‘The Batman' is Well-Made, Well-Acted, but Incredibly Familiar Take on the Dark Knight [Review]

Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” will have some critics hailing it as an ambitious tackling of the caped crusader, which it is, by default.

This is sharply polished visual storytelling. And yet, it doesn’t come even remotely close to matching the ultra-grounded, hyper-realism of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. None of the psychological nuances are there; this is mostly an excuse to have Batman back at the box-office and to watch him crack a few skulls.

That’s not to say that this is a lazy attempt. “The Batman” is very well made, the acting excellent (Pattinson nails the role), but Reeves just sucks the fun out of it. There’s a self-seriousness here that just doesn’t match the poppy colors and slick visuals.

The plot is highly convoluted. Yes, Reeves probably delivers the most “faithful” Batman adaptation to date, a pitch-black pop culture artifact enhanced by DP Greig Fraser’s artificially ultra-slick lens. However, this one feels less grounded in reality and more like a comic book splattered on screen.

Paul Dano as The Riddler falls flat. Dano basically tries to deliver his best Paul Dano impersonation — he’s absolutely deranged here, but never menacing or villainous enough. His sadistic killer leaves behind a cryptic of clues at every murder scene (think “Seven”), and almost everyone killed is a corrupt Gotham politician. Batman gathers the evidence with Catwoman (a strong Zoe Kravitz), which begins to lead closer to home.

The dilemma here is very reminiscent of Nolan’s Batman films: Our hero must unmask the villain and forge a dialogue with him, an unofficial alliance, while also acknowledging the abuse of power and corruption that both are trying to put out.

What Reeves seems to have done is attempted to take the best ideas from all the Batman movies we’ve already seen and tried to jumble them together into one film. It practically plays like a mix of Burton, Nolan and Snyder, trying to adhere to fanbases, but nary finding an identity of its own.

Reeves is a filmmaker I’ve admired ever since 2008’s “Cloverfield.” His “Planet of the Apes” trilogy was also incredibly well-crafted. However, does a Batman movie really need this much CGI? The over-usage of effects here is rather numbing and distracts from the grounded reality that a Batman movie is supposed to exude.

You can also feel the 3-hour runtime, not to mention the very dark colors from DP Greig Fraser. It’s as if Reeves decided to take the blueprint and purposely make a darker, more cynical Batman movie. Suffice to say, as much as the film would like to feel bold, it isn’t. It’s rather a highly-polished and extremely well-directed mainstream affair. The ideas that Reeves infuses his film with, the substance, so to speak, is familiar and feels almost artificial. [B-/C+]