Buzz Blog

If you follow the world of movies and television at all, you’re certainly familiar with the concept of the “gritty reboot.” It’s become something of a cliché in recent years, this notion that the way to get some pop-culture product taken seriously is to give it a darker sheen, full of psychological depth and angst. This is how we end up with a Kristen Stewart doing a gritty reboot of Snow White, or Man of Steel’s gritty reboot of Superman, or gritty Archie and Veronica on Riverdale, and so on and so forth.

What might be harder to remember is that, for all practical purposes, the “gritty reboot” concept began with Batman. Coming in the wake of the campy 1960s Batman TV series becoming the most familiar version of the Caped Crusader, the character was re-imagined with a darker tone by Frank Miller’s graphic novel series The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, which became a model for Tim Burton’s brooding 1989 blockbuster film version. When Batman veered back into brightly-colored silliness again with Joel Schumacher’s 1990s sequels, comic-book die-hards went nuts, leading back to Christopher Nolan’s trilogy and the Ben Affleck version from Zack Snyder’s recent films. The idea of “gritty” now feels so baked into Batman, the question of where writer/director Matt Reeves could take The Batman felt pre-destined as “well, grittier, I guess.”

Indeed, for much of The Batman’s running time, it feels like Reeves is attempting a parody of the “gritty reboot,” delivering something that feels like Seven crossed with Taxi Driver by way of Saw. Accompanying images of a drizzly, decaying Gotham, we get voice-over narration by Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) informing us that he’s two years into prowling the streets as the vigilante Batman, blessedly avoiding yet another scene of young Bruce witnessing the traumatic killing of his parents. He’s called in by police detective James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) after Gotham’s mayor is murdered, because of a note for Batman left by the suspect who becomes known as the Riddler (Paul Dano). And thus begins a series of killings that seems built around exposing the deep corruption at the soul of Gotham.

There’s a hint at the beginning of this investigation that Reeves might lean into the idea of Batman being a detective, with his powers of observation and apparent familiarity with forensic science becoming as relevant to the case as his ability to punch people in the face. That ultimately proves a bit misleading, as the face-punching gets significantly more screen time and the detective-ing reduced to Batman’s ability to solve puzzles (next new Bat-villain: The Wordler). The plotting gets fairly convoluted as the three-hour run time marches on, as Reeves empties the Batman rogues’ gallery—introducing not just Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), but also Penguin (a nigh-unrecognizable Colin Farrell)—in a way that typically doesn’t happen in franchise series until the late installments.

Considering the length and breadth of the story here, it’s also fairly surprising that The Batman isn’t particularly action-y. Reeves finds time for one extended car chase sequence—which combines a few nifty visual moments with a disappointing lack of geographical coherence—and one great bit where a brawl in a darkened hallway is illuminated only by brief bursts of automatic weapons fire. The fact that The Batman’s primary antagonist is an elusive and not particularly physical figure—with Dano doing his best to bring shrill-voiced menace to cell phone calls and grainy video clues—leads to a relative paucity of fight scenes before the big finale set in the rafters of “Gotham Square Garden.”

Yet something about the way that the big finale plays out feels fairly unexpected. Without giving up the game too much, Reeves starts using The Batman to question what the tormented “I am vengeance” identity of the masked superhero actually accomplishes in the world, and what a focus on bitter retaliation leads to. Yes, there’s a level on which Reeves is trying to have his gritty cake and eat it to, but there’s a welcome thoughtfulness to the notion that the darkest possible version of this character might not be the best possible version of this character. Uneven and occasionally overstuffed though The Batman might be, it’s an attempt at something actually super-heroic between campy Batman and “gritty reboot” Batman—and, at this moment, a recognition that stirring people to violent response doesn’t really make the world a better place.

THE BATMAN
***
Robert Pattinson
Zoë Kravitz
Paul Dano
Rated PG-13
Available March 4 in theaters