Easily the fourth-greatest Batman movie behind the two Burton installments (yes, Batman Returns is great) and The Dark Knight. The design and cast elevate a fizzling, overlong Batman story. It is flawed and original in equal measures – the best kind of three-star movie.
Gotham is once again a stylized central character. The city is a cramped, choking, brooding amalgam of America. It as if a glorious art deco utopia was left to rot for fifty years as it transitioned from beacon to prison. Every shot is beautiful and decrepit.
Each member of the stellar cast inhabits this hellscape in their own way. Zoë Kravitz prowls, Pattinson broods & lurks, Paul Dano is everywhere and nowhere, Colin Farrell is barely able to move, and John Turturro is the only person to walk with ease. It’s a detective mystery you might solve just from body language.
However, the movie started losing me just as Batman, who was already a mediocre-at-best detective, inexplicably spraypainted some very basic facts about the case on the floor. For the remaining hour, the movie flails about in search of an ending. Villains abandon motives in favor of unhinged violence while Batman goes from punching his way through the city… to punching his way through the city. At the end, Batman has basically lost but both he and the movie seem unaware of this. Meanwhile the Riddler basically won but is personally devastated by what seems like only a marginally lower bodycount.
It’s both anti-climactic and confusing.
While the plotting is the major issue, the movie is also weighed down by a original score that was all of four different notes and editing that left 30 needless seconds in each scene. All are fixable issues for Batman’s next outing with this crew - I hope they nail it.
