“(You'll) Never get in there without a warrant.”

“Yeah.”

The Batman is not only an incredible comic book movie, but excels in basically every aspect of filmmaking that there is. It’s the first Batman movie to both succeed on a story level and as an adaptation of the comic books. In my opinion, Tim Burton’s version succeeded as an adaptation but not so much on the story, where Christopher Nolan’s was the opposite of that. Thankfully, The Batman not only has an amazing script, but succeeds where other adaptations, yes, even Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, did not. I still love those movies though, obviously.

Batman has always been “the world’s greatest detective” when it comes to his role as a superhero, yet none of the live-action films have even somewhat captured that aspect of him. The Batman is a mystery-thriller film, which is not only right up my alley, but sets him up to be the detective in this investigation as well. Matt Reeves and his writing team didn’t just write a remarkable mystery story that, in my opinion, is even better than a great movie like Se7en, but they wrote Batman himself to be worthy of being called “the world’s greatest detective,” somehow without going too overboard with that. This is a more grounded Batman story afterall, and they wrote him in a way that he was believable.

The main criticism I always see for this movie that I find to be unwarranted is that Robert Pattinson makes a great Batman, but not a good Bruce Wayne. His entire character arc throughout the movie is that he hides his identity behind a mask, not wanting any public attention or to succeed his family’s legacy in the same way that his father did. He shelters himself from society and believes that being Batman is not only his family’s legacy, but his true identity itself. The character progression he has going from that to the end of the film is possibly the best character arc for any Batman movie I would say other than maybe The Dark Knight. I have a hard time putting The Dark Knight’s character arc for Batman above Matt Reeve’s The Batman though because Batman isn’t even really the main character in that movie, it’s the Joker. This is not a criticism by the way, I mean, of course, it’s Heath Ledger’s Joker.

But onto the story, probably the most engaged I’ve ever been in a comic book movie story honestly ever. The first time I watched it and on this rewatch, I was on the edge of my seat quite literally the entire time, and my heart was pounding throughout. It’s such a well done thriller, and an unbelievably underappreciated one when it comes to that. The mystery and steps to get it solved were also extremely engaging. I don’t think the movie itself is underappreciated, just when it comes to being a mystery-thriller movie. As I eluded to, I was engaged with the film the entire time on a level of a masterpiece film like Prisoners, and the movie absolutely flew by despite the nearly three-hour runtime. A thriller with incredibly good pacing to say the least.

More specifically on the story, it’s just wonderful. It has a surprisingly meaningful message that doesn’t exactly correlate to the real world a ton, at least in the United States, but still hits with just as much impact as it would if it did. At it’s core, it’s whole meaning is that violence can’t simply be stopped by scaring and taking down every criminal there is, because it just motivates criminals and ultimately, creates even more violence. Instead, violence must be stopped by attacking it at its core - by creating hope for people. Gotham City is a city so corrupt and hopeless that people are desperate and the streets are filled with criminals not only creating chaos, but killing people at a rate that seems as if it were just normal. It’s a city in need of hope, and not only that, but a symbol, which is where Batman obviously comes into play.

The performances are remarkable throughout too. Robert Pattinson, while agreed upon by many was not the first choice for Batman by the public when he was first cast, absolutely sells the character from the very first time we meet him. He’s absolutely imposing, and every time he’s on screen you feel his presence, which is also something I think other Batman movies failed to do, even the best ones. Zoë Kravitz is also a great Catwoman, but a completely different one too. She’s maybe not as iconic as Michelle Pfeiffer, but has so much more character depth than her in almost every way. Her heart is in the right place, but is caught up in the plague that is Gotham City and every wrong that is happening there.

Everyone else is a standout too, including Andy Serkis as Alfred, another non-obvious casting choice that still worked out amazingly well, and of course, Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. However, the two other main standouts are definitely two of the antagonists, Colin Farrell as the Penguin, who despite his limited screentime, is probably the best version of the character we’ve ever gotten, and man, those prosthetics they did for him were absolutely incredible. It’s so hard to tell that it’s even Colin Farrell at all. I love what they did with the character in his actual show too, but I won’t really talk much about that just because this isn’t a review for that show. The other standout is obviously Paul Dano as the Riddler. After watching Prisoners for the first time this year, which is now one of my favorite movies of all-time, it’s honestly unbelievable how well he can play complete creeps and menaces to society. He’s so terrifying but plain weird too in this film, and every time he’s on screen, you get a little bit of a shiver down your spine. He was a great choice to be the first main villain in this (hopefully) trilogy.

Before I conclude this review, it is a complete must that I talk about the cinematography that they did for this film. One of the best looking movies of not only our time, but of all-time. This might be an incredibly hot take, but I think that Greg Fraiser is quite easily the best cinematographer that I’ve personally ever seen, and this film might honestly be somehow better looking than his two Dune feats. I am so incredibly glad that he is returning for the sequel, though obviously disappointed that he isn’t for Dune: Part Three, though I think that movie is still in good hands when it comes to the cinematography because it’s the same guy that did La La Land, which I literally just by chance watched for the first time yesterday. Anyways, starting to get off topic.

The cinematography and visuals themselves completely outdo any other comic book movie ever made, and it’s in my opinion, not even close. It’s the main way that it captures Gotham City so perfectly. I love the dirty and grainy look that it has, and there was not a single frame that I wasn’t absolutely drawn to visually. I would highly recommend looking at the behind-the-scenes of how they achieved the look they did with The Batman. But anyway, it makes Gotham City not only a city that feels out of this world and not Chicago or New York City, but a city that you believe is in dire need of hope and saving.

I know this is one of my longer reviews, but there is just so much to say about this film, and I could honestly probably say even more, but I don’t want to make it too long (as if I haven’t already). One of my favorite movies of all-time. It comes so close to a perfect score for me, but the only reason I don’t give it one is because I do think that there is a way they can pull off the sequel and somehow make it even better, which will definitely be an incredible task and I can’t wait to see what they do with it.