Salt in Wound

4 stars out of 5

It had been five and and a half weeks and I still hadn’t seen The Batman. Seven-dollar Tuesday came and went. Just wait till Monday and fire it up on HBOMax? No, I’d seen every Batman flick since 1989 in the theater and by god, I wasn’t stopping now! Which is how I found myself at a nearly empty Wednesday afternoon screening.

Hey, I really liked it! Definitely my favorite Batman movie since the Tim Burton ones and the first two hours of The Dark Knight. I’ll even state that this is the best superhero movie in recent history, which is not saying too much, because so many of the current ones are assembly-line garbage.

Director/co-writer Matt Reeves’ name didn’t jump out at me, but he wrote and then directed two of the most enjoyable recent Planet of the Apes movies, and also wrote and directed the American adaptation Let Me In, which was really creepy and good. Here, he creates — are you sitting down? — a realistic world… in a superhero story! New York uh I mean Gotham City is believably run down and Batman is the only costumed freak in town. The Penguin is a mafioso and the Riddler and Catwoman cover up on the cheap just to hide their identities. Most importantly, the plot deals with actual concerns: municipal corruption, fringe online communities, even Bruce Wayne’s privilege. Who needs laser guns and tanks of acid when you’re coping with MODERN LIFE?!?

My man RPatz is terrific as tortured soul Bruce Wayne who, don’t tell anyone, is also Batman. (When a thug early on asks, “What the hell are you?!?” I soooo wanted Pattinson to say, “I’m Batman” but instead he says “I’m vengeance” which is also pretty cool.) Jeffrey Wright steps right out of James Bond and right into Batman as Commissioner Gordon without breaking stride as a reliable on-screen presence. From the trailers I wasn’t sure how I’d react to Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, but she plays it as a genuine person and that really works. I believed that she taught herself to fight. And the character is important here because she allows Bat Boy to show a sliver of humanity.

John Turturro is a mob boss and knows how to play it without going over the top. Between this and Severance, he is on a roll of late! An unrecognizable Colin Farrell is excellent as the Penguin — scary and funny. He also gets in a solid “world’s greatest detectives” crack, nice touch. The only real weak link here is the missing link himself, Caesar from Reeves’ monkey movies, Andy Serkis as Alfred. He provides a workmanlike but unremarkable performance, and should perhaps stick to playing apes and Gollum instead of people.

The movie is long — nearly 3 hours — but keeps a steady pace most of the way through. So hopefully you won’t get too distracted by your phone when watching from the couch. There are a couple of clumsy exposition-heavy scenes, one involving an “oh how convenient!” lengthy and too-well-recorded cellphone message. But in general this is a smartly constructed film. It’s always grey, rainy, and gloomy in Gotham, yet not the phony apocalyptic gloom of past Batmans. They also don’t shove soundtrack songs in your ears, only making very effective use of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way.” The action is clearly shot and pretty thrilling, especially a superb Batmobile chase. (Spoiler alert: It does not lose a wheel.) Call me corny, but Reeves even works in a worthwhile message for teens and young adults. And no spoiler for the ending, but the climax is — here’s that word again — incredibly realistic, which as a viewer I really appreciated. I will definitely join in next time if it’s the same Bat director, same Bat actor!