What the Critics Missed About The Batman
A portent and reflection of our doom times
THE Batman, not a Batman but The Batman is declaring its necessity by using this definitive article and it is not so much an origin story (we had that with Batman Begins, 2005, Christopher Nolan film) but more of a coming of age struggle of self storyline. This recently released film (2022), directed by Matt Reeves and co-written with Peter Craig, is a 3 hour movie that is full of gothic gloom and nihilist angst at its most fulsome state.
Robert Pattinson plays the said Batman and he is the perfect fit for this franchise’s newest inspection of this overly revisioned character. British and know for a variety of roles such as; Twilight, Harry Potter, Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, and Good Time by the Safdie brothers, this rangy actor injects himself in these various roles with his broody (slightly dead) eyes, and his angular jawline, supporting each genre’s appetite for star power hotness and watchability.
In this role Pattinson is very, very broody. His hair a stringy curtain, his eyes aloof (and generously applied with black makeup when he dons his bat costume). He speaks very rarely and when he does he has that signature gravel that seems like it is contracted into all the recent Batman movies of the past few decades.
Along with Pattinson there is a supporting cast of some of Hollywood’s finest, Jeffrey Wright as the incorruptible Lieutenant James Gordan, Andy Serkis as Alfred who thankfully still has a British accent but is a bit more rough around the edges than Michael Caine. There is also the ever charismatic Zoë Kravitz playing Catwomen/aka Selina Kyle. She is a baddie with a heart of feminist gold in this portrayal. Then there are the villains. Paul Dano as the Riddler (whose face we don’t see until the end), John Turturro as the mob boss Falcone and Colin Farrell as the unrecognizable (and extra great job on the accent) as the slovenly Penguin/aka Oz.
The plot is of a classic genre of evil doer (the Riddler being the main villain) set within the city of Gotham that is plagued by grime and crime, and Batman being a one man masked vigilante that is both disgusted and duty bound. You can read about the story line/narrative arc in full in other reviews but for this little ditty piece of mine I want to discuss the reaction that this movie is getting from THE critics and how I believe they are missing some of the larger points and the value of this movie.
I will mostly be focusing on the reviews made by NYC’s finest like Anthony Lane, Richard Brody and A.O. Scott, The two aforementioned are writers from The New Yorker and the latter for The New York Times. I am specially pointing my wags at them because they are the writers of our very own Gotham aka New York City which is the inspiration of the fictional setting for the Batman universe.
First Lane. In his piece, “The Batman” Is a Waste of Robert Pattinson, he clearly shows that he really, really disliked this movie and seems to see it as essentially an utter waste of time:
“Is there not a lingering suspicion that this most enigmatic of superheroes might merely, in fact, be the dullest? How much dramatic juice remains to be squeezed from Bruce Wayne, the chumless billionaire, brooding over his man cave and his gaggle of gizmos?”
Lane’s review is packed full with doomy comparative nuances to other films (both deemed better and worse) and they seem to be even annoyed that this movie was even made in the first place.
His New Yorker counterpart Brody has similar misgivings in his, The Batman,” Reviewed: Eh, It’s Fine, piece which reflects on the flatness of the characters, the lack of humanity and the redundancy of visual tropes:
“The emptiness below the movie’s surfaces reflects the emptiness of the characters it depicts; they’re reduced to a handful of traits and a backstory, defined solely by their function in the plot.”
For The New York Times, A.O. Scott expresses a bit more enthusiasm but there is still a threadbare ambivalence and unrequited lack of fascination over the entire genre of superhero movies at large:
The problem isn’t just that the action pauses for long bouts of exposition, as long-past events are chewed over by one character after another…It’s the ponderous seriousness that hangs over the movie like last week’s weather — the fog of white-savior grievance that has shrouded Gotham and the Batman for as long as many of us can remember.
Most of these critics are doing a comparative analysis of the Batman franchise as a whole, the genre of superhero movies (which yes, is excessive and annoying) and also tit-for-tatting the archetype of the misanthropic angry young male. Exampled in their repeated comparison of Pattinson’s Batman to Travis Bickle played by Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, — apparently for them Bickle had more charm.
Okay, okay, I get what they are saying! I am not here to profuse love of the movie or critical high praise but I sense a missed plot (or vibe really) that these critics seem to have not wanted to (or possibly are not realizing) is going on in this movie. To me, this Batman movie is a time capsule that is perfectly being released out into the current psychic glom that we are all collectively experiencing. It also is reflecting certain genres of people/attitudes/styles that more accurately reflect/mirror the youth and mood of today.
Pattinson’s Batman reminded me of the concept of the Sigma Male (a phase I was just recently made aware of), which means that he is an ultra-alpha male type. Sigmas are distinguished by the fact that although they have the signatures of an Alpha — highly motivated, workout obsessed, driven and maximal — they do not have the ego that requires exterior gain and acknowledgement but instead thrive off of inner optimization. Imagine a jacked loner that reads Nietzsche while also doing bicep curls. They have little to no social media and can happily spend hours on end in solitude. Pattinson’s Batman is just this type of male, a bit more angst driven because of the whole orphan (when will that overused trope cease!) and the death of his parents. But this Batman is a lone wolf and not only does he NEED to be this way, it’s the only possible way he could ever be. There is no real desire for meaningful interpersonal reliance or connection. They are singularly focused on one thing, and as the character in the movie says succinctly, “I am vengeance.”
The costuming in this film was also peak in expressing this believable yet attuned outsiderness. This element, brought to screen by costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, was one I really appreciated throughout the film. You can see the seams of Batman’s masked nose, you can feel the texture of the leather and the metals. Pattinson applies his black eye makeup like a footballing Cure fan and when he is his alternative (real) self, Bruce Wayne, he is casually rich and heroine chic. Even Kravitz’ Catwomen is donning a look that you definitely could buy online and may have actually seen people wearing at a certain type of party. The cat ears also harken to the pink “pussy hats” worn by many during the peak of the Women’s March era. A simple knit cap worn is such a way to suggest cat ears. The villains also had a style that suited them but it wasn’t overly costumed. Dano as the Riddler was mostly seen wearing what could actually be an S&M leather headcover and Tuttoro’s suits were crisp Tom Ford meets vintage mob suave. They are all inhabitable characters even if they are literally grown adults wearing masks and costumes.
And what about the music? Nirvana’s Something in the Way was the heartbeat of the movie early on and the way that Michael Giacchino composed the score created a rumbling reverb in various manipulations throughout the movie. It all felt sooo 90s/grunge/emo, and it was highly satisfying for those that actually experienced those vibes times irl and also even today because guess what, those trends/decade are back (I mean has Nirvana ever really gone away?). The music and the sound was drudgy as it matched the dark shot quality which yes, was a bit all the time but that makes sense. I mean he is a bat. Caves, darkness, and only minor peakings of light, real and otherwise scatter the screen. The audio and the visuals match the psychic state of the movie and the characters are, yes, mostly humorless, but I’d have that over ironic comic relief.
Then there is Gotham. The city in which all this infestation of the worst kinds of villains, corruption, violence, squalor and lawlessness abound. This is where the goth factor really is taken up a notch. Every room, archway, window is distinctly referencing this opulent yet severe architectural style and interspersed are vague city scenes that are reminiscent of New York City’s bygone eras captured in retro cultural capsules like The Warriors movie and Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five’s The Message. And while the visual decay and debris of the movie may seem excessive it actually did feel like it hit closer to home. Something that I think the critics completely missed.
There is a palpable sense of anxiety and fear and this movie reflects that. It reflects the enmeshed corruption, the complexity of who is “good” and who is “bad.” It personifies the idea that the system is broken and the only way out is through (and to buy a mask and have undepletable wealth).
It is lonely. Batman is lonely, everyone is lonely, there are no real connections (social media anyone?), and there is no real cure or way to “fix” all these problems. That is why this Batman is so weary, so gaunt, so utterly exhausted and not once flashing a smile. The burden of existing will never cease. The only way to even cope is to feel that one is doing something/anything, however misguided or self serving it is.
Did I love this movie? No, but it was a three hour clip that I was happy to be absorbed into. I wanted to feel that resonance of doom mixed with stylized caricature. I wanted to be in a dark room looking into dark rooms and feeling that this is still fantasy and not the reality outside. I wanted to fall away from the real and into this universe of inert but at least faux heroism. The Batman is not reinventing the genre or critically breaking the walls of the glut of comic book movies but it is at least depicting someone who is trying to do something, anything…which is a lot more than what the real world is doing.
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Additional Reading
Scott, A.O., The Batman’ Review: Who’ll Stop the Wayne?, The New York Times, March 1, 2022
Brody, R., “The Batman,” Reviewed: Eh, It’s Fine, The New Yorker, March 9, 2022
Lane, A., “The Batman” Is a Waste of Robert Pattinson, The New Yorker, March 3, 2022
Yalchinkaya, G., Rise and grind: how ‘sigma males’ are upturning the internet, Deadspin, January 3, 2022
Warshak, R., Batman’s Traumatic Origins, The Atlantic, May 6, 2014
Reichstein, A., Batman — An American Mr. Hyde?, Amerikastudien / American Studies, Universitätsverlag, Vol. 43, №2 (1998), pp. 329–350
