The Batman

When I was five years old I wore a Batman cape to school - on a regular basis. I watched reruns of Adam West's Batman on TV and loved it. Couldn't get enough. As I have matured (well many might argue that point - ha) so too has Batman. When I was nineteen (1989), Tim Burton's "Batman" came out - I remember lining up outside the Place de Ville theatres in downtown Ottawa. Jack Nicolson as the Joker - this can't possible get any better, could it? Tim Burton's second feature "Batman Returns" was better! -  Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, yes! But then came Kilmer and Clooney and my childhood fascination with the caped crusader began to wane. Then, when I was thirty five years old (2005), Christopher Nolan gave the world, "Batman Begins." I was in love all over again. This, this was the mature Batman, the one I had been waiting for my entire life. Could it get better than this? 2008 brings us Nolan's central masterpiece of his bat trilogy, "The Dark Knight." When this came out I lost my mind. All Batman films would be judged against it. Heath Ledger posthumously won the Oscar for his role as the Joker. The opening bank heist scene was right out of Michael Mann's "Heat" - this was gritty and raw and realistic. The story was epic and I would argue this was the comic book version of "The Godfather" or "Goodfellas" - an epic crime drama where the source material has been elevated to high art. It was the best Batman movie ever made. Then came 2022.

Riddle me this, who is Matt Reeves? Well for starters he is the director of "The Batman" staring Robert Pattinson as Batman and Zoë Kravitz ("Kimi") as Catwoman. Before this, Matt Reeves directed "Cloverfield" (a Godzilla knock off) and the last two Planet of the Apes films ("Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "War for the Planet of the Apes"). I must confess, I loved the Ape trilogy. Thought is was spectacular. If you haven't watched them, you should. 

Matt Reeves film resume isn't long enough (in my humble opinion) to get a sense of who Matt Reeves is as a director. I really liked those Ape movies but I had no real confidence going into "The Batman," only hope. If you told me David Fincher directed this movie, I would believe you. Reeves borrows heavily from Fincher's "Se7en" and "Zodiac" films. The main villain is the Riddler; hooded like the Zodiac killer leaving clues and cyphers and doling out punishment, one victim at a time, to corrupt city officials. Played by Paul Dano, the Riddler is simply terrifying. 

Nolan's "Dark Night" remains great but there is a cleanliness to it - a surgical precision. If "The Dark Night" is Georges Seurat, then "The Batman" is Vincent van Gogh. The grimy streets of Reeves's Gotham are out of of a rainy "Blade Runner" set. The batmobile has been stripped back down to a lean machine that looks like a souped-up version of a Mustang rather than the tank-like machine Christian Bale drove. Even Pattinson's bat suit looks more homemade-commando and far more flexible than any previous.

It's dark, it's grimy, it's epic. The entire cast is fantastic. It's simply brilliant. But is it better than Nolan's? If "The Batman" stands shoulder to shoulder with "The Dark Knight," by my tape measure, "The Batman" is just a little bit taller. 

Catch this in theatres. And if you are going, take me with you, I will gladly see it again.