Revisiting The Batman two years later

With The Penguin hitting Streaming and receiving critical acclaim, it's a better time than ever to revisit the source material with Matt Reeves' The Batman. The Batman gave us introduction to a new way to look at the Batman villain The Penguin, which was able to spawn us, from my perspective so far, a wonderful TV show. Not only The Penguin, however, since this movie gave us a new world for batman - giving us better ways to look at Bruce Wayne's character, Gotham city, the Wayne family, and a better reimagination of the Riddler. Let's look back at this 2022 film and see what made it so memorable.

I've been a Batman fan for a while, but I do believe that each rendition of his character falls even further from the source material. It doesn't create the character that Batman is supposed to be. With a large influx of superhero flicks, we kept seeing the exact same general story for each and every hero. It's over the top, highly unreal, and has dumb humor that no one needs or asked for. The formula to create superhero movies is very much a fast food type deal; we enjoy consuming it when it's happening, but then it leaves a bad taste in our mouth after the fact. Most superhero movies, although extreme culturally impacting, don't have an impact on the overall world of film.

We saw these issues reach the world of Batman with the attempted DCEU (DC Expanded Universe), which used the general superhero formula extremely poorly. People would wish for the newer Batman movies to recreate the Nolanverse, or the Batman movies that Christopher Nolan made, e.g., Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. However, controversially, that isn't what I was looking for 2 years ago when this movie was being released. Don't get me wrong, I still loved Nolan's movies, but they weren't Batman the way we should see him. I do believe The Batman was the world for Batman that we needed, but it was far different than people were used to. This is a reason why many people (although few, still many) weren't a fan of the new film.

Why is The Batman the Batman universe we needed?

Starting from the beginning, with 1939's release of the first Batman comic, we see on the cover the name of the company, DC. DC stands for Detective Comics. Their start was not in creating superheroes, it was in creating, as the name suggests, comics about detectives. The Batman creates a Bruce Wayne that is a detective. He doesn't just go out at night with his over-the-top technology punching bad guys. He, instead, is a detective investigating a very real, very real behaving serial killer.

Moving forward with that Serial Killer, the Riddler has never once been portrayed well in media (sorry, Jim Carrey). He always ends up cheesy and leaves the viewer asking, "Why should I take this guy seriously as a villain, and what even is his motive?" The Riddler portrayed by Paul Dano gives a very real, very deep look at human nature and political officials. We follow The Riddler trying to expose the political officials correspondence with the Mafia, which, in this film, is also portrayed very well. The Falcone family has a man named Oswald as their second hand man, who goes by the nickname The Penguin.

The Penguin is also a character in Batman media that hasn't been portrayed well(Sorry, Danny DeVito). Gosh. He is just a grotesque penguin humanoid in the unfortunate film we call Batman Returns. For comics that were always supposed to be grounded, the Tim Burton movies are the opposite of that, with the only positive part being The Joker, but even he falls third of all time (In my opinion). Back to The Penguin portrayed by Collin Farrell, we see him as we never have before. A smart, yet short tempered, mobster with a limp. He feels REAL. This entire universe feels like a world that could not only exist, but one that we see around us. We see political officials undermining people below them for money. We see damaged youth take out their trauma in ways that are unfortunate for people around them, even leading to cultish personas. We see mobs running streets, and we see the people we love fall short of what we expect or thought they were. The writing and direction (thank you, Matt Reeves), create such a real feel.

Oh, and then the way it all looks.

The cinematography in this movie is unmatched by any superhero movie. The opening scene, on Halloween night, with each criminal staring into the shadows, worried that this frightening image of vengeance will creep out of the darkness to condemn them. It sends chills every time. The low, dim, and dirty lighting makes Gotham feel how we want it to - a broken, crime ridden city. It feels so raw and dirty that we could step through the screen and be there.

Bruce Wayne, for the first time, is shown as dirty, which just feels right. No matter who you are, once you take off that cowl you will not look like a playboy philanthropist. Robert Pattinson looks dirty and broken. We only saw Batman in this phase once in live action, with the first 30 minutes of Batman Begins. But this time we have a whole movie, focused on development of an angry, angsty batman believing vengeance is the way - all the way to a developing Batman looking for bringing justice, realizing vengeance is not enough. It's just brilliant storytelling, mixed with a perfect environment.

We are given a universe, where The Penguin was able to be made and not feel like a ripoff. The world is so compelling that we can envision side stories happening, not revolving around our black shrouded protagonist.

Coming to where I have to rate this, I had to spend quite a bit of time. I didn't want to give it just a pop, but a Butter Pop is meant to be for movies that have solidified themselves in cinema history. But, that had me thinking, What movies come to mind when I think about Batman? Obviously, we have the original Adam West Batman, which is good fun, then of course the first Tim Burton Batman, and that is also just good fun.

But, when I think about the darker, more brooding side, 4 films come to mind. Under the Red Hood, which is my personal favorite. It highlights a darker side of Jason Todd and how Wayne left him to die. The Dark Knight, which is the darkest of the three Nolan films, highlighting the two-faced nature of politicians and their fall from grace. The Killing Joke, which gives us the greatest Joker we've ever seen, and then finally The Batman. The Batman, two years after it came out, still holds it's place in my mind as one of my top 4 Batman movies, thus, solidifying itself in film history.

3/3 Butter Pop