#reiviews haha

[reistellae]

The Batman (2022) spoiler review time! You’ve been warned, this is filled to the brim with spoilers, but here is my spoiler free review. 

Right off the bat (no pun intended), I want to give recognition to the cinematography in the movie. There were so many notable scenes and sequences, that it’s hard for me to pick out some of the best, but I’ll pick out what I remember the most. The entire car chase sequence with Penguin, especially the shots of Batman walking towards Penguin in his flipped over car, the fire behind Batman as he closes in like a shadow sent chills down my spine. The shot at the end of Batman holding the bright red flare, leading citizens out of the flooded area - him literally being a beacon of light in darkness. Even smaller things like the tracking shots behind Bruce’s head as he rides his motorcycle are just done with so much care. 

Next, the acting. Every single person was acting their ass off. Robert Pattinson manages to really convey so much through just his facial expressions (particularly his eyes) and is a perfect young, inexperienced, Bruce Wayne. Paul Dano was such a terrifying Riddler, you can definitely see the Zodiac Killer inspiration in the use of ciphers and riddles and there’s some humor to them, despite the movie being very dark. Another standout was Colin Farrell’s Penguin. I literally couldn’t recognize it was him, he blended so seamlessly into the role. I look forward to seeing more of him.

General thoughts, I like the direction of showing us a less experienced Batman, sort of trying to still figure out who he is or what he has to be for Gotham. We already know two more films are in the works, so we’ll get to see him become fully realized over the course of those. The film managed to keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time, which is impressive given the almost 3 hour runtime. Michael Giacchino’s score is absolutely amazing, especially the main musical motif which is so foreboding and haunting (the track titles are also such  gems, please go look up the album). 

No cap when I say that this might be my favorite Batman movie and my favorite iteration of Batman in the past few years. And I’m sort of glad that this Batman is in his own separate pocket since the DCEU is shaky right now. At least we don’t have to worry about heavy studio interference (hopefully).