THE BATMAN is sexy, action-packed, and the best 'Batman' has ever been

“The Bat and the Cat...it’s got a nice ring to it.”

This past weekend saw the latest gritty reboot of the DC comics superhero Batman launch to $130 million domestically with Matt Reeves’ THE BATMAN, a nearly 3-hour cime-drama that feels like some of the greatest pulpy Batman stories such as “The Long Halloween” and “Year One” jumped seamlessly from the page to the screen.

THE BATMAN stars Robert Pattinson, TWILIGHT heart-throb turned art-house savant in recent years, as Bruce Wayne. A reclusive orphan, Bruce stalks the night as the suited up and rageful vigilante known as “The Batman”. We’re two years into Bruce’s career as the night-stalking keeper of the peace when a masked madman known as The Riddler begins murdering corrupt Gotham City officials. This crime-spree brings fellow vigilante Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) into the mix, whose roommate was involved in an affair with one of the political victims.

Now, working with Selina Kyle and the do-good Gotham Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), Batman must navigate the hellish and misty streets of Gotham City to put himself a step ahead of The Riddler who has his sights on “cleaning” Gotham once and for all.

This path of justice winds through Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot’s (an unrecognizable and electric Colin Farrell) Iceberg Lounge where the wealthy civic leaders of Gotham rub elbows with members of the Falcone Crime Family including kingpin Carmine (John Turturro) and places Batman and Catwoman on everyone’s hit-list as Bruce tests himself and has to grapple with what exactly separates him from The Riddler as two masked madmen with a similar goal and, perhaps, eerily similar methods of execution.

THE BATMAN is the first “stand-alone” Batman film since 2012’s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and is completely removed from Ben Affleck’s controversial turn as the caped crusader from the 2016 BATMAN v SUPERMAN crossover and the equally controversial JUSTICE LEAGUE team-up in 2017 (re-released in 2021).

This Gotham City is unlike anything we’ve seen before, and while the film sells itself on being “dark and gritty”, it actually owes a lot to filmmakers that came before, specifically Tim Burton (the Gothic fairy tale BATMAN RETURNS) and the late Joel Schumacher’s neon-drenched, leather-bound, surrealist, art-deco BATMAN FOREVER.

Both of these were blended together recently with the fantastic Fox TV series “Gotham” which ran from 2014-2019.

THE BATMAN is a perfect hybrid of pulpy noir and comic book silliness. It’s shades of David Fincher’s crime-drama ZODIAC with streaks of the aforementioned Schumacher and Burton. It is dark and grimy and scary, but it also fun and – occasionally- hilarious.

Robert Pattinson is the best Batman to grace the screen ever, putting competition like Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton, and Christian Bale in the dust with his lumbering, psychologically damaged, vindictive madman. The suit is tactical and practical, and the muscle-car Batmobile is the coolest it has ever been.

Perhaps the best take-away from THE BATMAN is the on-screen relationships he has. Setting the film 2 years into Batman’s career allows director Reeves (Cloverfield, Planet of the Apes, Let Me In) to skip the tedious “origins” of the whole thing. We don’t see the Wayne Family murdered. We don’t have to go through how he builds his costume or gets the idea to become Batman. We don’t see how he meets Jim Gordon or how he figures out how to fight- it’s all there, if you look hard enough, but this allows us to skip the “origin story” and move right into the sequel.

Batman and Catwoman, one of the greatest love stories in comic book lore, is presented excellently here. Kravtiz and Pattinson smolder on-screen, and what they lack in dialogue they make-up for in body language. It’s incredible. Never before have these two been sexier, deadlier, and more fun to watch.

THE BATMAN is a story about what it means to set out to change something. Batman puts himself at odds with The Riddler and we realize that, at times, Batman is one step away from becoming the murderous psycho that Riddler embodies.

Himself an orphan, Riddler fell through society's cracks and thinks that killing the politicians and letting the down-trodden rise up is the only way to make anything change.

The Batman works at the opposite end of the spectrum and believes in cleaning Gotham on the street level, but laments at the start of the film that 2 years into his time here nothing seems to have changed.

They are two sides of the same coin, and the ending shows the dramatic development Pattinson’s Batman goes through from becoming a symbol of fear and anger to becoming a symbol of hope and, perhaps, salvation.

This is not only the best Batman movie, but perhaps the best comic book movie we’ve seen since 2008’s THE DARK KNIGHT or 2009’s WATCHMEN. There is something here for everyone, and you better buckle up, because Robert Pattinson isn’t going away any time soon.