With The Batman, director Matt Reeves had a daunting task ahead of him. Not only did he have to restore the character that didn’t exactly light audiences on fire with Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader, but by going back to a standalone universe with Robert Pattinson, he faced unavoidable comparisons to Christopher Nolan’s epic The Dark Knight Trilogy. Essentially, Reeves had to bring Batman back to his former glory while also putting his own spin on the classic DC Comics character.
After the pandemic pushed the film back nearly a year, allowing Reeves and Warner Bros. to hype up this new Batman that would be more Kurt Cobain than dashing millionaire playboy, the big question is does The Batman and its three hour runtime deliver the Bat-goods? According to early reviews, the answer is yes. In fact, several critics are already boldly claiming The Batman weaves a gothic story that surpasses The Dark Knight, long considered to to be the crème de la crème of Batman films.
You can check out spoiler-free excerpts from the first batch of reviews below:
Mike Ryan, Uproxx:
Matt Reeves’s The Batman, at least as far as superhero movies go, feels so old-fashioned that it has come all the way around to unique again. While watching The Batman, it feels like it has more in common with gritty crime mysteries like L.A. Confidential or Se7en than, say, Spider-Man: No Way Home. (A movie I like quite a bit, for the record.) The Batman is a movie fully embracing its present and not looking forward to what everything might mean five movies down the line.
Peter Debruge, Variety:
This grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir registers among the best of the genre, even if — or more aptly, because — what makes the film so great is its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.
Ross Bonaime, Collider:
Reeves has made the best Batman film since The Dark Knight, with a captivating and rich world that reinvigorates characters we’ve already seen on screen over and over again. With The Batman, Reeves prioritizes the shadows of Gotham, setting up this city in a way we’ve never seen before onscreen, bringing life to the world around Batman. Instead of heroes and villains that live in black and white, Reeves has presented a city defined by the gray.
Pete Hammond, Deadline:
In terms of action, this is meant to be a slower-paced and far moodier take on the 80-year-old fan favorite but is worth the price of admission just for a midfilm car chase that ranks with the best in any previous version. The Batman might not be The Batman, but what Reeves has wrought is pretty damn good and worth a few spins in the Batmobile. In other words, this is a Batman you have never seen before.
Julian Roman, MovieWeb:
Director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson have crafted a stunning noir epic that rivals The Dark Knight. The Batman is a tour de force cinematic experience that will engulf you utterly. Gotham City drips in blood, corruption, and treachery as a tortured vigilante hunts a serial killer with a diabolical agenda. He uncovers frightening truths that shatter his sense of purpose. Raise your expectations to the stratosphere. The Batman is stupefyingly awesome.
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter:
A brooding genre piece in which the superhero trappings of cape and cowl, Batmobile and cool gadgetry are folded into the grimy noir textures of an intricately plotted detective story. Led with magnetic intensity and a granite jawline by Robert Pattinson as a Dark Knight with daddy issues, this ambitious reboot is grounded in a contemporary reality where institutional and political distrust breeds unhinged vigilantism.
David Ehrlich, IndieWire:
While Reeves unfortunately retreats to the safety of franchise-building mode with the penultimate scene, “The Batman” succeeds in transforming the Bat-Signal into a beacon of hope rather than something to fear. Not just for the citizens of Gotham, but also for the multiplex audiences who will inevitably have to visit the city a few more times before Hollywood gives us somewhere else to go. Compared to the superhero movies that came before it, “The Batman” is already halfway there.
Alex Stedman, IGN:
This is the scariest Batman yet. Right from the violent opening scene, the message is clear: this is not your mother’s Caped Crusader. This is a creeping, angry, white-knuckle-inducing psychological thriller with a heavy dose of crime noir – and believe it or not, Reeves absolutely pulls it off, achieving a grimly beautiful masterpiece.
The Batman opens in theaters on March 4.