Comic book-related movies have had their share of reboots over the years. Batman is one of the more iconic franchises to grace the cinemas. We’ve seen a few notable actors step into the role of Gotham’s dark knight. This March 4, 2022, we’ll finally see a new take of Batman featuring actor Robert Pattinson. However, while the general public is still waiting for the premiere to happen, critics are finally unveiling their initial thoughts on The Batman.
The Batman has a few critical reviews available right now, and it’s been rather positive. Different media outlet publications have expressed their thoughts on the film. Below, you can find a few snippets of review quotes we’ve come across in our review round-up of The Batman.
Chris Evangelista – Slash Film
Part of what makes “The Batman” so appealing — beyond its crackling mystery and genuine thrills — is how self-contained everything is here. Sure, there’s plenty of room left to inspire inevitable sequels. But in our current landscape where every superhero-related movie feels like it only exists to set up an entire franchise, “The Batman” gives us a complete story that doesn’t require homework to understand. Reeves and co-writer Peter Craig realize that by now we know exactly what we need to know about Batman and his world, enabling the film to hit the ground running. Most of all, this isn’t just a Batman movie — it’s a movie about Batman. The character is so often overshadowed by his colorful rogues’ gallery, but here, the Dark Knight is the driving force. He’s in practically every scene, and we get to watch his character learn and evolve.
The Batman gets to the heart of the character while maintaining his humanity. The film is grounded as it explores the depth of corruption in Gotham, while exhibiting the vigilante’s skills as an intelligent detective. Reeves and his team have crafted a Batman film that offers a different side to the hero audiences have come to know and love. With exhilarating action scenes, a layered story, and poignant, in-depth characterization, The Batman is a worthy addition to the live-action DC slate.
Roger Moore – Rogers Movie Nation
Reeves, who did a good job of making the “Apes” movies topical enough to chew on, positions his comic book movie not just as a worthy successor to Nolan’s trilogy, but as a gritty, real-stunts/real-gravitas counterpoint to the digital effects heavy Marvel films and DC’s own “Wonder Woman/Justice League/Aquaman” efforts.
Yeah, it’s too damned long. But cleaning up this big a mess, Reeves and Craig tell us, is going to take a lot of time, and even then, there’s no guarantee evil won’t triumph. The hero our times call for is somebody undaunted by the task, undeterred by the odds, unswayed by negative press. And like the best among us, he’s still wearing a mask.
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.
If there’s one criticism to be made, it’s that The Batman is too long. No film five minutes shy of three hours can avoid dragging occasionally, and there’s a lot of leads to chase down and clues to unravel in this case. Fortunately, the writers know to break up each exposition session with enough action. It’s all shot beautifully too, against a shadowy urban backdrop lit by sudden bursts of neon red and blue. Perhaps the most iconic image comes at the end of a Mad Max-esque car chase down the wrong side of a highway. Batman, engulfed in petrol-fuelled flames, emerges from some wreckage and marches in slow-motion towards the camera. It’s spine-tingling stuff.
The Batman is a towering achievement, putting the franchise on firm footing in the sweet spot that can unify fandom and electrify audiences. It’s exactly what the Batman franchise needed to be, something I’ve personally argued was the right path for a long time and something that fans, press, and the public at various times and in various ways have long wanted and waited for. Trust Matt Reeves, Batman is in good hands.
The Batman is a gripping, gorgeous, and, at times, genuinely scary psychological crime thriller that gives Bruce Wayne the grounded detective story he deserves. Robert Pattinson is great as a very broken Batman, but it’s Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano who steal the show, with a movingly layered Selina Kyle/Catwoman and a terrifyingly unhinged Riddler. Writer/director Matt Reeves managed to make a Batman movie that’s entirely different from the others in the live-action canon, yet surprisingly loyal to Gotham lore as a whole. Ultimately, it’s one that thoroughly earns its place in this iconic character’s legacy.
While the seriousness is welcome, the level of darkness risks becoming oppressive in a manner that doesn’t leave much room for fun of any kind. If that’s hardly a negative for Batman-ologists, it threatens to blunt the film’s appeal among those who can’t identify the issue of Detective Comics in which he first appeared.Still, that’s a modest quibble compared to the main gripe that “The Batman” could easily lose 30 minutes without sacrificing much. Most of that flab comes during the final hour, which serves a purpose in terms of the character’s maturation but piles on at least one climax too many.
Charles Pulliam-Moore – The Verge
Compared to previous cinematic versions of Batman, this Dark Knight is more of a brawler who makes up for his lack of experience with his ability to take a punch. But after the first few instances of seeing Batman getting the daylights beaten out of him, it’s hard not to interpret the movie’s multiple mentions of “vengeance” as allusions to Batman’s desire to get back at all the petty criminals who manage to get their licks in, rather than his larger existential mission. Whatever goodwill The Batman earns by steering clear of exhaustively explaining, once again, how Bruce’s parents were murdered is somewhat squandered by the degree to which they loom in the background of this story, set some 20 years after their deaths.
What Reeves is really interested in is showing us a very different kind of Bruce Wayne than in other films: millennial, rich, sullen, ineffectual, and bewildered. Other Batman actors have shrugged off the weirdness of a rich man turned masked vigilante, but Pattinson convincingly wrestles with his inherited privilege—and makes Wayne more likable and empathetic as a result. Sometimes, in the absence of exposition or dialogue, Pattinson and Reeves sell these Wayne character qualities with little more than a tight zoom on Bat’s masked mug. The bottom of Pattinson’s face deserves its own Academy Award.
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.
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 kids), but it’s a gripping and nerve-shredding Bat-thriller.
Again, The Batman arrives in theaters on March 4, 2022. If you haven’t caught much information on the movie, this is a take of Bruce Wayne entering his second year of being the dark knight. While you’ll find a few notable villains popping up throughout the movie, the main antagonist Batman is dealing with here is the Riddler, played by Paul Dano. Of course, this is not likely the last we’ll see Robert Pattinson as The Batman is slated to be the first film of a brand new Batman trilogy.
