“The Batman” (2022) is directed by Matt Reeves and stars Robert Pattinson as Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and others. The film holds an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 87% audience rating. The Batman has made around $360 million domestically and $750 million globally within a month and a half of its March release. Although it pales in comparison to the domestic or global success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which grossed nearly two billion dollars globally, audiences still enjoyed this film.
Even if viewers could assume that this movie would have a good cast, a good director, a good script, and good visuals, there was such a high standard going into this movie. Although it is true that there was not a lot of pressure for the movie to succeed, there was always going to be plenty of critical pressure because of the history of Batman movies. If you have gotten into superhero movies to any significant degree, you must at least have heard about the Dark Knight trilogy by Christopher Nolan. It is so widely praised and lauded that I feel no need to repeat its successes, but even so, the last movie of this trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, was still the last solo Batman film all the way back in 2012. Since then, Batman has appeared in Batman v Superman as well as in Justice League, neither of which audiences enjoyed, and neither of which are primarily movies about Batman. The only other film that even comes close is Joker from 2019, which only features a Joker origin story and a brief scene with a young Bruce Wayne but nothing more about Batman in that universe. This movie in early 2022 was the first solo Batman film in a decade, and as a result it was always going to be held in comparison to the greatness of the Nolan trilogy, which is a really high bar to live up to.
And boy does it succeed.
I was blown away by this film. Even at a whopping 2 hours and 56 minutes, I was engaged for almost every second and nearly every shot of this film. If this film was going to avoid a direct comparison to the Dark Knight trilogy, it needed to be entirely unique and distinct from those movies, and that is exactly what the movie chooses to be. Right from the opening scene of the film, viewers get that this film is a well-crafted and uniquely designed artistic experience as well as a compelling narrative. From the very start of the film, the audience is exposed to a dirty, messy, dark, unstable image of someone peering into a family’s home. The visual style of the whole film reflects the character of the city of Gotham by exaggerating the dirtiness, the darkness, and the lack of focus in many shots throughout the story. In this opening scene, the dirtiness and instability of the frame contrasts starkly with the sound of “Ave Maria” and the appearance of a clean home and a happy family inside. The shot unsteadily depicts a young boy in a costume pretending to kill his father and running away, with his father and mother playing along before giving him a proper family greeting. The emotional thrust of nearly the whole movie is captured in this simple shot. Many characters in the story lacked the safety and comfort of a father or mother in their childhoods, and even the characters who did have parents in the home have a dim view or perspective of them. Their memory of that home is tainted by the weight of more serious and pressing concerns, which is how the shakiness and dirtiness of the frame in this shot captures one of the major themes of the story that starts to unfold. Even the music reflects this vagueness about childhood; not only is “Ave Maria” played quietly and feels distant, the whole song creates distance from viewers simply because it is written in another language, Latin. Even still, being a song about seeking help from the mother of Jesus in the midst of despair, “Ave Maria” foreshadows the importance of motherhood in raising good children and good citizens, and thus, the absence of mothers will result in the degradation and corruption of the whole city. Furthermore, this piece is often played or sung at funerals, so over the course of this narrative, it becomes synonymous with death itself.
As the opening scenes develop, the audience learns that the first night of the film happens to be Halloween. Of course, this is no coincidence. Much of the movie is about death, not just physical death, but spiritual death too, whether it is the death of morality, the deep levels of corruption, or just the death of hope in people’s hearts as they try to get by in Gotham. Halloween itself can be interpreted as a celebration of death. However, it can also be interpreted as a day to mock death and the conspirators of death. Usually, people see it as the latter, and so it is in this film. Batman begins his monologue with his inability to be everywhere at once to stop the masked criminals hiding in plain sight in various Halloween costumes. He reveals much about the state of things in his opening monologue:
Two years of nights have turned me into a nocturnal animal… It’s a big city; I can’t be everywhere, but they don’t know where I am. We have a signal now for when I’m needed, but when that light hits the sky, 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.
From this opening monologue and some powerful visual shots throughout, the audience learns the state of things in Gotham but also the place at which Batman has arrived. He has become a nocturnal animal from seeking to uproot city-wide corruption for two years, which shows how deep the corruption goes, how widespread the moral degradation goes, and how lost Batman has become in pursuing the threads of corruption seemingly to no end. No wonder the film is nearly three hours long; it is no easy task to unmask corruption this deep. The final lines in the monologue reveal Batman’s current identity and character. To him, the light that comes from the bat signal is not a sign of hope for regular citizens but a dark warning to any criminals lurking about at night. The scene illustrates this beautifully by showing various masked criminals looking up at the sky and then peering into the surrounding darkness and showing clear signs of fear and terror as if Batman would walk out of the darkness from anywhere at any moment. Batman is using fear as a tool and has become synonymous with shadows and darkness.
The score cannot be understated in this scene either, or indeed throughout the film. Giacchino’s score manages to turn Batman and Gotham into a unique personality without sounding optimistic or losing the darkness required for such a serious tale. Although critics might argue that his main theme simply derives from Zimmer’s theme in the Dark Knight trilogy, this perspective gives Giacchino’s score not nearly enough credit. If anything, the haunting nature of much of this score is reminiscent of Chopin’s sonata entitled “Funeral March.” It should not be surprising that the score for this film sound very much like a song meant to be played at a funeral since death is such an important theme and driving force of the narrative. This is true of the opening sequence, especially during Batman’s monologue about Halloween and the bat signal. The haunting and growing tones of the piece exaggerate the anxieties and fears of criminals as they anticipate Batman to walk out of the darkness, and the score adds such an important layer to Batman’s current identity. It is as if the physical embodiment of death lurks in the shadows, as if they feel like dead men walking, as if they sense that their fate is sealed if they persist in their lawlessness, as if any semblance of mercy was killed long ago in the soul of the hooded vigilante.
The film continues its opening scene by tracking the actions of gang members who find a new target. It becomes clear through simple visual storytelling and nonverbal cues that the youngest or newest member of the gang shows little interest in the gang but feels as if he has no choice but to remain. He may find it impossible to live a normal life safe from the onslaught of crime, or he may find it impossible to leave the gang now that he has affiliated himself with it. The audience never finds out, but with just a few visual cues, the audience wants to side with him and hope that he finds another way out.
The Batman could not have arrived much later than he did. His entrance from the surrounding darkness and paired with the haunting score sets him up to be a force to be reckoned with. He walks slowly, confidently, menacingly with loud boots and an unflinching stare. The lead member of the gang appears confident in his approach and is bold enough to ask, “Who the hell are you supposed to be?” In response, the Batman responds with ten blows before knocking his opponent to the ground and finishing him off with another two before answering, “I’m vengeance.” Batman’s character has been firmly established in just ten minutes; he has abandoned mercy and sought to rid the city of crime at any cost. He embodies fear, darkness, despair, and suffering. He has a clear path before him, and he has plenty of room to grow and change as a character because the story unfolds how this identity leads him astray and leaves him unfulfilled.
The Batman has replaced Bruce Wayne, and by extension, the Batman has no soul. Bruce Wayne hardly shows up in the story at all because the Batman has no time for him. The title of the movie naturally suggests that the man behind the mask has allowed a persona to overcome his whole identity and purpose. He is not a hero with a name but “The Batman” as if you would describe the savior of Metropolis as “The Superman” or the fastest man alive as “The Flash.” Those titles sound unnatural and less personal because their names are not titled, but Bruce has made his Batman identity into a title and a persona that he almost never takes off. He often watches the events of the previous night to remind himself what he did because he couldn’t remember. The Batman has taken over his mind, his time, his sleep, and his memory. This is the cost of vengeance by one man at all costs.
As the story unfolds, which unfortunately I cannot fully recount, Batman must learn what he can from The Penguin in order to uncover the corruption of the city. This forces Batman into a car chase with the Penguin, and the tension builds over the course of the scene. The Batmobile in this case functions more like a tank than a sports car; it takes many hits and ploughs through many obstacles to keep up with the Penguin. The tension is heightened with fiery and vibrant orange hues that visualize the heat and anger embodied in both reckless drivers, and the scene results in an explosion of pure fury and desperation that causes much damage to anything in their vicinity. On top of the angry orange, the score exacerbates the insanity and passion of the chase by occasionally including the Batman’s leitmotif to symbolize his constant presence in the scene. The scene remains personal by choosing camera angles that often set the scene from each character’s perspective, whether that means showing their view of the highway from inside the car or showing a view of the highway low to the ground or simply a closeup of each driver reacting to each obstacle. The obstacles in the chase continue and get increasingly violent, and the desperation and brutality of the scene slowly builds tension and demands a grand finale. The scene builds to an incredible crescendo when the Penguin tries to create a highway collision in order to stop the Batmobile, but right as he celebrates in front of a massive explosion, the Batmobile leaps through the fiery chaos and charges right under his car, flipping it several times before landing on its back. The film shows The Penguin flipping through the air in his car multiple times before crashing heavily, showing the insanity and violence required to hit his car from behind in order to create such force. Who would do such a thing? The Penguin peers out of his broken window to see The Batman approaching, proving that only he would go to such lengths for just one person. Only he would contribute to such violence and chaos to seek vengeance. Only he would lose his soul and put no limits on himself to achieve his ends.
Of course, it is no coincidence that the Batman is upside down in this moment. The camera captures his view from The Penguin’s perspective, but it has been the way that the Batman has been acting all along. This moment shows most clearly the backwards nature of vigilante vengeance. The upside down shot has been used effectively in before, such as to show the insanity of the Joker’s perspective in the Dark Knight or to show the repugnance to and injustice of Killmonger taking control of Wakanda. However, those films used the upside down shot to highlight the backwards nature and injustice of the villains. In The Batman, the shot highlights the upside down world of the story’s protagonist. It clearly demonstrates that the Batman’s current trajectory is misguided and must be corrected if he is not going to live long enough to see himself become the villain. This perspective on justice must be resolved somehow by the end of the story.
As an aside, the Penguin gets tied up and interrogated after this scene, and he angrily waddles away at the end of the screen like an actual penguin, which is a hilarious visual gag that brought some levity that definitely helped the pacing of the film.
Even though Batman behaves like the Greek god of war at times, director Matt Reeves reminds the audience that the Batman is still merely a man, and no, he is not invincible and does not have superpowers. When he has to go overboard like he did with the Penguin, it shows, especially in scenes like the funeral scene where Bruce Wayne appears to pay his respects to the mayor who had been assassinated by the Riddler. Bruce looks like a dead man walking in this scene; his face is pale, his body language is fragile and slow, he does not say a word, his posture is poor, and he cannot hide his black eye. This is the natural result of relentless pursuits of vigilante justice in a truly and fully corrupt city. Bruce Wayne’s body and soul are dying. He has a purpose, but he has little comfort or hope in the midst of his endeavors. He may act like an invincible hero, but he cannot overcome the reality of the frailness of simply being a man. If he is to survive, physically and spiritually, he must redirect his purpose in heathier ways without losing his pursuit of justice.
This scene illustrates the power of visual storytelling and sound design that Matt Reeves has crafted so masterfully throughout this film. Bruce Wayne does not have to convince the audience that he is not doing well or feeling strong because we are shown everything we need to know through his body language and expressions. The score incorporates “Ave Maria” sung by a choir while showing Bruce trudge his way through the building to give the audience a sense of momentary peace and tranquility as a necessary break from the intense action of previous scenes. Bruce is pulled aside by the new candidate for governor of Gotham who begs him for financial support, but he hardly pays attention to her. Instead, his focus turns to the little boy who just lost his father, and once again their exchange of eye contact allows the audience to infer lots of emotion better than any dialogue would have done. Furthermore, the choir is more visible, and it turns out that they have been singing Ave Maria this entire time, once again illustrating the smooth transitions in sound design. Of course, the choir does not get to sing for long as the beauty and tranquility of the choir fades away as the crowd gets distracted and concerned by the much less natural sounds of a car burning rubber just outside. Bruce takes another look at the little boy before looking up to see a man standing still while everyone screams and flees in terror at an oncoming vehicle, and Bruce sprints to protect the boy from the car careening right through the building. The scene continues with a hostage situation asking for the Batman, but the scene deserves praise for creating tension so effectively and demonstrating the power of visual storytelling and sound design to push the characters and story forward.
The Riddler briefly appeared at that funeral, so it is no surprise that he begins to make a larger impact in the narrative from this point on, especially on Bruce Wayne’s faith in the good of his own father. The Riddler makes an appearance on a TV program to explain the dirty laundry of the Wayne family. His life’s work almost entirely revolves around his ability to expose the city-wide corruption of the elite class, which in this case includes the Wayne family. He claims that as Thomas Wayne was running for mayor, his wife needed serious mental help and support, but he wanted to cover this up for the sake of his campaign. However, when a reporter started to investigate into this family matter, Thomas Wayne supposedly ordered Falcone to have this reporter murdered in order to preserve the integrity of his campaign. This news deeply affects Bruce Wayne as a man who believed in his father’s goodness and his message of renewal and hope for Gotham, a message that he has attempted to carry out as a vigilante but is failing to achieve. At this point, Bruce out of desperation and anger asks to see Falcone face to face to see if this is true. He goes not as Batman, but as a weak-looking, slouching, desperate, sorrowful son who just wants to know his own father.
The setting and style of this brief scene continues to showcase the power of visual storytelling. The camera follows Bruce’s slow, melancholy, doubtful walk across a long hallway before showing Falcone playing pool with colleagues. The filmography highlights Bruce’s hazy uneasiness with fairly low lighting, by blurring out the edges and sides of every shot, and by including shots where Bruce stands alone in the center of a shot to show his isolation and uncertainty. Falcone notices Bruce and ushers his colleagues out of the room to speak with Bruce. He does not hide his involvement with Bruce’s father. He openly tells Bruce that his father did ask the reporter to be murdered. He says that Thomas asked him to take care of it, so he did. He continues by saying that Bruce probably wished that his father was a boy scout but warns him that he would be surprised by what a good man could be capable of. Even though he walks away with his life, Bruce is devastated, lost, confused, and nearly hopeless. His last resort lies with the only person he can trust who also knew his father: Alfred. However, Bruce was almost too late to see Alfred again thanks to the Riddler’s schemes.
As the investigation into the Riddler continues, the Batman and Commissioner Gordon discover a clue that suggests that the sins of Wayne will be visited upon his son because of the empty promises he made as a supposed leader and protector of Gotham. Of course, the Batman knows that this means if he is not at the Wayne residence, whoever is there could take his place, and he realizes that Alfred could unknowingly be in mortal danger. He takes off in the Batmobile at top speed and calls the residence as soon as possible to warn Alfred, and here the sound design once again showcases the mastery of Matt Reeve’s sound design choices in order to create serious tension. As Bruce makes the phone call while driving like a madman, the audience can hear the phone ringing as Alfred listens to more peaceful choral pieces while opening the mail. Again, the peaceful serenity of Alfred’s current task contrasts sharply and wonderfully with the knowledge that his life could be lost at any moment. The sound of the phone ringing continues sharply, almost like an alarm, as Alfred notices a particular piece of mail entitled “For Bruce Wayne’s Eyes Only,” which he opens, all the while the ringing continues. From the audience’s perspective, if they can hear the phone ringing, surely Alfred could hear it too, right? Why won’t he answer the phone before opening this mail?
Little does the audience know that the director has overlaid two events on top of each other, using the visuals of the past with the sounds of the present. Because the audience hears the phone ringing while they watch Alfred opening mail, they assume that the phone is ringing in the room at the same time that Alfred is seen opening mail, and they assume that he can hear it too but is choosing to ignore it. The reality of the situation is revealed when Bruce’s call is finally answered after the audience hears the phone ring a full eleven times. When Bruce asks to speak to Alfred and says “something terrible is gonna happen,” the response from the maid is “I’m afraid it already has, sir.” Bruce looks up at Wayne Tower and sees smoke rising from the higher floors, and the audience finally understands that the ringing was literally all in our heads, not in Alfred’s. It is, for lack of a better word, brilliant. The Batman assumed that he was only a few minutes away from saving Alfred; he was actually an hour late. This realization is such a gut-punch to Bruce’s resolve and is a painful recognition that he cannot play God and be everywhere at once, much less keep everyone safe. He is only a man, and he must accept that if he is ever going to make positive change in such a corrupt city.
In a fortunate turn of events, Alfred survives. Bruce learns that the attack was meant for him with a message from the Riddler from a card that simply said “see you in hell.” Bruce visits Alfred as he recovers in a hospital bed, and thankfully he is well enough to think and speak clearly. Bruce has to learn who his father really was, so he takes the next chance he gets and asks Alfred directly what he knows, which leads to a conversation with a subtle reveal and some of the most vulnerable and touching character moments in recent memory:
(Bruce) “He told me.”
“He told you Salvator Maroni-”
“had my father killed. Why didn’t you tell me all of this? All these years I’ve spent fighting for him, believing he was a good man.”
“He was a good man. You listen to me. Your father was a good man. He made a mistake.”
“A mistake? He had a man killed. Why? To protect his family image? To protect his political aspirations?”
“It wasn’t to protect the family image because he didn’t have anyone killed. He was protecting your mother. He didn’t care about his image or the campaign, any of that. He cared about her and you, and in a moment of weakness he turned to Falcone, but he never thought Falcone would kill that man. Your father should have known that Falcone would do anything to finally have something on him that he could use. That’s who Falcone is. And that was your father’s mistake. When Falcone told him what he did, your father was distraught. He told Falcone that he was going to the police, that he would confess everything, and that night, your father and your mother were killed.”
“It was Falcone?”
“Oh I wish I knew for sure. Or maybe it was some random thug on the street who needed money, got scared, and pulled the trigger too fast. If you don’t think I’ve spent every day searching for that answer… It was my job to protect them. Do you understand? I know you always blamed yourself, but you were only a boy, Bruce. I could see the fear in your eyes, but I didn’t know how to help. I could teach you how to fight, but I wasn’t equipped to take care of you. You needed a father. And all you had was me. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Alfred. God, I never thought I’d feel fear like that again. I thought I’d mastered all that. I mean, I’m not afraid to die. I realize now there’s something I haven’t got past. This fear… of ever going through any of that again… of losing somebody I care about.”
If you can’t find the beauty in that dialogue, I can’t help you. It’s all there: the frustration Bruce feels for being forced to assume his father was an evil man, the reveal that Thomas Wayne never wanted anyone to be murdered, the frustration Alfred feels for failing his job as the protector of the family, the understanding that the only way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost. This scene is a tender, vulnerable, touching, memorable moment for both characters, and only the bat symbol itself flying high in the sky could separate these two men from resting in each other’s burdens. So naturally, the symbol appears, and a transformed Bruce Wayne dons the mask once more to fight for his city.
The Batman arrives at the base of the building where the bat signal comes from, and he sees Commissioner Gordon waiting for him. They both thought the other person put the signal up, so they confusedly go to the signal to see who turned it on. On the roof, we see Catwoman torturing one of Falcone’s henchmen and threatening to kill him. She shows Gordon and the Batman an audio file of Falcone strangling her roommate and admitting that he strangled Catwoman’s mother, and she wants help getting revenge. However, the Batman is not the same as he was. He is not the epitome of darkness and vengeance that he used to be. He has begun his transformation into a new man with renewed purpose. He knows by now that vengeance has gotten him nowhere closer to restoring Gotham to peace and rest. He tells Catwoman that revenge is not the answer, but she rejects him and takes off to avenger her roommate and mother alone. The Batman has to stop her because she is in the wrong, because he is the key to capturing the Riddler, and because chaos will ensue if she succeeds. In a way, Catwoman’s relentless pursuit of vengeance against Falcone mirrors the Riddler’s relentless pursuit of vengeance against all of Gotham for abandoning and rejecting him, and each of their destructive habits and bloodthirsty tendencies can be easily traced back to the absence of a good father or mother figure in their lives. The Batman can relate to their struggles but must face the consequences for Catwoman as well as the Riddler if he or Gotham is going to survive.
Catwoman and the Batman spend a portion of the final act chasing down her father, Falcone, and while one wants to murder him, the other wants to prevent any further bloodshed. Tensions are high as Catwoman goes in blind and wastes little time finding Falcone and getting straight to the point of her quest for revenge for the death of her mother at his hands. The Batman fights through guards in darkness in another beautifully shot action scene before catching up to the action shortly before Catwoman can kill her father. After wrestling off his henchmen, Catwoman tries to find Falcone to finish him off, but he finds a loose lead pipe to slap her to the ground, where he begins to choke her to death. As he does this, he says “You don’t think this hurts me? My own flesh and blood,” to which she manages to claw at his face with her long nails. Although this forces him to drop the pipe, he pins her down again and begins to choke her by his very hands, saying “you made me do this, just like your mother.” Talk about a broken father figure. This is as bad as it gets; it harkens back to the first ever recorded murder in human history, where Cain kills his own brother Abel, and he casually remarks that he is not his brother’s keeper when God himself asks him what he had done. Falcone is similarly flippant in his tone of voice, his words, and his actions when attempting to kill his own daughter. It is no wonder that Catwoman is driven to bloody vengeance against him, but it is no less wrong. The Batman pulls Falcone off his daughter and punches him hard to knock him down for good, to which Catwoman jumps up and instantly points her gun right back at Falcone to deal a final blow. Once again, talk about a messed up family. If either of them kills the other, the Batman will have failed his mission to save the people of Gotham by restoring their souls, not just by stopping crime or corruption. They share a final exchange as he holds her back and nearly embraces her as if to console her:
“He has to pay!”
“You don’t have to pay with him; you’ve paid enough.”
Seeking revenge doesn’t free you; it just enslaves you further. No man knows this better than the Batman himself. His arc has nearly come full circle; he was vengeance and darkness, but now he is a watchful protector, and he will soon embrace the light. He has returned to the hero who inflicts fear in those who would create the kind of trauma that he himself experienced. He wants nobody to experience trauma like he did, so he will do what he must to keep families alive at the very least.
The Batman arrests Falcone and finally brings the rat out into the light. However, as soon as this happens, Falcone is shot from an adjacent building by a lone sniper. He was brought under a flashing streetlight that was seen multiple times over the course of the film and becomes the target for the sniper. The police quickly find the apartment from which the sniper fired and discover the Riddler’s hideout. They also find the Riddler calmly sitting in a bar and quickly arrest him. As they scour the apartment, the room suggests that the Riddler truly wanted to expose Gotham’s corruption, that he is planning something more, and most importantly, that he knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne. He has hints all around the room with the two next to each other and a cryptic message, “I know the real you.” The Batman assumes this all means that he is the final target; by exposing his identity as Bruce Wayne, the Batman would lose all his resources and truly have to stop being the Batman. This is why he says maybe this is the end of the Batman. His life is truly on the line. When he hears that the Riddler wants to have a discussion with him, he has to assume that his identity and life is on the line. He must either convince the Riddler that he is wrong somehow, avoid the topic altogether, or accept his fate as a failure of a protector of his city. It all comes down to a conversation with a man with the softest face but the darkest schemes.
(Riddler) I told you I’d see you in hell.
(the Batman) What do you want from me?
Want? If only you know how long I’ve been waiting for this day. For this moment. I’ve been invisible my whole life. I guess I won’t be anymore will I? They’ll remember me now. They’ll remember both of us. Bruce… Wayne… Bruuuuuce… Waaaayyyne… *sigh* … you know I was there that day, the day the great Thomas Wayne announced he was running for mayor, made all those promises. Well, a week later he was dead, and everybody just forgot about us. All they could talk about was Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne the orphan. Orphan… living in some tower over the park isn’t being an orphan. Looking down on everyone with all that money, don’t you tell me. Do you know what being an orphan is? It’s 30 kids to a room, 12 years old and already a drop-head, numbing the pain. You wake up screaming with rats chewing your fingers and every winter one of the babies dies because it’s so cold. But oh no… let’s talk about the billionaire with the lying, dead daddy because at least the money makes it go down easy, doesn’t it? Bruuuce Wayne. He’s the only one we didn’t get. But we got the rest of them, didn’t we? All those slick, sleazy phony pricks. God, look at you. Your mask is amazing. I wish you could’ve seen me in mine. Isn’t it funny? All anyone wants to do is unmask you, but they’re missing the point. You and I both know, I’m looking at the real you right now. My mask allowed me to be my real self completely, no shame, no limits.
Why did you write me?
What do you mean?
All those cards.
I told you. We’ve been doing this together. You’re a part of this.
We didn’t do anything together.
We did! What did we just do? I asked you to bring him into the light, and you did. We’re such a good team.
We’re not a team.
I never could have gotten him out of there. I’m not physical, my strength is up here. I mean, I had all the pieces, I had the answers, but I didn’t know how to make them listen. You gave me that.
I gave you nothing.
You showed me what was possible. You showed me all it takes is fear and a little focused violence. You inspired me.
You’re out of your goddam mind.
What?
This is all in your head. You’re sick, twisted.
How can you say that?
You think you’ll be remembered? You’re a pathetic psychopath, begging for attention-
No.
-You’re gonna die alone in Arkham. A nobody!
No no no!!! This was not how this was supposed to go. Ahhhhhhhhhh I had it all planned out! We were gonna be safe here! We could watch the whole thing together!
Watch what?
Everything!
…
…
It was all there. You mean, you didn’t figure it out? *gasp* … Oh you’re really not as smart as I thought you were. I guess I gave you too much credit.
What have you done?
What’s black and blue and dead all over? You. If you think you can stop what’s coming
What have you done?
Ave Mariiiiiia
What have you done?! What have you done?!
Mariiiiaa gratia pleeeenaaaaa
This scene is written so well for too many reasons to record, but the context for this conversation creates most of the tension at the start of this conversation. While the Batman goes into this assuming that he is risking his true identity as Bruce Wayne to be exposed and may need to convince the Riddler not to do so, the Riddler sees the Batman not as an enemy but as his partner helping him through every scheme he has planned since the beginning. This is why the Batman starts off coldly with “what do you want from me?” to which the Riddler says that he has been waiting a long time for this day because he is truly excited to meet his partner face to face for the first time. In fact, the Riddler thinks that the Batman shares his goal of exposing the corruption of Gotham, which is mostly true, as well as the corruption of the Wayne family, which obviously the Batman totally rejects. Because these characters have polar opposite expectations for the way this conversation will go, their attitudes and mannerisms differ drastically at the start.
Since the Batman knows that his identity is on the line, he wants to avoid any discussion of Bruce Wayne, if possible, but the Riddler makes that almost instantly impossible. As he reminisces on his accomplishes with the Batman, supposedly his new best friend, he transitions to slowly speaking the name of Bruce Wayne several times. You can tell from the Batman’s body language that every mention of that name threatens any hope of survival for him. Furthermore, he must think it is not possible to distract the Riddler from that name. While the Riddler is just enjoying the moment to the fullest, the Batman is threatened by it more than anything else he has faced. The tension intensifies when the Riddler starts to explain in full detail his hatred of Bruce Wayne and the Wayne family at large. He details the hypocrisy of Gotham worrying about a billionaire orphan while totally abandoning the city’s own poorest orphans without any consideration or support. With every sentence, the Batman looks more defeated. He glances nervously at the camera recording their conversation, begins to slouch, refuses to look the Riddler in the eye, and keeps his focus on the floor like his fate is surely sealed. He hears his name once more and surely must think the truth will come out any second. Instead, the Riddler says something totally remarkable, “he’s the only one we didn’t get.”
Hope is restored. The Batman finally looks up at the Riddler when he hears this line. He realizes the most crucial information of all: the Riddler doesn’t know who he is. He thought this whole time that they were working together and just happened to fail to kill Bruce Wayne, but they had successfully killed off everyone else who was corrupting the elite class in Gotham. He hated Bruce because he was an orphan, but he had no idea that he was the Batman this whole time, and he still doesn’t know. He goes on to say that he is “looking at the real you” by seeing the Batman in his mask. The irony could hardly be stronger. Everything in this conversation changes once the Batman learns that the Riddler is actually clueless of his identity because now the Batman has nothing to lose. He can finally take the initiative in the conversation and get to the bottom of what the Riddler’s final step in his plan is.
The Batman pushes the Riddler to see what he is really up to, and he finally learns that they are not in fact partners at all. The Riddler thinks that because he asked the Batman to bring the rat into the light that his compliance means that they are “such a good team.” The Batman finally pushes back against this idea directly by flat-out rejecting that they are partners at all. The Riddler protests and tries to defend himself by explaining that just a little fear and focused violence can do wonders. He thinks that the Batman would totally agree with this sentiment, and perhaps the Batman at the start of this story would agree, but not this Batman. Not anymore. He is finally choosing to move on from fully uniting himself with fear, darkness, violence, and vengeance. He is about to transform into a symbol and a person who can represent more than that. He tells Riddler that he’s out of his mind, to which the Riddler finally breaks. He is astonished, shocked, and overwhelmed by the idea that the Batman would totally reject him. The conversation devolves from there and ends with the Riddler singing “Ave Maria” to tease and torment the Batman before the final act begins. Since this song is often sung at funerals and is played in eery and creepy ways throughout the film, for all intents and purposes, “Ave Maria” is the song of death that spells doom and destruction for the people of Gotham.
The dialogue and the physical performances from Robert Pattinson and Paul Dano fill the screen and command the attention of the audience in this interrogation scene. It mirrors the Dark Knight interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker in all the right ways. The conversation between these two shows how even this transformed Batman has yet to complete his transformation as a character. The whole scene slowly unveils that the Riddler doesn’t actually know that Bruce Wayne is Batman, and when you go back and pay attention to what the Riddler says with that in mind, he sees that the Batman has embraced darkness so thoroughly for so long that the Riddler thinks he is an actual villain who is willing to work with him side by side. In fact, the Riddler thinks that they have been partners this entire time up until this conversation. The Batman learns his final lesson before completing his transformation as a character here: his purpose as the protector of Gotham is not to be the vehicle of vengeance against every criminal but to protect and serve the people of Gotham, so his targets will change from chasing down every corrupt elite to saving the actual people of his city. This will also affect his relationship with fear; it may be a useful tool, but it can also enslave his soul if left unchecked, and he must keep most of his attention on saving the people of the city he must protect.
The Batman returns to the Riddler’s apartment to find out what he missed. It turns out that the cop who finds him there notices that the murder weapon is a carpet tool, which is not exactly a groundbreaking reveal. Even so, the Batman missing this detail illustrates his inability to think clearly and view tools outside of criminal purposes because he has been on this neverending quest to carry vengeance out on every criminal and corrupt politician in the city. This detail furthers that he has lost his humanity, and it will take some time and work before he regains it.
The carpet tool helps the Batman remove the carpet and unveil the final step in the Riddler’s plans for Gotham city. It turns out that while the Joker from the Dark Knight wanted to watch the world burn, the Riddler here wants to watch the world drown. He has assembled a small army of disenchanted, vengeful, fringe terrorists to place explosives around the city in order to sever the structural integrity on the governor’s election night as their way of bringing vengeance upon the city that abandoned them. By now, it is too late to stop it. In fact, while the Batman and the lone cop watch the video of Riddler explaining what will happen on election night, the bombs already start going off, and once again the sound design masterfully packs a punch when this happens. Not only does the score ramp up a horrifying and eery orchestral arrangement of “Ave Maria,” the film cuts to the Riddler watching the explosion from his cell. As they go off, although you cannot hear him, you can see him yelling “BOOM” every time another explosive is released high into the night sky. The Riddler is not just a calculating mastermind who knows the exact moment of every explosion and every detail in his plans, he also revels in the suffering of others with no sympathy for them whatsoever. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, we see the chaos in the streets and eventually track the crowd who was about to congratulate the new governor’s victory in the election. From there, we see the army of terrorists fully decked out in military-level combat gear and rifles, ready to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting citizens below them. Gotham is going through a natural disaster and a terrorist attack on the same night. It is a dark day indeed.
The mayor-elect tries to settle the crowd, but she did not see the terrorist snipers above her waiting for her to come into the light, and she is shot. Commissioner Gordon pulls her away to safety, but by then the firing has started and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. However, the glass ceiling shatters in a fiery wave, and the Batman crashes down from the skies. He is needed more than ever at this moment, and if he loses, hope is surely lost for Gotham.
His entrance is absolutely sick by the way.
Although his entrance leaves little more to be desired, the action itself is not glamorous or epic. It is physical, painful, brutal, exhausting, difficult. The Batman is limited in that he is not superhuman; he must rely on his brute strength and occasionally a tool or some intelligence in order to defeat his opponents. Here, though, his opponents all have shotguns, and when they don’t miss, they hit hard, even with the heavy armor the Batman protects himself with. He is going up against a whole battalion all on his own, and he struggles to keep fighting at multiple points. He is hit multiple times with heavy hits from the rifles. He is dragged across the scaffolding near the edge before fighting his way off them. The scaffolding gives way, and he has to cling to the edge with one hand while avoiding and even taking more crossfire. Surely, he can’t do this forever, at least not alone.
Sure enough, Commissioner Gordon and Selina Kyle start to make their way up to the action, but the Batman has to hold his own a bit longer before they can offer their support. He uses gas to blind the final group of terrorists and manages to use a rifle as a staff to disarm and knock out many of the rest of them. He casually walks up to the last soldier nearby only to get shot with a heavy rifle that sends him flying and nearly sends him down into the waters below. He clings on with one hand for dear life as he stares back at the man as he slowly reloads and takes aim at his head, only for Selina Kyle to jump onto him and knock him aside. She pulls the Batman up to safety, and he slowly closes his eyes in exhaustion as she tells him to relax because it’s over. It’s almost as if her musical theme becomes a lullaby that starts to lull him to sleep for a moment. Unfortunately, that moment is cut short by the soldier returning to attack Selina. Once again, the sound design here is excellent. The Batman gives himself a testosterone boost to stop the last attacker from killing Catwoman. The scream reverberates and fades as most of the sound completely cuts away while he starts pummeling this guy a dozen times before Gordon stops him. Gordon asks the final soldier, “Who the hell are you?” He answers, “Me? I’m vengeance.” The Batman’s theme as the camera pushes into the face of the Batman, and we see his look of horror. Even now, at the very end of the story, the Batman still has a strong association with violent, aggressive, fatal vengeance that he must correct if his soul and the soul of Gotham can ever be restored. He must find a way to prove to Gotham that he can be a symbol of more than that.
Lo and behold, the scene’s final moments present the Batman with such an opportunity. The higher level is overwhelmed with another surge of waters that drown parts of the scaffolding and sever an electrical grid, creating a dangerous cord that starts to dangle dangerously over the people in the water, threatening to electrocute them all at any moment. The cord needs to be cut for them to be safe. The Batman wastes no time to swing his way over to the cord, take hold of it, and pull out his bat knife. The sound cuts his final roar as he slices the cord in his final act of aggression, sending a shock through his body and dropping him into the waters below. One could almost say he goes through a literal baptism in this moment. His whole journey as a character in this city is summarized by his transition from physical brutality, vigilance, and vengeance to his rebirth as a symbol of light, guidance, restoration, humanity, and hope. Once he emerges from the waters, he immediately directs his attention to the people of Gotham who are almost completely submerged by the flooding, and although it isn’t glamorous, he lights a flare, moves some rubble, and leads the people of Gotham out of the ruins and out of the waters into the light and into freedom. He is not a symbol of fear, nor is he synonymous with darkness. He learns to serve the people directly and earns their trust by suffering alongside them and leading them out of their troubles.
Critics of this ending of the story argue that the Batman has actually totally rejected his pursuit of criminals, his detective work, and his pursuit of stopping crime in order to become a symbol of hope, much like Superman. They would argue that there is no difference between Batman and Superman at the end of this story. I do not find this persuasive. The Batman does not dawn a smile and a back-slapping positive attitude in order to cheer up citizens who have experienced legitimately traumatic events. The Batman has no superhuman abilities and never presents himself as if he does in this narrative. He simply shifts his perspective on Gotham by realizing that he and Gotham will lose their souls if he tries to fix the human condition. He is not the savior of mankind. However, he can protect, guide, and inspire the people of his city to choose to stand tall in the face of adversity, aggression, and fear because of his example. He leads Gotham not as a naïvely positive idealist, but as a man marked by tragedy and trauma who even still chooses to fight evil, pursue justice, and protect innocence. That is the mark of a hero willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his people.
The score really establishes what the mood of this finale should be and what kind of message is being conveyed. The Batman’s theme in these closing moments feels somber, heavy, and tragic but also rich, warm, and ever so slightly hopeful. Even as the lights of a cop car flash across the water as the vehicle crashes further down into rubble, symbolizing the chaos that Gotham cannot contain, the Batman wades into the rubble to shoulder the weight of that chaos for the people of Gotham. The people are almost literally underwater, and the Batman perseveres and chooses to do good nonetheless. The score heightens the emotional richness of this moment beautifully. The score in general stands out because it rarely feels like the score is telling the audience what they should feel as if they need instructions because the situation is unclear. The score simply excels at heightening various appropriate emotional responses to several scenes, which gives an extra layer of depth to the story and to the whole experience.
From here, the film’s epilogue begins with narration from the Batman once again, mirroring the very start of the film and showing how far he has come. His monologue is split up by encouragement from Gotham’s new governor as seen below:
The city is underwater. The national guard is coming. Martial law is in effect, but the criminal element never sleeps. Looting and lawlessness will be rampant in the parts of the city no one can get to. I can already see things will get worse before they get better. And some will seize the chance to grab everything they can…
We will rebuild. But not just our city. We must rebuild people’s faith… in our institutions… in our elected officials… in each other. Together we will learn to believe in Gotham again.
… I’m starting to see now. I have had an effect here, but not the one I intended. Vengeance won’t change the past, mine, or anyone else’s. I have to become more. People need hope, to know someone’s out there for them. The city is angry, scarred like me. Our scars can destroy us, even after the physical wounds have healed, but if we survive them, they can transform us. They can give us the power to endure and the strength to fight.
The Batman has grown from a nocturnal animal who saw fear as a tool just as the Riddler did and who fully identified himself with darkness to a human person with a soul and a connection to the wellbeing of the real people of his city. He used to call himself vengeance itself, which ought to be reserved for God alone; he has abandoned that label to choose to sacrifice himself and humbly serve the people of Gotham. He is not the full embodiment of hope, but he can still inspire hope simply by giving of himself for the safety and benefit of his people. He sees that the city is angry and scarred, but just as he transformed through his scars, he is given renewed purpose by looking to see Gotham transform in and through their trauma and scars as well. He is not going to be the singular fighting force of the city; he wants the city itself to gain the power to endure and to have the strength to fight. He wants true renewal for Gotham, just as the governor wants the people to renew their faith in their elected officials as well as in each other. The city cannot be changed by the pursuits of one venge-seeking vigilante; it can only change within the hearts of good men and women willing to start that change.
Even though the Batman has completed this transformative journey, Catwoman has not joined him on that path. Bruce tries to convince her to stay with him in Gotham before she flees to escape the relentless toil and chaos that would inevitably follow. Selina opens with the following:
You asking me to stay? You know this place is never gonna change. With Carmine gone, it’s only gonna get worse for you. There’s gonna be a power grab. It’ll be bloody.
I know… but the city can change.
It won’t.
I have to try.
It’s gonna kill you eventually, you know that. Listen, why don’t you come with me, get in some trouble, knock off some CEO hedge fund types? It’ll be fun. The Bat and the Cat. It’s got a nice ring. *the bat signal appears in the sky* … who am I kidding? You’re already spoken for. You should go.
Selina… take care of yourself.
Catwoman understandably wants out of this city given what she had to endure already, but the Batman chooses to stay even though he has suffered much too. He knows that he can be more than he was. He has just been given renewed purpose not as a god-like vehicle of cosmic vengeance but as a symbol of order, justice, and a little hope. He knows that the city wouldn’t survive without him, and he may die trying, but he can think of no greater purpose than to give of himself to save those who are innocent. Even if it means preventing one child from experiencing the trauma he experienced, all his toil and suffering would be worth it. Selina Kyle doesn’t see it that way, and Bruce can’t force her to change. He just tells her to take care of herself in case one day she begins to understand what he has learned. Perhaps she does know in a way. After all, she knows that he is already spoken for. She sees that he seeks to live up to his duty to be the symbol Gotham needs him to be, and maybe one day she will join that fight. Just not yet.
The Batman and Catwoman ride their motorcycles to the edge of the city and go their separate ways. The theme once again really elevates the complexity of emotions involved in this final exchange of these two. The final two shots stand out as well. First, after they have parted ways, we see a shot of Bruce looking at Catwoman riding over the hill in the rain in his rear-view mirror. It’s a perfectly imperfect and memorable image for saying goodbye to someone who influenced and challenged Bruce in many ways. Once she is out of sight, we cut back to a close-up of the Batman looking forward again to head towards Gotham city. He knows a long journey is ahead, but he doesn’t shy away from it. He goes at it in full force with no fear. The score builds and ends in a loud flourish just as we cut to black. That shot shows that there is much for the Batman to do, but he will have a more mature and balanced approach to restoring the soul of his city. Once he changed himself, he more fully realized the value of humble service, persistence, dedication, and hope. The Batman has arrived.
As the credits roll and the beautiful score plays once more, you realize that this film took artistic risks visually and aurally as well as narratively. This was far from a safe film or a cash-grab. This film was a metaphorical love letter to the Batman and to every fan of the character. It understood the complexity of his character as a man being asked to bear the weight of a corrupt city. It appreciated the detective work required for the Batman to succeed in stopping crime. It understood the danger of pursuing vengeance above all else. It explored the damage that traumatic experiences can do to a person’s soul. It illustrated the danger of permitting corruption in the elite class to persist without just punishments. Beyond telling an excellent story about the Batman, it also had plenty of valuable and thoughtful social commentary to provide. It showed the dangers of abandoning the vulnerable and ignoring the people on the fringes. It commented on the dangers of the Internet’s ability to create sub-groups of fringe individuals who can organize and more easily commit crimes with little to no oversight. It displayed the tragedy of the breakdown of the nuclear family and connected that to the degradation of society. It showed the power, value, and importance of persistence, humility, service, and hope in the midst of public failures and tragedies. It was a story with rich themes, complex but meaningful storytelling, imperfect but beautiful visuals, and varied but memorable and powerful music. I hesitate to call it a complicated masterpiece if only because that doesn’t sound positive enough. I do have issues with the pacing, and it is long, and it was not necessarily easy to follow, but that was partly by design, and I have so much more praise for it than I have criticism of it. I am afraid I have run out of new words to describe it. It really is a complicated masterpiece.
Judah Film Reviews 