Member review

The Batman has just released in cinemas and after watching it I have to say this film is absolutely amazing. The Batman (2022) stars Robert Patterson as the iconic caped crusader for the first time whilst Matt Reeves directs the film. The film follows Batman as he tries to track down a sadistic killer known as The Riddler (played by Paul Dano) and uncover his plans before it is too late.

I really enjoyed this film. I thought the plot was excellent although the pacing was a bit off I found the film extremely gripping throughout the whole 3 hours. Robert Patterson was great and although I would've maybe wanted to have seen a bit more Bruce Wayne and a little less Batman I still very much thought he played the role extremely well. Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman was one character I didn't like as much as she didn't have much chemistry with Robert Patterson although she was still an interesting character. Paul Dano as The Riddler I thought was incredible in this movie and perfectly captured what The Riddler should be. And of course the unrecognisable Colin Farrell all those prosthetics as the Penguin was probably the best out of all of the cast. One particular scene that I can perfectly recall is the chase scene which is incredible on its own but made even better by Farrell.

The music in this movie was incredible and really fit with the dark atmosphere. Lots of the film was very monotone and almost of all of it was set at night really amplifying this.

Before watching the film I saw quite a lot of reviews criticising Batman's narration of the film however this only occured briefly at the start and the end and I didn't have a problem with this at all. In my opinion it really set the scene for what was to come with Robert Patterson's Batman being more of the classic detective Batman than Ben Affleck's super-villain killing, gun wielding Batman.

Overall I thought this was a very very good film. Was it better than Nolan's The Dark Night trilogy? Probably not, although that really is the gold standard of not just Batman movies but superhero movies in general. The film wasn't without fault however it was dark, memorable, and gripping as well as being a thoroughly enjoyable watch. From the opening scene with Batman's jarring narration to the final fight I loved the film and would recommend it to everyone and anyone.