THE BATMAN : Wednesday 3rd March 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'THE BATMAN' at an advance screening earlier this week. This much-hyped highly anticipated American superhero film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, and is a reboot of the Batman film franchise. The film is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by Matt Reeves, whose previous film making credits take in 'Cloverfield' in 2008, 'Let Me In' in 2010, 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' in 2014 and 'War for the Planet of the Apes' in 2017. Development began after Ben Affleck was cast as Batman in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) in 2013. Affleck signed on to Direct, Produce, Co-Write, and star in 'The Batman', but had reservations about the project and dropped out. Reeves took over and reworked the story. This film saw its World Premier screening in London on 23rd February and gets a worldwide release from this week having been delayed twice from an initial June 2021 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film cost somewhere in the vicinity of US$190M to produce, and has a running time of just a few minutes shy of three hours. This film is intended to be the launch pad for a Batman shared universe, with two sequels planned and two spin-off television series in development for HBO Max.

On the evening of Halloween, Gotham City Mayor Don Mitchell Jnr. (Rupert Penry-Jones) is at home watching himself on the TV in earlier coverage of his debate with Mayoral candidate Bella Real (Jayme Lawson). He is talking anxiously on the phone. His family are out trick or treating. Lurking in the shadows directly behind him, and unseen is a masked figure who pounces upon Mitchell inflicting several fatal blows to his head with a steel carpet tucker, and then wraps his head in gaffer tape and inscribes 'No More Lies' on his face with a red pen. He also cuts off his thumb, which it is deduced was done before he died. Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) who has been operating for the past two years or so in Gotham as the masked vigilante Batman investigates the murder scene with Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) of the Gotham City Police Department. Gordon discovers that the murderer, known as the Riddler (Paul Dano), has left a cryptic message for Batman, but GCPD Commissioner Pete Savage (Alex Ferns), gives Gordon a hard time for allowing the Batman onto the crime scene, and forces him to leave. Later, the Riddler kills Savage and leaves another message for Batman. 

Batman and Gordon discover that the Riddler left a USB stick in Mitchell's car with his thumb attached to it (a thumb drive) which contained images of Mitchell with a woman, Annika, at the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub operated by mobster Carmine Falcone's (John Turturro) lieutenant Penguin (a heavily made up and unrecognisable Colin Farrell). Batman questions the Penguin, who claims to know nothing, but notices that Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz), Annika's roommate and girlfriend, works there as a waitress. He follows Selina to question Annika, but she disappears. Batman persuades Selina to go back to the Iceberg Lounge to search for answers. Through Selina, Batman learns that Savage was on Falcone's payroll, and so is District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard) who is seen at the club with a bunch of co-workers living it up. Selina shuts down visual and aural contact when Batman presses her about her relationship with Falcone.

The Riddler abducts Colson just as he steps into his car having left the Iceberg Lounge and promptly straps a time bomb to his neck. Bruce Wayne attends the funeral of Mitchell, and sends Colson crashing through the church at the wheel of his car sending bodies in all directions. Wayne rushes to the aid of Mitchell's young son to get him out of harms way. The Police descend on the vehicle and order the driver out of the vehicle. Out steps Colson, with ticking bomb strapped to his neck, with another message for Batman taped to his chest. When Batman arrives at the scene, the Riddler calls him via Colson's phone which is taped to his hand, and threatens to detonate the bomb if Colson cannot answer three riddles within two minutes. Batman gives the answers to the first two to a panicked Colson, but Colson refuses to answer the third—name the informant who gave the GCPD information that led to a historic drug bust ending mobster Sal Maroni's very lucrative business. As a result, the bomb explodes after the two minute deadline is reached. 

Batman and Gordon come to a conclusion that the informant may be the Penguin and track him to a drug deal. There they discover that Maroni's operation never actually ended and many GCPD officers are in fact involved. Selina inadvertently exposes them when she arrives to steal a stash of cash. As the Penguin flees behind the wheel of his car, Selina discovers Annika's corpse in a car boot. Batman captures the Penguin after chasing him in the Batmobile but comes to the conclusion that he was not the informant.

Batman and Gordon follow the Riddler's clues to the ruins of an former orphanage operated by Bruce's parents Thomas and Martha. They learn that the Riddler was a resident at the orphanage and holds a grudge against Thomas, and as Thomas is dead, the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Bruce's butler and caretaker, Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), is hospitalised after opening a letter bomb addressed to Bruce. The Riddler then leaks evidence to the media claiming that Thomas, who was running for Mayor when he was murdered, hired Falcone to kill a journalist for threatening to reveal embarrassing details about Martha's history of mental illness. Bruce, who grew up believing his father was a good upstanding man, confronts Alfred when he comes round in hospital. Alfred confirms that Thomas asked Falcone to intimidate the journalist, but decided to turn Falcone over to the Police after learning of the journalist's murder - he surmises, without clear proof however, that Falcone had Thomas and Martha killed to prevent this.

Selina later advises Batman that Falcone is her father and that he neglected her for much of her life, and especially after her mother died when she was eight years old. She learns that Annika was killed because Mitchell told her that Falcone was the informant, and as a result is determined to kill him. Batman and Gordon arrive at the Iceberg Lounge in time to stop her and arrest Falcone, but the Riddler shoots him dead from a nearby building, as he is being escorted to a waiting patrol car. The Batman quickly runs up to the Riddler's apartment, and gets a tip off that a man was seen running down a fire escape immediately after the shot rang out, and is now sitting in a cafe across the street. Unmasked as forensics accountant Edward Nashton, the Riddler is locked up in Arkham State Hospital. Batman visits Nashton who reveals that he knows that the Batman is Bruce Wayne and that he was envious of the sympathy Bruce received after his parents' murder. Whilst they both grew up as orphans their lives couldn't have been more different, with Bruce living a life of privilege while he lived in abject poverty. While he was ignored, he harboured a desire to partner with Batman and become a similarly masked vigilante. Batman angrily rejects Nashton and discovers back at his apartment that the Riddler had parked seven car bombs around Gotham, all located strategically to detonate at the same time and to breach the city's defensive sea walls. 

The bombs destroy the sea walls around Gotham and rapidly flood the city. In the resultant chaos, Batman and Selina prevent a Riddler-inspired gang from assassinating Mayor-elect Bella Real. As Batman begins to aid the recovery efforts, Selina asks Batman to leave the city with her as she now deems Gotham beyond saving, saying that the Bat and the Cat has a nice ring to it, but Batman declines her offer saying that he has much work to do in trying to clean up Gotham. She leaves on her motorbike, with Batman following closely behind on his, and when they come to an intersection, they go in opposite directions. Meanwhile Nashton is beside himself in his jail cell because his plan failed. But a voice from a neighbouring cell tells him not to be so down on himself as Gotham loves nothing more than a good underdog story as the pair begin to laugh menacingly. That other inmate is assumed to be the Joker (Barry Keoghan in cameo and credited as 'unseen Arkham prisoner').

'The Batman' is an enthralling captivating detective story that melds good old fashioned police work with our caped crusader Superhero. It's dark, bleak, gritty and grim and seemingly always raining in Gotham City which only serves to add a sense of tension to the films key scenes. Here Matt Reeves has crafted a fresh take on an all too familiar Superhero that has seen over the last thirty years Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder helm various Batman instalments with varying degrees of success. Robert Pattinson is well cast as The Batman and the fractured emotionally torn Bruce Wayne, and he is ably supported by Paul Dano whose turn as the maniacal Riddler is right on point, while Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman adds kick-ass heft as Batman's reluctant foil, and would be love interest. With two further instalments to come, it will interesting to see where Reeves and Pattinson take us on Batman's next journey and whether the pairing can go one better than what they have been able to achieve here. See it on the big screen, and be prepared to remain glued to your seat for three hours, which like most critical reviews, is my only gripe about this film when thirty minutes less would have been prefect. 

'The Batman' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-