The Bat and The Cat Poster for “The Batman.” Photo/MCTCampus
By Victor Mays, Entertainment Editor
“The Batman” is a detective noir film that centers around Batman’s second year as the masked vigilante. In this movie Gotham is a city that is rotting. Crime is at an all time high and the city is poorer than ever.
Right off the bat, Matt Reeves shows a version of the city that feels like its own character. The city is distinct. A lot of times with Gotham city in movies, the city will look like a real world city. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy specifically made Gotham look like Chicago.
This movie is truly a Batman movie that understands the detective aspects of the comics. So many times in these movies we will see Batman as a crime fighter or trying to save the city. It is not often that we see his detective side. He is known as “The World’s Greatest Detective.”
This is definitely in part because of the villain that they chose to use. The Riddler played by Paul Dano is a zodiac killer-like character who spends the majority of the movie leaving riddles around for Batman to solve. Everyone knows that Batman is a great fighter, but what makes him special is his mind. It’s great to see him just enter a room and be the smartest one there.
My favorite aspect of the film is that we see more Batman than Bruce Wayne. Because of the death of Bruce Waynes parents, Bruce has become obsessed with fighting crime and unleashing vengeance for his parents death. He becomes so obsessed with being Batman he forgets how to be Bruce Wayne.
“The Batman” does a great job at taking well known characters and making them more realistic. This even comes down to peoples outfits. Batman’s cape turns into a wingsuit when he needs to make a quick escape from the police. Catwoman uses tools to break into safes. The Penguin does not use an umbrella to fight like he tends to in the comics.
The scene where Batman first appears is one of the best shot scenes with excellent sound design. You could hear his heavy footsteps before he steps out of the shadows. There was genuine fear in the faces of the actors.
The first sight of the Batmobile made the theater erupt with cheers. When you see the headlights come and you hear the roaring engines, people can see the fear in the eyes of everyone who could hear it. The speakers in the theater when the engine of the Batmobile revs shook the seats.
The movie had great visual effects and great stunt work. There are scenes when people in the theater were yelling and cringing at certain action sequences. When the Batmobile flies through fire in the high speed chase with the penguin, it makes people gasp.
“The Batman” is a must see movie. It has just hit HBO Max streaming service and can be bought digitally on the Google Play Store. However, go see it in theaters. Streaming will not be able to do this movie justice.