The Batman Movie SPOILER Review

*Editor’s Note: This review of The Batman movie contains SPOILERS.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet or plan to see it, there will be PLOT SPOILING INFORMATION in this review!

In one of my early articles back in October of 2021, I wrote about how The Batman was one of my most anticipated movies of all time, and over Spring Break I was able to see it a couple of times and, believe me, was I right about the movie! I loved basically everything about this movie. The characters were amazing, the plot was great, and I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end. 

To begin, I really like all of the character’s in this movie. Batman was really good and I really enjoyed Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman. In this movie there was a lot more Batman than Bruce Wayne. Bruce in this movie is in his second year as a vigilante, and we can see how moody he is and how he doesn’t act like a billionaire playboy, and how he is more sheltered and stays inside. A good detail I saw in the movie about how much he stays inside is when Bruce comes upstairs from the bat cave, and he has to wear sunglasses because of how long he stays in the dark. Basically, Bruce is more Batman than he is Bruce. We also see that his Batman is all about vengeance and doesn’t want to be looked at as a symbol for hope or goodness at the beginning of the movie - he wants to be seen as a dangerous threat to criminals in Gotham City. But at the end of the movie he is seen as a symbol of hope and he accepts that because he knows that’s what he has to be, so I really liked that character development. 

Catwoman/Selina Kyle was also a great character, and I loved her role in this movie. Casting Zoe Kravitz was a great choice. She is really talented and she was a really good Catwoman. She starts out just helping Batman because of her friend Annika, who also has a significant role in this movie. But after Catwoman finds Annika dead, she grows more fond of Batman and gets really good evidence to help him solve the case. They also actually have a very interesting and intriguing relationship in this movie. There was an announcement recently that Catwoman is getting a spinoff series, which is great because I would like to see more of her character. Overall, I really enjoyed Catwoman in this movie. 

Another character that I liked was Gotham Police Commissioner Gordon. He was a really cool side character, and I really enjoyed him and Batman’s chemistry. He was a great character and was very smart too. I loved seeing him work with Batman. He and Batman also had a couple of cool scenes. Another spinoff series that was announced was a GCPD (Gotham City Police Department)/Arkham Asylum series. That series will kind of focus on some of the inmates in Arkham.

Now some of the most important characters in the movie was the villains. The Riddler in this movie was so smart and a well constructed villain. We saw how smart he was because he had a plan for everything. Even when he got captured, he had a plan to make Gotham pay even though he was captured. He also got into Batman's head. You could see this in the scene where The Riddler was “exposing” the Waynes and the Arkhams, you could sense that Bruce was affected even though he didn’t show it. Seeing the parallels between him and Bruce was really cool to see and I really enjoyed Paul Dano’s version of the character. And even though he isn’t supposed to be funny, there is a humorous nod to The Riddler for being a trending social media influencer. In this scene, you can see him streaming to and interacting with his fans, and that part was actually pretty funny, but also important. Riddler also has a new friend in the asylum, and it’s none other than The Joker, although he hasn’t been turned into The Joker just yet. When I heard that laugh I was pretty surprised. The Joker is going to be played by Barry Koegan and I think that he will be a pretty good Joker. 

Another antagonist that was in the movie that I liked was The Penguin. Colin Farell was a great casting and I really liked his rendition of the character. I am really glad that he is getting a spinoff show like Catwoman. He was a really funny character and was a great addition to the movie. One of the last antagonists in the movie was Carmine Falcone. In this movie, Carmine was a really well constructed villain and seeing his influence on Gotham and on the Wayne legacy was very interesting. He also had an influence on other characters like Catwoman and Penguin, but I think he had more of an effect on Catwoman because we find out that he is her biological father. 

One of my favorite scenes is the opener. You hear a Bruce Wayne monologue and then he comes out of the shadows as Batman as a warning to the criminal group that has gathered, and then absolutely beats the stuffing out of that criminal group. More great scenes include the elevator fight, the Batmobile chase, any of the detective scenes, and Batman meeting The Riddler.. There are so many great scenes in the movie. 

Also I just want to say that this movie is beautiful. The cinematography is amazing and it is one of the most beautiful superhero movies or movies in general that I have seen in a while.

I have also seen criticisms of The Batman, and I just want to address them. People are saying that this movie is too dark and there is no comedy. It’s a Batman movie - you should expect it to be dark! Also there was a little comedy.  I mean, Penguin was pretty funny. There was also the thumb drive scene where there was literally a thumb on a USB drive, and I thought that was funny. I also saw people saying it was too long. I actually kind of agree with this somewhat, but I think they paced it well. I also think that some parts were necessary and that I liked the runtime because I got to see more Batman.

Overall, I think that this movie was amazing and I really enjoyed it. It was also a beautiful movie and every scene was shot so well. I would love to see more of the cast playing those characters again because. I think that they casted great actors for these characters. I think Robert Pattinson really shined in this movie and cemented himself as a great Batman, and I would love to see him in more movies. Go see this movie! I highly recommend it!  10/10