The Batman doesn't hit audiences with yet another interpretation of the well known hero's origin story. But it does offer a slightly new angle on the character: kinda-sorta centered on detective work (though I believe this is a function of the Riddler being the main villain), darker in tone even than Christopher Nolan's take, and literally (visually) dark. From glowing reviews, I'd been led to believe this reimagining was actually more sweeping than it actually felt to me; it just struck me that someone found the Brooding knob that you might have thought The Dark Knight had maxed, and cranked it up to full.
When two different groups fill out a conventional Madlib, the results aren't usually that different. People give different words to fill in the blanks, but given the structure of the Madlib itself -- a permission to be a little subversive and a tacit encouragement to give certain types of answers -- the results aren't all that different. The Batman is a dramatic Madlib. The choices aren't really all that different.
And some of those choices didn't strike me as that effective. Christian Bale was often lovingly critiqued for his growling Batman voice... but at least that feels like an acting choice next to Robert Pattinson's perpetually mopey incarnation. Colin Farrell is fine in the movie... but you have to ask what the point of even casting Colin Farrell is, for this role that buries him unrecognizably under metric tons of makeup. Paul Dano apparently went deeply Method for his role in this movie (though not in an obnoxious Jared Leto sort of way)... but that effort hardly seems necessary for what amounts to maybe 10 minutes of screen time?
Watching The Batman wore me down. It's nearly three-hours long, and the plot meanders to a degree that had me feeling I was binge-watching a season of television more than watching a single movie. The musical score, from composer Michael Giacchino (who I usually love), is a monotonous snooze; it's built on the back of just two notes more so than any score since Jaws, but generates none of the tension or interest.
There are some bright spots in the movie (just not literally). Jeffrey Wright gets a lot of screen time as James Gordon, and his performance is great. Assuming the rest of the world-weariness of the film hasn't worn you down, his embodiment of that feels very authentic. Zoë Kravitz is fine as Catwoman, and the writing of her character especially interesting -- not at all as put together as past movie Catwoman performances, but no distressed damsel either. Seeing John Turturro act is always a treat.
I thought, right after the movie ended, that I'd give The Batman something like a C. But perhaps the movie numbed me as I watched it. With a little distance, I find it easy to remember things that didn't hit with me, and a real struggle to remember why I might have thought it was as good as that. Maybe a C-? It's probably not a distinction worth me chasing, because I think anybody who would truly like The Batman saw it before me.
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