Matt Reeves’s ‘The Batman’ (2022) Spoiler Review – An Uncanny Gotham As A Detective Story Backdrop

Matt Reeves’s highly anticipated comic book adaptation, The Batman, has finally premiered in theaters around the globe, and it is everything we could hope for. The film is written by Reeves and Peter Craig, and is directed by Reeves.

In this review, I will be discussing The Batman. There will be spoilers, as the title of this article suggests. Readers, beware…

Discussion

Reeves’s The Batman is way worth the wait. You can tell, by watching this film, that the writers have done their research during the pre-production of this project.

In terms of the score, Giacchino gives us resonant and chilling theme music that we will remember for years to come. In the same way that Jordan Peele turns “I Got 5 On It” into a horrific element for Us, Ave Maria will never sound the same again. Whether it is the scoring or Riddler’s (Dano) singing of the nearly-200-year-old composition, there is something haunting about the way it plays throughout the film.

Fraser’s cinematography and the visual effect team put together an appealing look to Gotham City. While previous Batman films gave us their version of what this iconic setting may look like, the atmosphere of The Batman‘s Gotham City possesses a unique blend of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, David Fincher’s Se7en, with the story itself lending a dash of Saw, and a sprinkle of the Wachoskis’ The Matrix.

We see Bruce Wayne (Pattinson) using eye contacts to record his forays throughout the city. Not only do this innovative piece of technology record visuals, but they also seem to get audios as well. He soon allows Selina Kyle (Kravitz) to use these as his inside man (err, woman) investigating in the Penguin’s (Farrell) Iceberg Lounge.

In the same way that Se7en examines crimes related to the Seven Deadly Sins, The Batman focuses on the elite of Gotham — several corrupt men who hold the reins of the city — whom Selina refers to as “white privileged assholes”. Throughout the film, Bruce/ Batman is too often preoccupied with the tasks at hand that he forgets other individuals are affected by the conflict. Alfred (Serkis) is harmed in the process; while he is backgrounded, he is still vital to the story of the film, much like Paltrow’s character in Fincher’s film. There are also references to the character Hush, with a reporter named Edward Elliot who had broken news on the Wayne parents. I initially thought this was a coincidence, but I will need to confirm this on a second watch.

The Source Material: Inspirations for the Plot

The Batman‘s narrative is influenced by a few comic book storylines: Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One, Tim Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween along with its sequel, Dark Victory, and Darwin Cooke’s Ego and Other Tails.

The film begins on Thursday, October 31st, with Bruce narrating a journal entry of his second year as Gotham City’s dark knight vigilante, known as “Vengeance”. Although, rather than an entire year of murders like in The Long Halloween, we get just a week in the life of young Batman.

A mayoral candidate, Don Mitchell Jr. (Penry-Jones), is found dead in his house, with a riddle to the Batman. This takes the character down a string of several other murders similar to the Holiday serial killer in The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. The Riddler’s riddlers are found near the victims, such as a letter duct-taped to Colson’s (Sarsgaard) chest. Unfortunately, I was sad when his body was blown off by Riddler’s trap and he didn’t become Two-Face.

Eventually, we see Bruce encounter Carmine Falcone (Turturro), a former friend and ally of his father. Falcone tells Bruce of his father Thomas having saved his life once, and a young Bruce was there to see it happen. This is a page ripped out of The Long Halloween Chapter Nine — “Father’s Day”, where Bruce and his father go to tend to a critically injured Falcone, who arrives at their doorstep.

Selina’s “cat” costume — especially her mask — resembles that of the character in Year One. It appears simple and not anything too fancy. Her mask looks like she cut up a ski mask, but I will admit that it looks good on Kravitz.

Risk Analysis on the Batman

To put it into Dufourtmantelle’s words from In Praise of Risk, “to risk one’s life” is to leave enough room open for the unknown and “calls into question our intimate relationship with time”. To risk the future, then, would be to slow down time. The French philosopher adds: “Human beings do what they can with their history. With the traffic of feelings and lies. WIth a conscience rotten with false thoughts even when generosity wishes and ultimately makes it possible to save lives. … to leave the ruins behind or exit from silences”.

If we were to apply this to The Batman, Bruce Wayne takes his quest as a vigilante day-by-day, keeping track of time by jotting these recording his memories with video footage via high-tech digital eye contacts as well as journal entries. He risks his life by risking not dying, by taking hits and shots to his body of armor. Additionally, to perceive the night — aka truth — as that which is possible, Dufourmantelle writes, “[I]n our relation to chance, death, time, love, and especially to our birth, we must confront a degree of absurdity that will never be resolved in any system of knowledge, any given order, any secret, or any conspiracy”.

It isn’t that the Riddler’s revelation of Bruce Wayne as the Batman will affect him to a degree. The protagonist has already lost his parents and there is a possibility he will lose Alfred as well. This entire week’s events do change his outlook on civilian life in Gotham, but not so much his nature as a character. He is strong-willed, full of pain, relentless but fearful; and after this week, it will have all over again. The greater risk(s) for Pattinson’s Batman, then, are the risks of the spiral, of revolution, and of Hell.

The Crew of The Batman

Greig Fraser is the director of photography for The Batman. William Hoy and Tyler Nelson serve as the film’s editors.

James Chinlund serves as the production designer, while Chris Sanford serves as the set designer.

Michael Giacchino composes the musical score for the film, while George Drakoulias serves as the music supervisor. Chris Terhune and Lee Gilmore are sound designers. Paul Apelgren and Joe E. Rand serve as the music editors.

Dan Lemmon serves as the visual effects supervisor. Martin Allan Kloner, Derek Drouin, Amar Ingreji, and Michael Wilson serve as VFX editors.

Jacqueline Durran serves as the costume designer. Stella Atkinson, Vivienne Jones, Samantha Keeble, and Mathew Stevenson-Wright serve as assistant costume designers.

Cindy Tolan and Lucy Bevan serve as the casting directors.

Grant Armstrong serves as the supervising art director. James Lewis, Gary Jopling, Oliver Benson, Matthew Kerly, Joe Howard, Arwel Evans, and Tad Davis serve as the art directors of the film.

Naomi Donne serves as the makeup designer, while Zoe Tahir is the hair designer. Norma Webb does the key makeup art. Samantha Denyer, Julia Wilson, Helen McGinty, Hayley Barkway, and Lucy Brown serve as makeup artists.

The Cast

Robert Pattinson portrays Bruce Wayne, also known as “Vengeance” or the title character, the Batman. Zoë Kravitz portrays Selina Kyle, while Jeffrey Wright plays Lieutenant James Gordon.

Colin Farrell portrays Oz, also known as The Penguin, while Paul Dano portrays Edward Nashton, also known as The Riddler. John Turturro plays Gotham City crime boss, Carmine Falcone, while Andy Serkis plays Alfred, Bruce’s father figure and butler.

Peter Sarsgaard plays Gotham District Attorney, Gilbert “Gil” Colson. Jayme Lawson plays Bella Reál, a mayoral candidate for the city, while Rupert Penry-Jones appears as Mayor Don Mitchell, Jr. Kosha Engler and Archie Barnes play Mitchell’s respective wife and son.

Members of the Gotham City Police Department include Gil Perez-Abraham as Officer Martinez, Peter McDonald as William Kenzie, Con O’Neill as Chief Mackenzie Bock, and Alex Ferns as Commissioner Pete Savage.

Janine Harouni plays Carla Diaz, while Jack Bennett plays Travis Comwell. Sandra Dickinson, Andre Nightingale, Richard James-Neale, and Lorraine Tai play Dory, Ritchie, Glen, and Cheri, respectively. Charlie and Max Carver play “the Twins”, bouncers of the Iceberg Lounge.

Hana Hrzic portrays Annika Kosolov, Selina’s roommate.

Joseph Walker plays a young Riddler. Luke Roberts plays Thomas Wayne, while Stella Stocker and Oscar Novak appear as Martha and a young Bruce Wayne, respectively.

Barry Keoghan appears as an “unseen Arkham prisoner”, or unofficially, Joker.

Minor Characters

Other actors and the characters they play in The Batman are as follows.

• Joseph Balderrama as the lead detective
• James Eeles as “another officer”
• Angela Yeoh as a forensic photographer
• Leemore Marrett Jr. as a muscle cop
• Ezra Elliott as a tactical medic
• Itoya Osagiede as a hushed G.C.P.D. detective
• Stewart Alexander as an FBI leader
• Adam Rojko Vega as a SWAT member at City Hall
• Heider Ali as an officer at City Hall
• Marcus Onilude as a traffic cop at City Hall
• Elena Saurel as a detective on phone
• Ed Kear as a surly cop
• Sid Sagar as a digital forensic cop
• Amanda Blake as a command crisis tech
• Todd Boyce as a fire marshall
• Brandon Bassir as a young officer
• Will Austin as a traffic cop
• Chabris Napier-Lawrence as a cop at Mayor Mitchell’s memorial
• Douglas Russell as a bitter nobody
• Phil Aizlewood as Falcone’s bodyguard
• Mark Killeen as Vinnie
• Philip Shaun McGuinness as an elevator guard
• Lorna Brown as a doctor
• Elliot Warren as a train gang leader
• Jay Lycurgo as a young member of the train gang
• Stefan Race, Elijah Baker, and Craige Middleburg as members of the train gang
• Akie Kotabe as a lone train passenger
• Spike Fearn as a vandal
• Urielle Klein-Mekongo as a cashier
• Bronson Webb as a hooded gunman
• Madeleine Gray as an injured woman
• Ste Johnston as paparazzi
• Arthur Lee as paparazzo
• Parry Glasspool as a scared drophead
• Jordan Coulson as a man in suit
• Hadas Gold, Pat Battle, Bobby Cuz, Dean Meminger, and Roma Torre as newscasters
• Mike Capozzola as a mediator
• Amanda Hurwitz as a counterwoman
• Joshua Eldridge-Smith as a patrol cop
• Daniel Rainford as a suspicious man
• Nathalie Armin as an ATF leader
• Jose Palma and Kazeem Tosin Amore as people at command posts

Performances and Character Developments

Batman

Pattinson — although a young Batman in his 20s — still makes for a terrific Caped Crusader. I love the way he monologues his adventures, such as the beginning of the film, where he compares his nature to that of a bat:

[I am a] nocturnal animal … I must choose my targets carefully. It’s a big city. I can’t be everywhere, and they don’t know where I am. We have a signal now … It’s not just a call; it’s a warning to them. Fear is a tool. … They think I’m hiding in the shadows, but I am the shadows.

Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) in Matt Reeves’s ‘The Batman’ (2022)

This is truly a Batman who’s struggling with his faith in Gotham, and perhaps it’s only because it hasn’t been so long since his parents were murdered. He believes his family’s legacy lies in him patrolling the streets and not official Wayne documents and spreadsheets. You can tell he’s still new to the crime-fighting scene in the way he blocks hits and bullets but still takes some shots and punches. He hasn’t had much experience yet, but it’s his determination that drives him forward. Batman possesses all the fear and pain that a traumatized Bruce is destined to have.

I also love the dynamics he shares with the other characters. Perhaps this confirms his sense of belonging without even knowing it.

Selina

Kravitz’s Selina is not yet “Catwoman”, but we can see she is on the path to becoming. The twist involving her being Falcone’s daughter is neat (almost like the Vulture twist in Spider-Man: Homecoming). She and Pattinson’s Batman have the most mesmerizing and stunning chemistry; and while Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises did a nice portrayal of this duo on-screen, I believe what they have in The Batman can be likened to Keaton and Pfeiffer’s chemistry in Batman Returns.

In the example of one scene mirroring that of The Long Halloween, see find Batman catching Selina take from Mitchell’s safe, in the next moment they have a little fight, and in the following moment, he covers her mouth as they are hiding from a policeman. Her ending in which she leaves Gotham on her motorcyle is reminiscent of the Telltale Batman video games. Don’t worry, though; one day, she’ll be back!

Penguin and Falcone

The Penguin and Carmine Falcone are an interesting criminal duo to have on-screen. It’s true what they say — Farrell is unrecognizable as Oz. The potency of his acting capabilities transforms him from an Irish performer to an Italian figure. He doesn’t get the signature umbrella and fancy hat look, but that’s okay. At least in one scene, when Bats and Jim Gordon apprehend him, they soon leave to investigate a scene elsewhere in the city, leaving for the Penguin to wobble in his restraints…like a penguin.

In contrast, Turturro is tremendously serious as Falcone; he is unlike any characters I’ve seen him play in past films — Joel Coen’s Barton Fink, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, and the Transformers movies. It isn’t to say the actor isn’t serious in those films, but in The Batman, he is not supposed to be the type of person you should side with. His death — where he is sniped by Riddler in his apartment — is integral to the story, as it was meant to be Selina who wanted revenge for her mother’s murder.

It’s like Falcone says to Bruce, “Everybody’s got their dirty laundry. That’s just how it is. … Fear isn’t enough”. Falcone, to his end, is the man who pulls all the strings in Gotham, and it’s bizarre how his surname is the answer to “La Rata Alada“, or “the Winged Rat”. Not only is he the “rat” or informant who helped take down Salvatore Maroni, but falcons and penguins are both birds…

Gordon and Alfred

Lieutenant James Gordon and Alfred do not share any scenes together, from what I may remember, but they both serve the purpose of guiding Batman and Bruce into the individual who becomes.

Wright has proven himself a worthy candidate for the role of Gordon. Having seen him in the Daniel Craig-James Bond films as well as HBO’s Westworld, the actor is tough as bones as the soon-to-be commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department. We don’t get much of his social and personal milieus as we do in the comics and instead the film relies on his professional background. His version of Gordon makes a good partner to Pattinson’s Batman, much in the same way we were given the police duo in Se7en.

I would say that the trio we see in The Long Halloween (Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent), isn’t detriangulated in this film. We have Kravitz’s Selina take up the role Dent is usually placed in — not necessarily under the law, nor feared as a vigilante, but somewhere in the middle.

Unfortunately, Serkis does not get all that much screentime as Alfred. We see him help Bruce solve the Riddler’s clues, and eventually, he is caught in the crosshairs of the primary antagonist’s traps. The actor portrays a version of Alfred we’ve only really seen with Jeremy Iron’s version in Batman v Superman and the Snyder Cut of Justice League; and perhaps Michael Caine’s version in the Nolan trilogy. That is to say, this is a father figure who is seen helping Bruce get through his darkness, and all it takes is love and patience.

Riddler

Dano’s Riddler is appalling, however, I mean this is the best way possible. While Jim Carrey’s version of the character is campy, The Batman‘s Riddler is a mix between the Gotham television Riddler and the Telltale Enemy Within Riddler. Throw in the Zodiac killer from the 2008 Zodiac film, and you’ve got yourself a terrifying villain. His creepy smile and harsh tone of voice also lend to what makes him one of the best supervillain characters on film thus far. (Of course, as the first film, Reeves is only getting started.)

Reeves’s antagonist is obviously inspired by the proletarian “incel” culture that inundated the Internet from the mid-2020s to the present. The character’s motive is similar to God’s assignment to Noah in the Old Testament; the Riddler ultimately plans to flood the grounds of Gotham City so that those who are capable are left to survive, while the affluent upper class is the group made to suffer. This character has evidently done his research — whom to target and how to discover the identity of the Batman, both of which succeed. What’s horrifying is his messages to the citizens of Gotham, including the last of which suggests to go beyond unmasking and suffering.

Like the flood that comes, what precedes is merely a leak or two, and that’s what this man has up his sleeves. This is not the end, however, as we see the Riddler survive the climax and put into Arkham Asylum, where he is placed in a cell next to what sounds like Barry Keoghan as the Joker.

Final Thoughts on The Batman

There is so much to say about The Batman that one article alone cannot suffice. Reeves’s newest film is impeccable and excellent in almost all ways. (I can still notice the green screen when the character hangs over the rushing flood of water; however that flaw is outweighed by all the best parts of the film). For all the reasons detailed above, I would place this cinematic adaptation of DC Comics’ iconic figure of tenebrous terror alongside Nolan’s The Dark Knight, if not better. This is the Gotham I have always envisioned but could never really articulate into words before.

The film is radical in all areas: visuals, framing, music, costumes, as well as the sexual chemistry between Pattinson and Kravitz’s character, along with the rage of Dano’s. Even the best of humanity can have their moments of failure. This is what the Wayne family shows time and time again. The Batman showcases a variety of stories and a diversity of character arcs, resulting in a complex body of detail. Like the Nolan trilogy in a post-9/11 era, this film is a reflection of politics we’ve seen transpire over the past half-decade. However, this is not the end; the film ends with a special message for those who stay back after the credits:

GOOD BYE <?>

Nonetheless, this is an experience you might want to witness in theaters. Although, if you have surround sound systems at home or can somehow immerse yourself into this story, this is a film worth watching over and over again!

Matt Reeves’s DC Comics film, The Batman, is now in theaters worldwide!

Have you seen the film yet? If so, then what are your thoughts on it? Let us know! For more drama and science-fiction-related news and reviews visit and follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Also, if you liked the hero and the villain in this movie, you might want to add these Funko POPs of Robert Pattinson’s Batman and Paul Dano’s Riddler to your collection!