Released on March 4, 2022, “The Batman” is a three-hour superhero film directed by Matt Reeves following the vengeful hero’s journey as he fights against a mysterious villain.

Our protagonist, Batman (Robert Pattinson), whose alter ego is multimillionaire Bruce Wayne, travels throughout an immersive Gotham City trying to unmask an anonymous terrorist who goes by the name of The Riddler (Paul Dano). While solving the mystery, Batman comes across many of the characters from the DC universe, such as The Penguin (Colin Farrell), Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).

All of the actors and actresses were cast well for the characters they play, but Dano did an amazing job of giving The Riddler a dangerous feel and genuinely insane characteristics. He was able to catch the attention of viewers in his scenes through his strong tone of voice and body language. He is one of the largest contributors to the reason why the film was able to immerse the audience into the fantasy world of Batman’s Gotham City. 

The music, setting, and especially the camera work contribute to the overall mysterious tone of the film. A large majority of the scenes take place at night, which gives the director many opportunities to have the characters come out from the darkness. The director uses this darkness a lot throughout the film. When the characters come up out of the dark, it helps them portray their characters in a way that keeps the mystery in the movie alive, giving the audience a sense of lurking danger.

Impressive as the film is, there are a few noticeable drawbacks. The first complaint is the film’s content rating. It is a PG-13 film, and since a lot of the scenes contain heavy violence and gruesome imagery, an R-rated movie could have greatly increased the impact of the mood with more detail. The other negative part is that the logic behind many of the characters’ actions is counter-intuitive to common sense, thus making the film less realistic.

When comparing this film’s runtime to the Batman adaptations “Dark Knight ” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” it comes in as the longest, with a margin of around 15 minutes. However, this film doesn’t really have any downtime and makes the most of every minute.

This film is a great experience overall, and it was an impressive portrayal of the development of Batman’s character. Every movie has its positives and negatives, but I definitely recommend this latest installment to Batman fans or anyone looking for a thrilling mystery.