story arc, but Kravitz grants the audience a valuable performance with the storyline her character was given. 

The villain of ‘The Batman, the Riddler, certainly made an impression, beginning with the first scene of the movie. This callous villain, trying to achieve justice in Gotham by killing, is one of the most interesting characters in the movie. The Riddler and Batman share similarities which lead the Riddler to believe they are the same and work together to achieve a common goal. This becomes a major part of Batman’s character development as he realizes the faults in his own mission. By the end of the film, Batman realizes, “Vengeance won’t change the past, mine or anyone else’s. I have to become more, people need hope.” Batman realizes this through the Riddler’s actions which eventually leads to the Riddler’s downward spiral. Although the Riddler did not succeed in his intentions, he surely causes massive amounts of chaos throughout the movie which makes a worthwhile watch.

Reviews for ‘The Batman’ in newspapers and on websites were extremely positive, with the movie receiving an 85% on the Tomatometer on popular movie rating site, Rotten Tomatoes. The film did exponentially well in the box office, domestically making around $300 million, by March 20, and making about $600 million worldwide. These high grossing numbers make sense due to the quality of the film. The only negatives of the film are the lengthiness, the seriousness, and the somewhat confusing plot. The solemn mood kept throughout the entire movie makes the film very monotone. The film definitely feels like three hours and the plot becomes thin at certain points. Again, the movie is mostly focused on Bruce’s self-journey as a character which can leave the audience wondering at the end, “So what exactly did Batman accomplish in this movie?” However, the ending perfectly sets up the opportunity for more sequels to be made so viewers can watch more action scenes, mysteries being solved, and character development from Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz.