The Batman (2022)

Saw The Batman (2022), the Robert Pattinson batman movie.  It was alright.  I enjoyed the dark, dismal obsessiveness of the film.  I liked seeing the central mystery of the Riddler's plot play out, Batman always just one step behind him.  There's a fair amount of silliness to the movie as well, and I enjoyed some of the silliness (a giant gothic mansion at the top of a sky-scraper) but I did not so much enjoy other bits of silliness (why does an illegal drug have a mascot?)

This time Batman is up against the Riddler.  As Batman media likes to do, they establish that the two of them (Batman and Riddler) are similarly obsessive and driven, willing to employ violence to meet their goals.  The Riddler in this film is portrayed as being some kind of anonymous 4chan shit-poster, livestreaming his threats as gouts of heart emojis flutter beneath.  There are uncomfortable parallels to real life, where online mobs are sometimes stirred up to the point where a lone gunman takes action (or besieges a capitol.)

It's been pointed out before that the Batman of the Nolan films is a right-wing Batman: he's wealthy and powerful, taking justice into his own hands, and trying to solve the problems of poverty and crime with his fists.  His enemies are psychopaths and terrorists who are enabled by a corrupt system of courts and by a prison/mental hospital that seems to be a revolving door.

This film's treatment of the character is more apolitical, focusing more on morbid solitude, dark rooms, a slowly emerging serial killer.  It's more of an action/horror movie than an action/thriller.  In the beginning of the film, Batman saves a man from a gang.  After beating up the gang members, Batman turns to the victim who cowers, saying "Please don't hurt me!"  Batman is trying to save the city of Gotham, but he's doing it very badly.  The confrontation with the Riddler mirrors his own realization of the flaws in his approach.

The film is okay all-in-all.  I like Batman movies generally, and this one delivered on morbid, dark cityscapes and had a compelling villain.  I think it's not one of the more popular films however and it definitely has some silliness to it, so I understand why someone wouldn't like it.  It's also about 3 hours long.  It also stars poor Robert Pattinson who may never shake the contempt heaped upon him for his involvement in the Twilight films.  Poor devil, he is also made to brood and skulk and act like a muscular Kurt Cobain when not in his Batman outfit.  I think this is one of those films where you get what you put into it.  If you expect a clumsy disaster, you'll see pieces of that.  If you expect a decent film, you'll see pieces of that instead.  It's subjective.