When the Bat-shaped wraith inevitably emerges from one of these black pits of gloom, it’s as if a vampire has manifested from their fear, and a crescendo of despair is signaled by Michael Giacchino’s bombastic, Gothic score. And at barely the 10-minute mark in a three-hour movie, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
As advertised, The Batman is largely a murder mystery in which a traumatized and narrow-minded Dark Knight is tenuously working with the only detective on the Gotham City police force who trusts him, Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright). The pair are wrapped up in a high profile case too when a major city leader winds up dead, murdered in his own home on Halloween night by a serial killer with a fetish for Zodiac paraphernalia… and riddles. As the trail of victims grows, so do the word puzzles, which this so-called Riddler (Paul Dano) leaves at every crime scene for the Batman.
Soon our dark avenger and his resigned accomplice, the butler Alfred (Andy Serkis), realize these murders implicate a vast conspiracy of civic leaders throughout Gotham, be they mayors or crime bosses like Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and his right hand man, Oz “The Penguin” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell). There’s also an enigmatic young woman named Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) somehow involved. At first glance, Batman might write her off as just a pretty face or even a moll in the criminal underworld, but the closer he gets, the more he understands he’s found a potential ally—or rival—in unraveling a mystery that will shatter the lies everyone believes about Gotham’s official history… including Batman.
Despite initial social media protestations to the contrary by folks who hadn’t seen the movie, The Batman’s running time mostly acts as one of its greatest assets. Here is a superhero movie that is deliberately paced and takes its time to live with its characters and the tangled web they weave through the city. Minus a few obligatory scenes of Pattinson’s bleary eyes being unhooded from his mask, revealing a thousand-yard stare and smeared makeup worthy of the grunge music on the soundtrack, there is no real “Bruce Wayne” scene—as in Bruce going out in public—for the first whole hour.
The bold choice to keep Pattinson primarily in the costume, or desperate to return to it, emphasizes the hopelessness of this character. There will be many comparisons made (and some fairly) to Christopher Nolan’s own transcendent The Dark Knight trilogy, particularly the second movie in that series. But the Batman played by Christian Bale was an activist, a character who literally says he wants to “inspire hope.”
By contrast, Pattinson’s Bruce has entirely removed himself from high society, and while in costume, he answers to the name “Vengeance.” This is a potentially miserable protagonist, one whom the movie smartly tracks by pairing him with scene partners who can at least try to break through his storm clouds, especially Kravitz’s Selina.