Cinema Sunday: The Batman

I'm So Glad My Suffering  Amuses You continues it's Bat-weekend with Cinema Sunday taking a look at movie that came out in this century. Last weekend even. 

Today let's talk about...  The Batman!

This past weekend, my daughter Randie and I went to see The Batman.

Andrea did not join us because 2008's The Dark Knight traumatized her too much from ever wanting to see a solo Batman movie ever again.

She probably made the right call.

The Batman is one very violent and very intense movie.

The Batman is up against the Riddler and if that makes you think about Frank Gorshin from the 1960's TV show or Jim Carrey from Batman Forever, well... no. Make that hell no.

This Riddler is angry, violent and malevolent in a way I've never seen the Riddler portrayed before in any medium. 

The Riddler is super pissed at men in positions of power and privilege who are not who they pretend to be.  

Gotham City mayor Don Mitchell Jr. with the wholesome family man image but spends a lot of time covorting with women at the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge? Dead! 

Very law & order police commissioner Pete Savage but spends a lot time with known criminals in Penguin's nightclub and on the pay roll of crime boss  Carmine Falcone? Dead!

Straight arrow anti-corruption district attorney Gil Colson but also has his pocket's lined with Carmine Falcone's cash? Dead! 

Colson's death is particularly gruesome and underscores why Andrea made a good call not to come with us.  Dude has a collar bomb locked around his neck. And the bomb does go off.

Shit! Seriously this is one intense movie.  

The Riddler in a full face leather mask screaming vocally distorted threats from a computer screen is a frightening and disturbing image. 

While Bruce Wayne is dressed as a bat to put the fear of God into the criminal element and beat the living crap out of them for good measure, Batman's detective skills are at work here as well as he pieces together of what the Riddler is up to and why. 

The Ridder is determined to violently expose the corruption of those in the upper echelons of Gotham's authority and society, corruption that touches a bit close to home, implicating even Thomas Wayne, Bruce's late and much lamented father.  

That being said, we are spared a repeat of that oft repeated scene of young Bruce watching his parents murdered in an alleyway.  

I was impressed with how much time actor Robert Pattison is suited up as Batman. A lot of times, super hero movies spend a lot of time with the hero either in their civilian ID or perpetually pulling off their mask. You can almost hear the studio complaining, "Hey, we're paying X amount of dollars for actor Y to be in this damn movie and damn it, we wanna see him!"  

In The Batman, I think we could've used a little more time with Bruce Wayne but let's face it, we paid our money to see Batman look cool and kick ass and by golly, we get that. 

Kudos to Jeffrey Wright's turn as Lt. (not quite Commissioner yet) Jim Gordon. I know that the trolls had their knives out that Gordon's not a black guy in the comics but screw that. Wright's take on Gordon may be the best I've seen from anyone on screen.   

And the trolls were out over the casting of Robert Pattison, that the pale thin teen throb emo vampire from Twilight can't possibly be Batman. Well, Pattison most definitely is Batman. Yeah, Pattison's Bruce Wayne is a bit emo but it fits the character of a mentally traumatized person.  And as Batman, Pattison carries himself with strength and gravitas it takes to walk among a bunch of cops at a crime scene like he fucking belongs there.  

We get a unique take on Alfred with Andy Serkis in a rare good guy role with a gruffer, edgier butler.  

And Colin Farrell is solid as the Penguin, portraying the crafty criminal bird sans prosthetics. It's enough of a scene stealing turn to warrant Penguin getting his own HBO Max solo series. 

And Zoe Kravitz brings Selina Kyle to life as if she stepped right out of the comic book pages. 

The movie ends with Gotham City in a catastrophic crisis as Riddler's bombs blast the seawalls along the shores of the harbor, flooding the city.  Coping with this catastrophe forces Batman away from being an avatar of vengeance but into a symbol of hope for a weary and besieged city.

Leading up to this moment, The Batman is an almost unceasingly bleak movie as Batman keeps unraveling deeper and deeper levels of corruption that appear to touch even the vaunted legacy of the Wayne family.  But this bleak vision of Batman's world is hard not to look at and be caught up in this fully realized world, filled with action, thrills and frights.   

Director and co-writer Matt Reeves gets this Batman film done right and delivers what may arguably be the best Batman movie ever.