<\/p>\n
By Ann Hornaday<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Robert Pattinson gets back to his vampire roots in \u201cThe Batman\u201d, in which he plays the title character with the same moody, broody intensity he brought to his breakout role in \u201cTwilight\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a nocturnal animal,\u201d Pattinson\u2019s joyless superhero announces in one of several voice-overs, delivered in a hoarse whisper worthy of Clint Eastwood\u2019s Harry Callahan. <\/p>\n Like Callahan, Pattinson\u2019s Batman is a vigilante on a mission to dispatch the hooligans, miscreants and malignant criminals who are leading his hometown of Gotham City to \u201ceat itself\u201d. <\/p>\n He\u2019d probably say something like, \u201cMake my day\u201d, except that Gotham seems stuck in a perpetual, rain-streaked nightscape. <\/p>\n Even the vagrant rays of sunlight that manage to peak through are shrouded in crepuscular gloom.<\/p>\n Welcome to \u201cThe Batman\u201d, yet another lugubrious, laboriously grim slog masquerading as a fun comic book movie. <\/p>\n At almost three hours, director Matt Reeves\u2019s latest iteration of the endless Batman cycle seems determined to outdo even the most self-consciously glum visions of Christopher Nolan and, more recently, Todd Phillips. <\/p>\n Unfortunately Reeves \u2013 best known for \u201cCloverfield\u201d and smart adaptations of the \u201cPlanet of the Apes\u201d movies \u2013 has bought into the darker-equals-deeper myth, delivering a film that\u2019s as ponderous as it is convoluted and, ultimately, devoid of meaningful stakes. <\/p>\n From the pretentious strains of \u201cAve Maria\u201d that accompany its opening scenes, the viewer is put on notice that \u201cThe Batman\u201d will be taken seriously or bust a cowl trying.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Halloween in Gotham, and the citizens of a dejected city look like \u201cJoker\u201d extras who were too scary to make the final cut; while Batman \u2013 sorry, the Batman \u2013 is swooping in to pummel a group of subway bullies to a pulp, an even more heinous crime is going down, a murder that will send the Batman to Gotham\u2019s sleazy underworld, where criminals and politicians make common cause with such casual frequency that it\u2019s impossible to tell who the good guys are.<\/p>\n Is it the DA played by a skin-headed Peter Sarsgaard? The vaguely mobbed up impresario played by John Turturro? The stylish nightclub waitress played by Zoe Kravitz? Gotham police detective Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright)?<\/p>\n Granted, most fans know Gordon\u2019s on the up and up. But the overarching stench of corruption that suffuses \u201cThe Batman\u201d eventually engulfs the title character, as he is forced to examine what it meant to grow up as Bruce Wayne, son of wealthy businessman and civic leader Thomas Wayne. <\/p>\n He\u2019ll make new friends and enemies along the way, including some iconic Batman foes; the plot doesn\u2019t thicken so much as congeal, as windy explanatory speeches fill in for compelling or surprising action.<\/p>\n Underlit and overlong, \u201cThe Batman\u201d draws its references from sources as diverse as film noir, Scandinavian death metal and garden-variety serial-killer pulp. <\/p>\n Pattinson\u2019s performance evokes not just Eastwood but Edward Scissorhands, Kurt Cobain and, in a weird way, Crispin Glover. (Nirvana\u2019s \u201cSomething in the Way\u201d provides a musical motif throughout the film.) <\/p>\n Pale and wraithlike, Pattinson\u2019s bummer of a Batman slugs and slashes his way through his crime-fighting duties, at one point introducing himself as Vengeance. <\/p>\n That\u2019s what Kravitz\u2019s character, Selina Kyle, calls him \u2013 at least while she\u2019s on screen before disappearing for minutes at a time, during which more mopey speeches will be delivered, more rain will fall and more minutes of the viewer\u2019s only life will tick by, never to be regained.<\/p>\n Ostensibly, \u201cThe Batman\u201d is about Pattinson\u2019s character solving a string of sadistic murders, but thematically it\u2019s about his personal transformation: For most of the movie, he\u2019s needed but not loved, in Gotham, where he\u2019s seen as a freak. <\/p>\n In Reeves\u2019s murky, dystopian vision, Batman\u2019s evolution from pariah to messiah isn\u2019t a triumph so much as a grunge-worthy shrug. <\/p>\n He may be fuelled by newfound righteousness, but \u201cThe Batman\u201d is kind of a drag.<\/p>\n Source <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ann Hornaday Robert Pattinson gets back to his vampire roots in \u201cThe Batman\u201d, in which he plays the title character with the same moody, broody intensity he brought to his breakout role in \u201cTwilight\u201d. \u201cI\u2019m a nocturnal animal,\u201d Pattinson\u2019s joyless superhero announces in one of several voice-overs, delivered in a hoarse whisper worthy of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1016157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1016156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}