Despite my friend (that one) saying he could watch this repeatedly, I was not in a great hurry to see it. He told me it resembled Se7en, which is not what I look for in my fare, especially when others had made it sound like the darkest live-action Batman feature yet. Under most circumstances, I would wait and watch it at home. But when my Net went down and I decided to kill a few hours at a local theater, this was the most promising offering.
At the start of this story, Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) has been donning the cowl for about two years, so many no-name crooks flee at the sight of the Bat Signal, but some are more confident. Gotham City Police Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) trusts the vigilante, but higher-ups are leerier. Regardless, it makes a certain sense to call him in when someone assassinates the mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones) and leaves an envelope labeled, "To the Batman." It becomes clear that the self-styled Riddler (Paul Dano) has several more high-profile targets in mind....
Honestly, I thought less of Se7en and more of The Dante Club. After all, the killer isn't just making an example of outstanding sinners; he's weeding out corrupt public figures. No wonder he sees Batman as a potential partner at first. Of course, this being a PG-13 movie, it skimps on the gorier details.
I've long seen the Riddler as relatively underutilized among the Batman rogues' gallery. You may see him as a Joker wannabe, but he provides more intellectual stimulation for the audience and lets the Caped Crusader prove the extent of his detective skills. So what if he always facilitates his own defeat? That's his gambling lifestyle.
If you're not satisfied with just him, rest assured there are other familiar villains. For an unthemed old-schooler, there's Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), who had a stronger tie with Bruce's dead dad (Luke Roberts) than I suspected. A not-so-theatrical Penguin (Colin Farrell) is presently a sort of middle manager in the underworld, but you know he won't settle for that in the long term. And for once, I have no trouble understanding what Batman and Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) see in each other.
Indeed, this may be the most credible Batman story I've seen, not counting Joker. The Riddler, while prone to swinging to emotional extremes, doesn't dress garishly, and his given name isn't E. Nygma. Gotham corruption runs deep, but there are still quite a few decent cops.
Most importantly, Batman is less superhuman. When he takes on a gang, he wins but gets hurt, and his unmasked face doesn't suggest a guy who takes good care of himself. He makes mistakes and knows it. He can't tell whether he makes a positive difference for Gotham. He isn't very active by day, judging from Bruce's reputation for elusiveness. His deductive reasoning isn't, well, batty. He doesn't even do all his own detective work; butler Alfred (Andy Serkis) has a way with decryption.
That said, he still has a high number of implements prepared in his costume, including some that I'm pretty sure don't exist in RL. If nothing else, the contact lens camera has to cross the line into sci-fi. Fortunately, it's more plot-important than flashy.
I can't say Pattinson is among my top three Batman players. He's a little too wooden even as Bruce and doesn't have much in the way of memorable deliveries, except maybe in occasional narration. Then again, that may be the fault of Matt Reeves' direction. Between appearance and background music choices ("Ave Maria" motif aside), I sometimes saw Bruce as just short of an Ian Curtis-type emo.
The main thing I would have liked to change about TB is the consistent mood. It's hard to love an experience that almost never invites smiles. Still, for all Batman's doubts about the efficacy of his campaign, I can't deny the efficacy of this picture.
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