The Batman (2022)
Rattata al Dente
This is a cool Batman. He’s edgy. Grunge. Kind of an emo young adult. Very relatable.
Then we have his alter ego: a less socially formidable character out of the mask with hunched shoulders and the haircut to convince you of it.
I just love how Bruce Wayne is portrayed as a moody little bitch.
Alfred (literally) takes the heat for him and Bruce does the honorable thing, shows up at his bedside, naps in the chair next to him; but as soon as Alfred wakes up he gets slapped by a “You lied to me” by his goth protegee.
DC has been known for adding an extra layer of grime and darkness to their movies as of late, and this Matt Reeves’ adaptation is no exception.
Gotham looks like absolute shit. They have the soaring skyscrapers that are more scaffolding than skyscraper. They have the torn up pavement tied together with graffiti and garbage. The very gothic architecture that is all sorts of imposing and overhanging and gloomy.
Gotham is a cesspool, and this is where Batman thrives.
An excellent metaphor for the corruption that plagues this city.
Batman plays detective for a good chunk of the movie, offset by the impressive action sequences and overall badassery of his gadgets.
His main goal is to figure out who the Rat is, that an unnamed Riddler character keeps hinting at, and by the end, I may have disagreed with the Riddler’s methods but I sure have to appreciate the results.
We experience this movie as Batman does, coming into realizations with him and following through on actions when necessary, so it actually feels like we reach several narrative conclusions even before we get to the actual one.
Honestly, it was a long but interesting ride that felt unique to Batman’s newly minted origin story, Robert Pattinson at the helm. And even awkward Bruce Wayne grew on me. His intelligence on full display as Batman, but his witticisms as Bruce making me enjoy him as is, without the billionaire, philanthropic, charismatic playboy guise that has been popular with similar heroes of less physical fortitude.
Music
The music is great. It sounds very noir, nigh on operatic with the scream of violins peppering in on multiple tracks. There is definitely a detective, whodunit vibe to the pondering music, but everything comes back to Batman’s theme: “It’s Raining Vengeance.”
But let’s just talk about this new superhero theme.
It’s dark and brooding, just like the new Batman they’ve created. A heavy bass, echoing brass, the crescendo of violins like monstrous bats trapped in a cave. The new theme is actually quite scary.
Listening to it while exercising may be the inspiration you need to run one more lap, or the fear from adrenaline to never stop.
There is no resolution to the main melody of this theme.
What I can only assume is the timpani (or some set of percussion) sets the stage, it booms out a repetitive duuun dun-dun duun that overlaps and twists into the other instruments.
The music speeds up imperceptibly and then falls off once the crescendo is hit and the violent swipe of trebles dies down.
The main melody continuously build to…something. But it never reaches. We never reach the musical climax that brings us down and sets us free. We’re trapped. Which thematically does wonders since this is the rise of Pattinson’s Batman, his ascension to superhero status, and it is nowhere near its final curtain call.
Reminiscent of a bell tower echoing in a gothic archway, these same notes are played over and over with different instruments, like the musical identity is hidden, still unable to be found, but absolutely certain of these four notes defining their identity, and at the very end we circle back to that booming, tympanic sound.
It indeed sounds like it’s raining vengeance.
And yet.
And yet there’s the softest of notes plucked and a piano dances in the muddy melody. A brightness in the moodiness. Hope in a theme of angst.
[Don’t even get me started on the juxtaposition of gospel music to this soundtrack because that is a riot.]
Cityscape
I was really digging the cityscape of Gotham.
Which I know, is bad for all sorts of reasons because of the crime, the grit, the ruination of lives, but DAYUM! Dirt never looked so good.
Visually stunning with amazing fight sequences to compliment the ostentatious background of flickering fluorescent lights, this is a town I’d want to commit crimes in.
Nolan’s Gotham looks industrial, well-kept but rundown in some places. Like any other LA or NY city-type trying to pass off as a city of greatness with obvious rancor at its roots.
Reeves’ Gotham, to reiterate my opening statements, looks like shit. The buildings are barely maintained and falling apart. The grit and the grunge looks like it has been viscerally beaten into every surface and no amount of scrubbing will cleanse it.
There is the obvious introduction of better technology, but it clashes with the old grandeur of what Gotham used to be and makes it look messy. A perfect representation of the corruption deep at the root of Gotham while its better parts suffer because of its core.
This Gotham is on its last two legs, and the only thing keeping it from caving in is Gordon and his flimsy police force and The Batman.
Unmasking
Unmasking has been a constant, red herring theme, throughout the movie. Who is the Rat? Who is the Riddler? Which cops are dirty (in more ways than one)? What is the real legacy of the Waynes? Who is The Batman?
It is also a common theme in any superhero movie, where their civilian identity is kept secret and no one is aware of their superhero alter ego. To those who keep it separate, it is done so for the safety of their loved ones, for the free movement of either identity in their respective social circles, for the ability to take off or don the mask to catalyze a necessary action.
Everyone wearing a mask in this movie (whether metaphorically or not) is trying to pull the rug out from someone else. The longer you can keep your identity a secret, it seems, the closer you are to winning an imaginary game.
This is a story of a rope unraveling.
Coming into this movie, we know who Batman is, what Gotham is, who the main antagonists are. That is the noose of expectation we have arrived to the theaters with.
This rope begins to unravel as Batman tropes are subverted or re-established in new ways and the true, distraught, despicable identities of others are revealed.
The worldview Bruce Wayne has created because of his parents’ murder twenty years prior is under duress because he realizes his father did something bad.
Most significant officers in the GCPD are corrupt and have been making deals with the undercity mob bosses for years.
The main villains are unmasked to reveal mental instability, delusions of grandeur and narcissism, broken people abusing a broken system because no one will pay them the attention they need.
But the most important unmasking has to be that of the titular character himself: Batman.
Which, surprisingly, doesn’t happen. With all the other unmaskings and reveals, you’d expect Batman to be outted with the rest of them, but he isn’t. His identity as the Caped Crusader is still well and wonderfully kept a secret.
And I think it’s because:
Gotham needs him.
His ideals as Bruce and as Batman are one and the same so mask or not this is who he is.
He isn’t Batman yet.
By that third point, I concur that he’s donned the mask and swept the cape onto his shoulders. He’s roamed his city and he’s been fighting crime in the darkness for quite some time.
He has named himself The Batman, but the city only recognizes that now. They barely understand the full extent of what he’s done when he is literally dragged into the limelight and forced to absolve them of their sins to the lopsided delight of Gotham’s antagonists.
The people finally recognize Batman, not exactly as a hero, most definitely not as a villain. But they understand he fights for them and with them. He has laid his life on the line for them multiple times in the span of 5 minutes and it is here that his actions speak louder than any light flashed into the sky.
Heroes aren’t heroes because they say they are. The people give them that power. The people he is protecting is where the strength of his identity as Batman comes from.
The sacrifices he’s made for this city are exemplified by when he falls into the flooding stadium to further protect innocent lives.
His fall from grace, his baptism into his name.
Now, he is truly The Batman.
