Matt Reeves
The Batman

Yesterday I watched yet another latest BATMAN.

The film is good, well-written, directed by Matt Reeves, the director of Cloverfield and the remake of Planet of the Apes. The remake of Let Me In? Meh!

I watched it on TV, I suppose it would have been much better in the cinema.

It must be acknowledged for a certain originality. In the way it's set up, it doesn't resemble or copy anything from the previous versions and "cuts" especially given by Burton and Nolan, and it easily surpasses (though it doesn't take much) Schumacher and Ben Affleck's Batman.

It has its own identity. Damningly dark, perpetually immersed in a bleak, oppressive atmosphere, desperate... just like its hero.

The ex-vampire, the handsome and emaciated Pattinson, it must be said, is extremely convincing. I really liked his portrayal.

Still, resolute, he never laughs, the costume is super cool, the bat-like pointy ears are marvelous, a true night avenger-knight. Perhaps too much.

Yes, perhaps too immersed in his life mission, to cleanse Gotham of evil, to change it. While he does so, he is perfectly aware that his mission is impossible and he will never complete it, but he goes on regardless, not retreating an inch.

After all, he is also Bruce Wayne but never as this time are the two one and the same.

Even when he is Wayne, Bruce thinks, says, and acts like Batman but also has the perennial TRAUMA caused by the (unsolved) murder of his parents, which happened right before his eyes when he was a kid.

Batman/Wayne is all right here: JUSTICE & TRAUMA, there's no room for anything else. Two-dimensional. Yes, okay, a couple of kisses with CAT-WOMAN (very good) but that's it.

Anyway, as I was saying, the film is good because it's well-written too. It has a solid, straightforward plot and progresses with measure and balance, something that didn't occur in the previous Burton/Nolan Batmans. This is an observation, not necessarily a merit.

There's THE RIDDLER who kills the big, rotten, and corrupt guys and go catch the Riddler... and there's Batman and Gordon (who I didn't like) who hunt him down, investigate (more so Batman who is very much a detective here and incredibly intelligent).

What didn't I appreciate about this film? I didn't appreciate the fact that for the first time Batman TOTALLY loses his comic book dimension, that lightness and magic that makes everything possible or rather "plausible." This Batman strips away all of that, becoming a pitch-black dystopian crime-movie. The Riddler himself dresses in black, is mad as hell, and completely abandons his original peculiarities. In this respect, I much prefer the Riddler from the Gotham TV series.

The same goes for the PENGUIN (an unrecognizable Colin Farrell) who doesn't clown around at all, rather he's a gangster in all respects, also bad and mad as hell (black).

Also excellent is the mafia boss Falcone (John Turturro, a guarantee) perhaps the only character a bit softer/more laid-back compared to the whole package.

However, really, there's a lack of lightness and irony, and it's not just lacking, no, it's totally absent.

This choice, on the other hand, means that this Batman occupies its own unique dimension, basically another "brand" because let's not kid ourselves, all these damn Batmans are mostly that. Follow the money!