After a hefty wait of nearly three years, director Matt Reeves’s “The Batman” hit theaters on March 4. Following Bruce Wayne, aka “Batman” in his second year of vigilantism as he solves a serial murder mystery presented to him by the villanous Riddler, the movie is deemed a box office success after generating a revenue of $248 million from its global box office sales. Robert Pattinson, infamous for his previous role in the Twilight franchise, delivers a bone-chilling and gripping performance as the Batman himself. Despite online controversy arising after the announcal of his casting in June 2019, Pattinson dons the cowl beautifully and delivers a refreshing narrative on a character we’ve seen on the silver screen many a time. 

I say that after watching “The Batman,” it’s officially earned the spot of the best comic book movie portrayal of Batman. For me, it even ranks above the fan-favorite Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy starring Christian Bale. Now, while it seems that much of this opinion is carried by the hype of its cast –Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, Paul Dano as the Riddler, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin being some of the brilliant actors we see on-screen– there’s actually quite a lot to unpack beyond our hefty cast list. “The Batman” is nothing like anything we’ve seen before, and in all of the best ways.

The soundtrack

There have been several iterations of the Batman theme. Some of us may remember the iconic opening soundtrack of the Animated Batman Series from our childhoods, maybe some of us may remember the theme song from “Batman Begins.” 

For “The Batman,” American composer Michael Giachatto pretty much got it in the bag. The film’s main theme soundtrack sets itself apart from other superhero thematic soundtracks that we hear today. Really, this is mainly in the sense that it doesn’t really sound very superhero-like. The score accompanying Batman wherever he goes is menacing, gothic and feels like a warning personified. However, therein lies the audio foundations for what has the potential to be a superhero soundtrack. And really, that pretty much summarizes who the Batman is in this film perfectly: he has the foundations and potential to be the heroic Batman that we’ve become accustomed to. 

He’s Vengeance, but he’s not Batman… yet. 

The cinematography 

“The Batman” is 2 hours and 56 minutes. The thing is, it doesn’t feel like you’re sitting down to watch a three-hour movie. 

This can be attributed to a lot of the film’s… aesthetics. If you’ve seen any promotions for the movies, or the movie’s posters, you’ll know that Matt Reeves was leaning really heavily into this very gritty palette of reds and blacks. If you somehow haven’t seen any of the posters, that’s okay, because the cover image for this article should get you on the right page really quick. Matt Reeves chose red as his primary focus color for the film and he ran with it. Ironically, it’s a very warm palette that contrasts with a very cold characterization of Gotham City, and it is central in establishing the noir-film, detective-thriller genre and tone. 

We also get a lot of gorgeous shots of Gotham City, both throughout the night and day – some of the best shots are the ones that really play into that warm, red-orange palette that sets the movie apart from just being dark, grunge and edgy. A lot of the shots are also framed in a way that is reminiscent of how comic panels are made to be drawn, and it really gives the film a sense of authenticity as it pays tribute to its origin comic books. 

“The Batman” also doesn’t rely heavily on its action sequences. That isn’t to say that the action sequences don’t exist, because they do. You get one of the best car chase scenes to ever exist, hallway shots of Batman tasering and punching one-way tickets to the ICU, etc. However, previous films featuring the Batmen of Christian Bale and Ben Affleck tend to have a 80%-20% ratio of action versus no action, whereas “The Batman” is more of a 40%-60% ratio. 

Matt Reeves established early on that his intentions with this project were to put a spotlight on how and why Batman wears the title of “The World’s Greatest Detective.” Rather than focusing on fighting and action, we instead get a lot of character-driven scenes of Batman working with James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) to solve the overarching mystery presented to them by the Riddler. This is a big factor in why the movie doesn’t feel like it’s dragging on, since it allows for good pacing that isn’t just static. 

The characterization

The entire cast understood the assignment. Obviously, those going into theaters to watch the film most likely have certain expectations (or maybe a lack thereof) as to how Robert Pattinson’s performance will go. These watchers can generally be grouped into two categories: those who’ve seen his work post-Twilight and those who have not. 

In a baseball analogy that nods to his previous Twilight history, Pattinson definitely steps up to the plate. Remember that this iteration of Bruce Wayne is in his second year of being Batman, which makes for a dynamic that largely strays from Bale’s Batman, who is in his origin story days, and from Affleck’s Batman, who has already spent nearly a decade being Batman in his respective cinematic universe. 

Pattinson does not shy away from the role and gives a well-rounded version of the iconic character. Quite frankly, it’s also refreshing, especially after so many years of Batman stories regurgitating shots of the infamous night his parents died (cut to a scene of his mother’s pearls hitting the ground), and after so many years of the Bruce Wayne Playboy Persona appearing alongside his Batman Persona. 

In this interview with IndieWire, Pattinson gets into the nitty gritty of why the lack of the playboy “Brucie” Wayne persona is so prevalent. 

Basically, this is a version and persona of Batman that we’ve never seen portrayed in mass media. In comics, sure, but up to this point, no one’s ever really been daring enough to dive full force into the unhinged-ness of Bruce Wayne in these early Batman years. 

Between Matt Reeves’s character vision and Robert Pattinson acting his socks off, you get a three-hour examination into who The Batman is at this point in his life. He doesn’t really identify himself as Bruce Wayne. He’s spending 95% of his time being Batman (or as he’d rather title himself, Vengeance), and the remainder of that time is spent being a recluse who doesn’t really leave the confines of Wayne Tower. Think Rapunzel, if Rapunzel was a really emo guy in his early 20s whose only consistency in life was really questionable vigilantism and a butler who spent a majority of his youth in the armed forces. 

That being said, Pattinson still plays off against the film’s other characters really well. Rather than leaning into the same intimidation tactics of Batmen in years past via super deep, gravelly voice, he instead chooses to hone silence. You can understand him, sure, but his voice is soft, even, and remains undeterredly “calm,” even in the most horrific of circumstances. He’s eloquent. Almost alarmingly so.

The Batman/Catwoman dynamic was a seemingly controversial choice by the filmmakers. I say controversial because it seems like a lot of people have a love-hate relationship with the prevalence of these two characters’ intertwined arcs in the film, but honestly, I loved it. Maybe this is a little biased. 

Did it seem like they rushed into having a romantic subplot really quickly? Yes. Is Selina Kyle (Catwoman) being played by Zoe Kravitz, who is literally one of the most beautiful women alive? Also yes. Of course Pattinson’s Batman would immediately have a crush on her. Everyone who has or will watch this film has a gigantic crush on her. 

You see their morals clash against one another in a way that actually provokes a moment of character growth and self-realization of privilege for Bruce. He’s still viewing the world through a black-and-white, bad or good lens, and parts of this mindset is affected by the bias of being wealthy. Selina subsequently calls him out on this (a snippet that’s alluded to in previous film promotions). For Bruce, having her straight up be like “Hey, I can tell that you grew up with money based on your biases,” is pretty blunt and somewhat jarring to his worldview. For better or worse, Bruce Wayne grew up rich, and seeing that actually have a realistic impact with its pros and cons throughout the film is great. 

The film paints a humane picture of Batman that we’ve honestly never seen before. Bruce struggles through the ups and downs of trauma that he’s just started to work through, and he also struggles with the ups and downs of solving an intricate and webbed-out murder mystery courtesy of the Riddler (Paul Dano). His character arc in the film inherently has the end goal of making Bruce self-actualize in a way that allows him to realize that this current version of him isn’t really what his city needs, and maybe it’s not what he really needs to heal, either. Pattinson delivers an incredible, award-winning performance that makes you realize that the line “I am Vengeance,” a line that’s been highlighted throughout the movie’s trailers and marketing, actually carries so much more depth than just a guy being edgy. 

Ultimately, “The Batman” is a love letter to the city of Gotham, to Batman’s comic book origins and the readers of those comics and to lovers of Batman as a whole. If there was ever the perfect cinematic experience for a comic book movie, this is pretty much as close to perfection as we’re going to get. 10/10, absolutely stunning, absolutely breathtaking, and I can once again confirm that like Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne, I too am in love with Zoe Kravitz.