The Batman
Dir: Matt Reeves
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright
Rating: 3.5/5

Robert Pattinson takes on the baton of the night-time Caped crusader in Matt Reeves broody, dark superhero flick drenched in gothic atmosphere characterised by mystery, horror and gloom. The blockbuster mechanics are muted to the point of making this a far more broodingly tempestuous universe punctuated by vengeful leanings and macabre ideas of vigilante justice.  

Gotham City is fast spiralling into squalor and decay even with Batman aka Bruce Wayne doing his best to keep crime at bay.  Reeves and Peter Craig’s script has this hero questioning his history, confronting his own secret past while charting out a new path for himself. The cinematic design here is very much in keeping with the comic lore - with the darkly saturated cinematography providing a befitting backdrop of gloom and doom. This isn’t the typical superhero flick – it’s more of a vitally aware exploration of the character that Bruce Wayne eventually gets to become. Director Reeves’ confident helming digs deep into the heroic character’s mysterious past to fashion a story that touches on all the comic-book trappings,  yet presents a far more purposeful and enterprising narrative that challenges our understanding of the titular character’s development. The Batmobile, the dark suit, the gadgets, the trusty butler Alfred may be the familiar bits but the rest is intriguingly inventive and mesmerizingly engaging.