Finally, the long-awaited ‘The Batman’ arrives in theaters, in which Robert Pattinson gets into the skin of the iconic DC character under the orders of Matt Reeves.
During the interview that I had the good fortune and pleasure to do with Ben Affleck about the premiere of his highly esteemed (of discreet commercial and even critical echo) live at night, adaptation of the central novel of the trilogy that Dennis Lehane dedicated to the Coughlin clan, the matter of the publicized movie about Batman that the actor was going to direct in addition to playing the actor arose quite normally. batman, which was already titled that way, I wanted to go back to the character’s noir origins as a vigilante and dark vigilante, as he appropriately was in the pages of the Detective Comics publication. For this reason, Affleck had commissioned Lehane himself to write a script that would deal, among other things (there was always a very present moral conflict), with the fight of a man against a city dominated by organized crime. I was the first to get excited about the approach (Mystic River in Gotham) and so I told the director of Goodbye, little girl, goodbye who wore the black Batman suit for a few movies. This, as if he already sensed that he was going to be out of the project, or that perhaps it would never come true, he replied: There is a problem, and a very important one. As much as I want to bring the Batman universe back to its noir essence, the studio, and especially the public, are going to want to meet the character that they’ve seen in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy or what I’ve been doing with Zack Snyder, And that’s a battle I don’t think I can win.
batman, the (splendid even in its faults) film directed by Matt Reeves that is released now, is proof that Affleck was right. We find ourselves before a work clearly divided (unbalanced, just like the characters) in two, as two are the dominant colors (black and red) and two are the sides of the coin that Bruce Wayne is unable to throw into the air (Enigma will for him) to decide if he is an angel or a devil for a Gotham that responds to that metropolis of vice, corruption, gangsters, upright police officers and eternal night so characteristic of classic crime novels. There is that batman noir with its voiceover, its nightclubs, femme fatales and capos that is the one that most reminds of what Ben Affleck intended. It is also the part of Reeves’ ambitious proposal that we identify most not only with the Batman of the 1940s (and with the soon-to-be-filmed radio serial, The shadow) and the aforementioned Boston writer Dennis Lehane (Bruce Wayne is a bit like the Joe Coughlin of live at night, title since neither painted for Batman, and everything related to blood ties, death and redemption is pure Lehane), but with Reeves himself from the remake of Let me in (another drama about strange friendships set in eternal nights and clean direction, very classic style). Chronicle of gangsters, traitors and cities kidnapped by greed where even the water (purifying, biblical) of Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) makes an appearance. And where comics fans will recognize the Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale miniseries the long halloween and the masterpiece scripted by Ed Brubaker Central Gotham.
the other half of batman, in a certain way logical because the film revolves around the duality that torments a Bruce Wayne who patrols the nights with the name of Vengeance and who is greeted/discovered by a specular enemy (the John Doe of Se7en mixed with the Jigsaw of Saw) like The Bat Man, is that Nolan toll that Affleck predicted: Enigma is still Heath Ledger’s Joker with a costume very similar to Tom Hardy’s Bane, not only Bruce Wayne’s Mr. Hyde, but again a force destabilizing anti-establishment, which in the subway gang sequence and in the final climax (and the terrifying use of social networks) almost makes Matt Reeves’ feature film the unusual (although logical) sequel to the Joker by Todd Phillips.
Throughout its almost three hours, batman there is a constant fight between these two options for approaching the masked vigilante. At times it gives the feeling of being lost among them as lost are all the protagonists of this great criminal drama, or better: about crime. As a spectator it is a sensation as strange as it is exciting that turns you into an orphan of the Batman opus that we know, leading you to a helplessness that is actually that of Bruce Wayne himself (a Robert Pattinson settling the challenge with a note). A film that actually only has two great and spectacular action sequences (the motorcycle chase after the Penguin’s car and the attack on the sports venue) but that in our unconscious it seems that they have not stopped happening. They happen, of course, but in the mind of a Bruce Wayne more similar to the Al Pacino of Hunting (William Friedkin, 1980) than the one created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Pacino finally found out who he was (or what he had become) by looking in the mirror. Robert Pattinson’s Batman discovers him in front of the glass (mirror, of course) that encloses Enigma in the Gotham asylum.
Few superhero blockbusters as rich in their contradictions and in their bipolarity, in their Ben Affleck/Dennis Lehane noir classicism and in their exemplary greeting to Christopher Nolan, as TheBatman.
For watchmen of the red and black nights of Gotham
DATA SHEET
Direction: Matt Reeves Distribution: Robert Pattinson, Zöe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, Peter Sarsgaard, John Turturro Original title: batman Country: United States Year: 2022 Release date: 4–03-2022 Gender: Action Script: Matt Reeves, Peter Craig. Characters: Bob Kane, Bill Finger Duration: 175 minutes
Synopsis: After two years stalking the city streets as Batman (Robert Pattinson) and striking fear into the evil minds of criminals, Bruce Wayne is deep in the shadows of Gotham City. When an assassin targets Gotham’s elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues leads the World’s Greatest Detective on an underworld investigation, where he crosses paths with the likes of Selina Kyle/aka Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz). , Oswald Cobblepot/aka The Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and Edward Nashton/aka The Riddler (Paul Dano).
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.