It was excellent.
It is not a kid movie.
It was very dark.
Excellent because of direction and performances all around. Matt Reeves directed, (I really liked Cloverfield, he has only gotten better.) The camera work submerges you in the darkness of Gotham. Robert Pattinson is probably the best Batman ever, but not much of a Bruce Wayne. (Too Goth for a billionaire playboy) But we don’t really watch to see Wayne, do we? We want to see Batman beating the crap out of bad guys. Pattinson’s vigilante is brutal, cold, violent, and meticulous, but with enough pause and vulnerability to show that true justice is not blind. He’s the kind of guy you could sit on a rooftop with and have a two-hour conversation that solves a lot of issues but only adds up to 300 words: my kind of guy.
Not a kid movie because it is so dark. It seems to rain every day in Gotham, or I should say every night, which was appropriate. Also, the violence, the over-the-top performances of the criminally insane (hello Riddler), the nearly three hour run time and the complexity of the plot (it feels like a detective noire) make it a problem for young kids.
The darkness was necessary if you want to tell this story. Gotham is bleak. Criminals rule the street. No one feels safe. The government that should exist to protect the citizen and the innocent does not, because it is so riddled with corruption and compromise that it no longer functions as a true actor. It is a shadow, a shade, a useless ghost and a mockery of justice and peace.
Enter The Batman.
The people need him; they have no one else. All of this makes me grateful. Grateful? Yes. Because we do not actually live in this lawless wasteland that assaults us on screen. No matter how insane our culture and government may feel at times, we are not Gotham. Not yet. The world around us is so full of mercy and kindness that we must escape into a black hole of depravity and injustice for three hours to appreciate it.
Despite all the fears and insecurities of our present age, we have much to be grateful for. Spring is beginning to burst forth on the trees around us; a reminder that life is ever-renewing, ever hopeful. God is far kinder and more generous than we ever credit him for. He has not abandoned us to the darkness that is always threatening.
But if we ever need a cold steely vigilante to step up and pulverize the violent; to bring justice to the unrepentant thugs who prey on the weak and the innocent; there is a 14-year-old boy inside of me who is ready to suit up.