‘The Batman’ with Robert Pattinson is On Its Way Up

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Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Since I was no fan of of director Zack Snyder’s take on the Caped Crusader – “Batman v Superman” and “The Justice League” being some of the worst superhero movies ever to sputter onto the big screen – as far as I was concerned the franchise had nowhere to go but up.

Within that sense, the casting of the one-time-sulky “Twilight” vampire Robert Pattinson gave me significant pause, but I am also one to happily admit when I’m wrong. And much to my surprise, Pattinson as “The Batman” actually works. He seems to spend the majority of the movie donning the cape and cowl comfortably, and he right at home. He’s most uncomfortable when he embodies the identity of brooding billionaire orphan Bruce Wayne. But against all odds, Pattinson finds a fresh take on the man in the cape.

The Batman
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Filmed partly in Chicago at the onset of the pandemic, and finished up in London, this is a movie which imagines Gotham City as a perpetually rain-drenched cesspool. Batman knows he can’t stop every two bit hood and mugging, but is trying to pick his battles to have some kind of an impact on the city as a whole … even as more conventional law and order types are revealed to have feet of clay. Cynicism seems the only logical reaction to the unrelenting grim prospects of day-to-day life where virtually nothing is untouched by the deep seated corruption at its core. Even the bat signal itself seems like it’s seen better days.

However, Bats is faced with a murderer’s row of Gotham City scum and villainy. Colin Farrell, unrecognizable as the Penguin, is more of a mob middle manager here. John Turturro lets silence speak volumes as reclusive pool-cue-wielding mob boss Carmine Falcone. It’s actually Paul Dano as The Riddler that’s the true antagonist, and is a far cry from the pun-happy and question mark suited Jim Carrey incarnation.

Dano is more of a Jigsaw-like serial killer in a gimp mask in his interpretation. He takes out figures of Gotham’s ruling class and commands a social media fueled army of like minded zealots … and works best when he’s more of a menacing figure just barely on screen. In his one face-to-face with Batman in Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum, he tries his best to amp up to crazy town, but never quite reaches the villainous heights of Heath Ledger’s own tete-a-tete in “The Dark Knight.”

The Cat and The Bat in ‘The Batman’
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

And then there’s Selena Kyle, aka Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz). In this story, the character is always pursuing her own agenda that only sometimes happens to align with The Batman … she seeks vengeance first, with justice a distant second. The two have a nice yin/yang chemistry in their scenes, with Kravitz’s Catwoman taking no orders and defiantly going her own way.

It’s worth noting that this version of Batman’s story is very capable of standing on its own, even if it doesn’t have the stacked supporting cast of the Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series. Director Matt Reeves has managed to make this oft-told tale feel fresh once more, and it feels different even when covering some of the same ground. In the film’s nearly three hour runtime, Reeves also puts together a handful of big sequences, including the bat suit taking flight, which is sure to make the overall Caped Crusader Highlight Reel. It remains to be seen where this film will stack up in the rankings of Batman’s big screen exploits, but at least it should help us all collectively forget that Ben Affleck ever donned the Bat persona in the first place.

By SPIKE WALTERS Contributor HollywoodChicago.com spike@hollywoodchicago.com