Directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield; War for the Planet of the Apes; Let Me In) and starring Robert Pattinson (Twilight; Tenet; Maps to the Stars; The Lighthouse), Zoë Kravitz (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald; Insurgent; Big Little Lies (TV Series)), Colin Farrell (The Lobster; In Bruges; Saving Mr. Banks; Crazy Heart), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine; 12 Years a Slave; Prisoners; Looper) and Jeffrey Wright (The French Dispatch; The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; No Time to Die; Westworld (TV Series)).
Action crime drama; 175 mins; 12+
At a fraction under three hours, this is a long film, unnecessarily long in my opinion. What's more, it feels like it too.
A dark and brooding film, almost black-and-white apart from some red police car flashing sirens, this film is set in Gotham City which is in the middle of an election for mayor. It is almost anarchy on the streets, but the police have recently reported its largest-ever drugs haul; but is this a red herring, to make people believe that crime and drugs are under control...
A sadistic killer arrives on the scene and ensures that the incumbent mayor and other key political figures depart the scene. The Riddler (Paul Dano) leaves clues at the scenes of his crimes, all addressed to Batman (Robert Pattinson). Is this personal? While most of the police are against Batman as they view him as a vigilante, he garners the support of Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright); together, their path leads them to a nightclub run by a shady character called Oz, aka The Penguin (Colin Farrell). Batman then comes across Selina Kyle / Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) whose paths criss-cross throughout the film.
This is an investigation into the city's hidden corruption, with links to his family's past surfacing from time to time. There are drug-related crimes, shootouts, killings and more scattered throughout the film like confetti. It features Batman much more than Bruce Wayne himself, although the latter's family does come into the storyline. There are obvious links to David Fincher's 1995 film "Se7en", and the same director's 2007 film "Zodiac" which featured the hunt for a serial killer, but this has none of the psychological edge-of-your-seat emotions that both these forerunners brought to the screen.
Robert Pattinson was ok as Bruce Wayne / Batman, but is not a touch on the portrayal of the caped crusader by Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan's 2008 film The Dark Knight (also Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012)). Colin Farrell was totally unrecognisable as The Penguin; thinking about it, the Penguin's character in this film is unrecognisable from that when previously portrayed as a dastardly villian; here he is mainly just a seedy nightclub owner involved with drugs. Zoë Kravitz was in and out of the film like a yo-yo and was never actually called Catwoman at any stage, but that is obviously Selina Kyle's alter ego. The political figures were similar to those portrayed in previous Batman films. So, was there anything new? No, not startling new, but some of the well-known characters were certainly different to before.
The darkness under which it was filmed, together with Bruce Wayne's and Batman's demeanour(s), were too much. And why, oh why, did Bruce Wayne have so much black make-up around his eyes?
Currently screening at Kinepolis and Cinextdoor in Luxembourg.
