Something in the Cave

Those Nirvana scenes in The Batman are A+ for me.

*3.5/5 Stitches*

This is all about The Batman, so we’ll ramp up the dramatics now. (Listen to this Nirvana track throughout for enhanced emotional effect).

How we deal with our past and how we frame our future are essential internal meditations. Do we look back in anger, and creep back from the darkness to exact our revenge? Or do we come into the light and lead towards the future with hope in our hearts? 

These questions may not be so much our choices as they are our tasks. For The Batman, these questions represent the fine line between heroic vigilante justice and plain old revenge.

There are a lot of adjectival cliches used in describing grunge filled urban grime - but Gotham is definitively seedy, rusted, decaying in The Batman. Aside from our title character, from the rip, everyone on screen is super greasy - who’s really in charge? who can I trust? who’s behind the mask? 

As for the Bat (Robert Pattinson), we’re delivered a reflective, lonely, tired, and all together desperate Batman, two years into his nocturnal crime fighting career. His symbol in the night sky is shown to strike fear in the hearts of petty thieves and vandals, but beyond beating their asses, Batman’s began to wonder if he’s made in impact at all - especially when his increasingly popular calling card is simply a grovel voiced “Vengeance” when asked who he is. 

When we finally find him, Batman’s being used - by the Police Department and Gotham itself - and he might be using them, too. He’s a young adult with difficulty putting his demons to bed, with all the time and money in the world to take out his anger on society’s underbelly - maybe to save the day, but also maybe because he’s still searching for “the people” who robbed him of his parents -  and largely, in the places and times in which no one’s watching.

Despite Batman’s brooding internal, self-doubt ridden monologues, to the audience it’s clear that Gotham needs its hero. The city’s down bad, struggling with political corruption amid a narcotics epidemic. Cutting through the webs of deceit becomes not even half the battle for Batman and not-yet-commissioner Gordon, as a serial killer (to my knowledge, never actually called “The Riddler”, which is nice) begins to expose some of Gotham’s major players for their crimes against its people. The Riddler, much like “the Bat man,” draws most of his inspiration from peoples’ pasts. What he chooses to bring to the light, he does so with a similar vengeance with which Batman goes about his business. For both Gordon and the Bat, who encounter spoiled cops, attorneys, and judges at every turn, there’s the underlying question - is the Riddler on to something? Is he a better detective than we are? Are we actually on the same team? 

For the audience, the Riddler’s seemingly Seven-inspired crimes juxtaposed with Batman’s famous “one rule” echo a definitive no. 

I love John Turturro in anything (you do too) - and as low profile, but high influence mob-boss Carmine Falcone he’s correctly quietly big time bad. Paul Dano’s creepy (since There Will Be Blood/also watch Prisoners) as Riddler - and he’s just as much crypto as he is cryptic, with his deep web following establishing him as more of a 21st century cyber terrorist than a goofball in a question-mark covered suit. The Penguin never waddles or slides on his stomach - but I will say you’re left wondering why they deployed a high-grade actor (Colin Farrell) to portray this film’s third fiddle villain. Admittedly, and based off the plot, he seems like he’ll stick around for future films. Aside from a night club called “The Iceberg Lounge,” there isn’t much reference to his comic book name. This is a common theme throughout The Batman. They’re better for it, too. There’s something remarkably corny about Batman saying things like - “it’s time to sink or swim, Penguin!” You know what I mean? 

While their names and pay grades are massive, the star power from the film’s larger than life villains is not distracting. That’s saying something because the actors in this flick are big time. They likely have to be in Batman - especially after Heath Ledger’s performance as Joker. 

Zoe Kravitz as cat woman is not cardboard. She’s a real character with believable motivations beyond stealing hearts and diamonds. She becomes both a real person and a real love interest. Her treatment on screen is some of the best I’ve seen from this character, maybe ever. 

Escorted onto crime scenes through his boi Gordon, Batman is never warmly welcomed by the other officers. All the time, our hero feels more and more isolated, and even Alfred (who is interestingly not on screen for more than 15 minutes in the three hour film) seems disconnected from Bruce. Alfred makes the most of it though, his bed ridden hospital scene delivering on the same theme hammered home throughout The Batman: let go of the trauma in your past to lead forward with hope. The world needs you - and not necessarily just in the punches you throw.

I believed this version of Batman. Increasingly nihilistic and unsure, but nonetheless capable, and deserved, we’re getting him as he’s really in the middle of it. Something’s gotta give. There are two sequences set to Nirvana’s Something in the Way that bookend the film. To me, these set the tone in both sonic mood and where this film’s going to go: Inside the Brain of the Bat. 

TLDR: All in all - the villains, Batman’s internal strife, Gotham’s grime - for the first two hours, they make for a Batman movie that’s far more concerned with what’s real than what’s fun or fanboy-ish. Not your typical D.C. blockbuster. People are going to go crazy over the upside down shot from the end of that epic car chase sequence, or the raving night club fight scene in the first act. They’re sick - but they’re definitively “Batman” moments - we’ve seen this type of stuff before. We get a few of those moments throughout - especially in the last half hour. Twists and turns like a classic who-dun-it, and at times super sexy, the lighting, score and cinematography (and Robert Pattinson’s haircut) will push people to call this Batman dark. But dawg, this is MF Batman as he’s supposed to be. This movie feels a little like Seven mashed with Watchmen. It’s little long - the third act drags. But as a first installment, it’s clear Batman’s headed in a new direction and I’m along for the ride. 

I really liked The Batman. Robert Pattinson gets two thumbs up. I’m giving this 3.5 out of 5 Stitches - by far the best Batman flick since The Dark Knight.