March 4, 2022. “The Batman” was finally upon us. Robert Pattinson, starring as Bruce Wayne, with alter-ego Batman, has brought us not only a stellar performance, but emotional as well. The film features nearly three hours of cinematic mastery, and not one time was I bored sitting in that movie theater.
The movie’s director Matt Reeves wrote the screenplay with Peter Craig, and the movie was produced by DC Films. When asked his feelings about the new film by Johnny Davis of Esquire Magazine, Reeves responded, “Terrified.” According to Davis, this is due to the fact that the 2016 film “Batman vs. Superman” did not do well at all.
Reeves did not want a movie that was a retelling of Wayne’s origin story, nor did he want to include other Justice League characters. The goal was a solid, stand-alone film that reflected the noir, vigilante side of Batman.
I feel as though this goal was definitely reached. The dramatic, moody music emphasized both Bruce Wayne and Batman as characters. It helped to contrast the dynamic between the two, and Wayne’s being caught between man and hero.
If viewers have seen the trailer, they may have heard Kurt Cobain’s raspy voice singing “Something in the Way”, a song off of the 1991 studio album “Nevermind”. The song was purposefully put into the film by Reeves.
“When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’,” Reeves said, and went on to talk about Bruce’s connection to Cobain. “That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse,” writes Rachel Lieshman in The Mary Sue, covering Reeves’s interview with the Empire Magazine.
As for the plot, I cannot reveal a lot due to the fact that this review is spoiler-free, but it did keep me on the edge of my seat. I left the theater not only satisfied, but with a lasting impression of the experience. The soundtrack got me, too; I was enthralled in the music in many of the scenes, and I found myself opening Spotify and listening to the theme song afterwards.
The movie so far has earned 86% rotten tomatoes, 8.5/10 on IMDb, and 92% of Google users “liked” this movie. I would change them all to 10/10 if I could, but it’s true with every movie that you can’t please everyone. In my opinion, the crew did a great job with the film, and I’d definitely watch those three hours over again.