It’s “I am,” not “I’m” (Unmarked Spoilers)
After multiple delays, The Batman has finally arrived. Starting as a vehicle for Ben Affleck’s version of the character, it eventually became its own separate thing. Robert Patterson plays a Batman who’s able to delve into the character’s detective side more than previous versions. He unravels a complex, film noir mystery as he tries to catch a masked criminal named the Riddler (Paul Dano), who seeks to expose the secrets and lies of Gotham’s elite.
This version of the Riddler eschews much of the campiness of past versions in favor of being a creepy serial killer. Any humor involving the character is a lot more nightmarish than funny. Like when he cuts off a victim’s thumb and attaches it to a USB drive. (Do you get it?) Also, while this version of the Riddler isn’t as much of an effeminate wimp as the Jim Carrey version or Eli Sunday for that matter, Batman is still clearly superior when it comes to physicality. The Riddler even admits as much. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to the superhero genre is when you have to root for the overdog.
Someone caught in a compromising photo with one of the Riddler’s victims is Annika (Hana Hrzic). She works at the Iceberg Lounge for the Penguin (Colin Farrell) and is acquainted with Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz). Annika and Selina are “friends” in a way where they might be a couple, but that’s never made clear. So when Annika disappears because she knows too much, Selina works with Batman to find her. Unsurprisingly, Annika ends up being found dead in the back of a car, which is revealed with little fanfare.
Like Michael Keaton, this version of “Bruce Wayne” is a borderline recluse and little more than a mask. At one point, Alfred (Andy Serkis) informs him that company accountants have come over, and Batman isn’t interested because he’s too busy being Batman. The Wayne family history is inspired by the Batman: Earth One and Batman: The Telltale Series. Like the former, Thomas Wayne (Luke Roberts) was running for mayor. Martha Wayne (Stella Stocker) was originally an Arkarm. Alfred implies that he was initially hired as a bodyguard before becoming Bruce’s guardian.
Though we don’t see the Waynes get killed for the millionth time, their deaths play a prominent role in the story. Years ago, a reporter unearthed damaging information concerning Martha and her family’s mental health. Thomas tried to bribe the reporter since this was right before the election. When that failed, Thomas went to crime lord Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) to put the fear of God in him, but Falcone ended up killing the reporter instead. With Falcone now having leverage over Thomas, rival mobster Salvator Maroni had the Waynes killed. At least, that’s how Falcone tells the story.
According to Alfred, Thomas wasn’t trying to protect his campaign. He was trying to protect his wife. Thomas was so outraged over the reporter being killed he told Falcone he was going to the police. That’s why Alfred believes Falcone had them killed, though he admits it could have just as easily been a random street crime. It’s kept ambiguous as to who’s telling the truth, but the Riddler and Falcone believing that Thomas Wayne was a self-serving scumbag tells you a lot about their characters.
While not as omnipresent as in Joker (2019), there are some definite eat the rich vibes in this movie. Batman makes a comment about Annika choosing to get involved with criminals, to which Selina responds by saying he clearly grew up wealthy. Besides that, upon finding her “friend” dead, Selina asks Batman to help her catch the people responsible because nobody is going to care about Annika when the Riddler’s killing “white privilege a******s.”
Besides that, the Riddler reveals he grew up in a rundown orphanage where there were 30 kids to a room and a high mortality rate due to lack of resources. Things were supposed to get better with Thomas’ urban renewal plan, but that didn’t happen with the latter’s death. Instead of going towards where it was supposed to, the mob and corrupt city officials hijacked the program. The kicker of the situation is that nobody talked about the Riddler’s suffering because they were too busy discussing how rough Bruce Wayne, prince of Gotham, had it.
Befitting a Batman movie, the word Vengeance comes up a lot. Batman’s first spoken line outside the narration is “I’m vengeance” (wow, that doesn’t sound nearly as good with the contraction), which leads to the Penguin and Selina calling him ‘Vengeance” at different points in the film. Towards the end of the film, a Riddler disciple also says, “I’m Vengeance,” making Batman realize that revenge is bad, and he should be focusing on being a symbol of hope. He might also want to start meeting with his accountants to make sure criminals aren’t running the Gotham Renewal Fund, but we’re given no indication of that. However, he’ll probably learn to be Bruce Wayne and Batman in the sequel.
The film’s ending drops several threads that may or may not happen. The Riddler is throwing a hissy fit in Arkham over his plan’s being foiled and is comforted by an Unseen Arkham Prisoner (Barry Keoghan), three guesses as to who that is, and the first two don’t count. The ending also teases the Penguin rising in the criminal underworld, which we’ll probably see since an HBO Max spinoff has already been announced.
Patterson’s performance is fine, but nothing special. The problem is that he’s playing someone stuck in the anger stage of grief. My acting experience doesn’t go beyond high school theatre (so take this with a grain of salt), but it seems like anyone could spend the whole movie acting pissed off and mopey. There’s a scene where Batman confronts Alfred over his parents. Tears welling in his eyes, Alfred tells him his version of the story and goes on about how he couldn’t protect the Waynes and that Batman needed a father. I was struck by how Serkis was acting circles around Patterson, and he wasn’t doing anything that idiosyncratic either. Of course, Serkis and every other actor besides Patterson had more to work with.
The Batman doesn’t add anything new to the Batman mythos that I haven’t already seen before, and it doesn’t top The Dark Knight. However, it is a solidly made movie that’s well shot, well-acted, and has a score that I absolutely love. Plus, this movie’s nearly three hours long, and while that crossed my mind a couple of times, I never felt any discomfort at the remembrance, so that’s always a good sign. You should check it out.
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