The Batman – The Review

Since Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Batman in cinemas has been getting more and more towards realism than its comics counterpart (barring Snyderverse). The latest movie takes a step further with its rustic and raw production design and storyline.  This Batman gets a few punches during a fight, gets into accidents while gliding from a tower and his costume although bulletproof, seems very much on budget.

The Batman (2022)

An important aspect of Batman is being a detective. None of the previous films covered that part properly. In this movie, he visits the crime scenes with Lieutenant James Gordon, and investigates the case to find this unknown criminal called ‘The Riddler’. Being the latest version of The Batman, this film covers the latest technology and trends like social media.

Now the spoiler part, this story seems to borrow a lot from the Telltale video game storyline. First, it shows Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father in a grey shade. Thomas Wayne always has been depicted in the comics and movies as the good guy philanthropist. But in recent years, films like The Joker, The Batman and Telltale videogame have portrayed him in a darker light. He is known to have affiliation with Carmen Falcone, both in the Telltale game and in this movie. Although in Telltale he has been depicted as a corrupt disguising as a good guy, the movie shows his short-term affiliation with Falcone just for the sake of saving his family’s reputation.

Just like Telltale, the movie ends with Batman giving farewell to Selina Kyle (Catwoman) as she leaves Gotham City for Bludhaven. In recent times, Batman storylines have been depicting the story as class wars between the rich and the poor due to income disparity. This movie is the latest addition to it. Besides that, it has James Gordon and Selina Kyle as Africans of mixed heritage. But the actors have played the characters well. The movie is very long and the ending felt sort of anticlimactic. But overall, it was a good movie. Worth a watch. I hope this films series doesn’t end like previous Batman instalments, and the film gets better in its sequels. Go and watch the movie in the theatres even if you are not a Batman fan, because the thing about Batman storylines is that apart from the superhero story, it has elements of noir and murder mystery, which may appeal to non-superhero fans.