It seems to be an unwritten but still iron bill that movies in the Batman universe must be as gloomy as possible. The times when Adam West Anti-Hai spray is unpacked or Mr. Freeze lives in an ice factory and rehearsed with its handlangers musical numbers, are over long anyway. Christopher Nolan gave fans of the figure after the silliness of Joel-Schumacher cucumbers “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin” finally a version of the dark knight, which is cool and contemporary. After the end of this era, every other Batman (with the exception of the LEGO version) was an even greater Griesgram than the last one.
In his investigations in the run-down parts of Gotham device Batman to the Club owner and criminal Penguin (Colin Farrell). In his establishment, not only MafiaBoss Carmine Falcone (John Tuturro) goes on and off, including high-ranking members of politics, police and prosecutors are regularly on the guest list. He also makes the acquaintance of the nightclub waitress and drug alder Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), who has personal reasons to involve themselves in the machinations of the underworld bosses. Together they go to a far-reaching conspiracy for the reason that the Wayne family seems to be involved…
Pechschwarze world
Strongly inspired and in some cases uncovered by David Finchers “Seven” and “Zodiac”, “The Batman” is actually more Neo-Noir as superhero spectacles. The movie plays almost exclusively at night, Batman fills the role of the emotionally sealed private detective, Catwoman the femme fatal with tragic background history.
Gotham is almost exclusively the domain of cynical men. On the one hand heartless opportunists like the penguin, on the other disillusioned system fines like the Riddler. And in the middle of Batman and Gordon as a representative of law and order, which increasingly in question their own role. Apart from Selina Kyle, there are no larger female roles. Women are in “The Batman” actually only servants of powerful men and often victims of their violence. The only exception is the politician Bella Rál (Jayme Lawson), whose campaign is playing around the mayor’s office in the background on the TV screens. This gives the film quite a Macho vibe whenever Catwoman is not involved in the event. One problem is not per se, because the antiheldin is also by far the most interesting figure, the other subplots suffer from their absence insofar.
Also interesting: The penguin can not smoke in The Batman
merely no expression forgiven!
Kravitz makes effortlessly master the splash between cool and sincere, hardness and vulnerability. The “Mad Max” actress brings life and heart into the otherwise very serious and fun-fold film and manages to make every appearance of her figure remarkable.
The long misery
With his three hours runtime “The Batman” looks quite inflated and unfocussed. Above all, the last act is unnecessarily toward the web appearance of the Riddler by a Hanbüchen subplot.
That one would like to spend so much time at an asocial place like Gotham, lies to a not insignificant part of the beautiful pictures in which “Dune” cameraman Greig Fraser captures the Moloch. If the first sunbeams over Gotham draw the silhouettes of Batman and Catwoman in rich black on the canvas or we immersed directly behind Zoë Kravitz into the neonhölle of a gangway club, the insured big city looks really magical.
Equipment, lighting and image composition are absolutely magnificent and a clear highlight. Strong special effects and the lively soundtrack of Michael Giacchino complete the experience and make “The Batman” to an audiovisual delicacies. The sequence in which we see for the first time how Batman makes hunting on criminal is one of the most creative and most impressive Batman sequences of the entire franchise by excellent visual storytelling alone.
Also, that Jim Gordon and his team were completely fired in police-work without Batman, there is no problem in the Adam-West show, but is pretty ridiculous in a realistic world.
Conclusion
Batman fans who have wished more and more violence and dichernis from the canvas adaptations should come to their costs in “The Batman”. A masterpiece in all areas the film is not, but the story is lacking in focus and figures of dimensions, while technical level delivers Matt Reeves but undoubtedly.
To home page to the gallery