Review: 'The Batman' presents a grim, operatic version of Bruce Wayne's evolution from vigilante to hero

In the never-ending debate about comic-book movies, about what kind of tone works best for action stories about people in tights, fans can usually find something to suit their tastes.

Do you like light and breezy, like when Christopher Reeve played Superman? How about inspirational and heroic, like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman? Or essentially noble and epic with an overlay of jokey and sarcastic — which largely is where the Marvel Cinematic Universe, God love it, has settled?

The one comic-book character who has inspired the most vicious mood swings is Batman, the black-caped defender of Gotham City, the invention of Bob Kane and Bill Finger for DC Comics. There’s the sitcom-silly Adam West of the ‘60s TV series, the semi-seriousness of Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton films, the neon garishness of Joel Schumacher’s films with Val Kilmer and George Clooney, the tormented urban guerrilla that Christian Bale portrayed in Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, or the weary warrior Ben Affleck played in whatever Zack Snyder was trying to do in “Batman vs. Superman” and “Justice League.”

Now comes another contender, director Matt Reeves’ grim and operatic “The Batman,” with Robert Pattinson playing the Caped Crusader as a battered anti-hero who makes Bale and Nolan’s collaboration look like a lark.

Reeves and co-screenwriter Peter Craig start well into The Batman’s tenure as a crime fighter. He still identified as an instrument of vengeance, focused less on cleaning up Gotham City than on finding the people responsible for his parents’ death 20 years earlier. The Gotham City Police still consider him a vigilante and a menace, though one police detective, Lt. Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), trusts him — and has started making nightly calls using a searchlight with a bat silhouette. (We’re not calling it the Bat-Signal just yet.)

“Fear is a tool,” Wayne’s alter ego says in a noir-level narration. “When that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call. It’s a warning.”

But it’s not the garden-variety thugs and thieves Batman is battling as the movie starts. Someone is killing some of Gotham City’s leading figures, starting with the mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones), and leaving cryptic clues in cards addressed “to The Batman.” Because these clues often come in the form of questions, the killer gets a nickname: The Riddler. (It’s safe to reveal that this character is played by Paul Dano, who is shown in the movie’s marketing even though it’s well into the film before Reeves shows us his face.)

Batman tells Gordon he suspects that the city’s criminal underworld is involved — namely, crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and his right-hand man, Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin (played by Colin Farrell, though one wouldn’t know it because of some impressive prosthetic work). The suggestions that the mayor, who we see fighting for his political life in a race against a young anti-corruption reformer (Jayme Lawson), and his cronies are in deep with Falcone. 

Batman soon discovers someone else is sniffing around Falcone’s operation: A sly burglar, Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) — who shares Batman’s gifts for form-fitting black suits and stealthy entrances. She also has a lot of cats. ”I have a thing for strays,” she tells Batman, during their cautious dance of seduction.

As the case drags him deeper into Gotham City’s dark secrets, Batman aka Bruce Wayne learns some uncomfortable truths about his late parents — and about his loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis). Mercifully, Reeves doesn’t give us the same flashback cliches we often get with Batman movies; it’s a positive sign that we don’t have to watch another shot of Martha Wayne’s pearls falling to the alley floor.

Reeves — whose credits include the last two “Planet of the Apes” movies and the alien-invasion thriller ‘Cloverfield” —  digs into the dark worlds of Gotham’s criminal underground and Bruce Wayne’s still-grieving psyche. And sometimes the darkness is literal; one of the most striking action set pieces has Batman fighting armed thugs in a pitch-black entryway, lit only by the occasional flashes of the bad guys’ machine-gun fire. Batman works in the shadows, and the intensity of Reeves’ action sequences work well there over three hours that never feel bloated or unnecessary.

Pattinson is a strong choice to play this version of Batman and Bruce Wayne. I’ve always argued that anyone can be Batman, because the suit does the work, and it’s how an actor captures Bruce’s brooding self-destructiveness and “Scarlet Pimpernel”-inspired callow camouflage that makes the difference. Here, I’m not so sure — because Pattinson shows Bruce’s festering grief and his revenge-driven intensity as much as when he’s wearing the cowl as when he’s not. Pattinson also latches onto Reeves’ subtle depiction of Batman’s evolution, from angry vigilante to the hero Gotham needs.

Reeves sets up “The Batman” as a new beginning of a franchise, though seemingly separate from the other branches of Warner Bros.’ DC Comics movie universes. I wouldn’t expect Pattinson’s Batman to slide comfortably into Snyder’s “Justice League” meetings, and there’s no link to Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of The Joker. But Pattinson should be fighting crime in Gotham again, and I’m looking forward to see how he and Reeves carry his arc forward.

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‘The Batman’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, March 4, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for strong violent and disturbing content, drug content, strong language, and some suggestive material. Running time: 175 minutes.