THE BATMAN

I can't believe as I'm typing this it's been 10 years since Batman's last solo film with the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's trilogy, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Right off the bat, THE BATMAN is the most gritty, edgy, and dirty I've ever seen Gotham (and I LOVE it!). Sporting a PG-13 rating, this film does push the envelope up against a R without crossing that line. The film follows the Riddler (played marvelously once again by Paul Dano, of who's work I'm a huge fan of), who goes on a killing spree amongst Gotham's most powerful figures. It's a cat-and-mouse game of the Riddler leading Batman on a path of corpses and clues before revealing his grand plan and reasoning behind the chaos in the finale. Director Matt Reeves gives the audience a new take on Batman as this is very much a crime film, much in the same way of David Fincher's 2007 masterpiece ZODIAC (Reeves has also publicly stated the mask of the Riddler was inspired by the Zodiac killer). Robert Pattinson takes a shot as Bruce Wayne/Batman and once again, the naysayers have been proven wrong, as Pattinson is excellent as the caped crusader with his interpretation of the character. The rest of the cast is equally as hard hitting and well rounded with Zoë Kravitz, who also exceeds expectations as iconic villain Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Lt. James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, and unrecognizable Collin Farrell as the Penguin. The script is equally solid and smart and I applaud Reeves' use of Nirvana's Something In The Way to open and close the film, as again, it brings home the alternate aspect of the film compared to previous Batman films. This is perhaps the best Batman of all-time or right up there with THE DARK KNIGHT! My only knock against it is you do feel the 2 hours and 55 minute runtime and much like the LORD OF THE RINGS, the film seemed to have multiple endings before it finally does. If maybe 15-20 minutes were cut out, I'd have given this a perfect score. Between this and SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, comic book fans are getting spoiled lately with these groundbreaking films that are going to become harder and harder to top! 9/10