The Batman (2022)

There's a meme circling around basically saying that by 2025 we'll have a Batman film so dark you won't even be able to see it... I giggled when I scrolled past it. At three hours long this isn't a Batman film you're just going to scroll by. I was also daunted by the runtime when I first heard it confirmed. I can't believe I'm saying this but my main complaint with the film is that it wasn't long enough. Let me explain. Reeve's Batman inhabits the same world as the popular video game series Arkham and feels heavily inspired by Fincher's Mindhunter. The Riddler is like this episode's subject while Batman and Gordon are like Holden Ford and Bill Tench. If you haven't seen Mindhunter, just understand that this is a huge compliment to Reeve's direction of this film. This isn't a superhero film - it's film noir. Batman is a detective haunted by his past and while the film focuses on the cynical motivations of Riddler, we start to see parallels between the killer and the hunter. I really loved the dynamic between Gordon and Batman in this film more than any other. They actually feel like partners. Gordon is Batman's access card to crime scenes and they meet afterwards to discuss. We witness Gordon's double life the same way we do Bruce Wayne and Batmans. However, this isn't an origin story and Bruce Wayne has very little presence in this film. The runtime is spent building the mystery behind The Riddler's intentions, which involves the corrupt politicians of Gotham and shady characters like The Penguin.  There's a lot going on here and it easily could have been two films. The decision to do one 3 hour batman obviously resulted in some cut content and there's one scene in particular that comes out of nowhere. Otherwise, the film's production quality is top notch and while it is visually much darker then The Dark Knight (the irony) it's exactly what we all wanted. 

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