Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, Peter Sarsgaard, Jayme Lawson, Gil Perez-Abraham, Peter McDonald, Con O’ Neill, Alex Ferns, Rupert Penry-Jones, Kosha Engler, Barry Keoghan, Sandra Dickinson.
Every generation has its Batman. Every generation around it could find fault with the portrayal, only as with the divisive nature of religion, there are too many gods in which to hoist your devotion and understanding too. Better it seems is to acknowledge that each interpretation is but a part of a whole, take what you want from it, leave good karma, and revel in perhaps one of graphic novel and comic history’s finest ever creations.
The Batman, all hail Bob Kane and every successive depiction, even if some didn’t understand the gravitas of the history, and as proof, Batman will always divide opinion, but surely it is safe to say that Christian Bale and Michael Keaton captured the mood when thinking of the ideal Dark Knight, and even Adam West on television brought humour and passion to the role in a period when not even The Joker in his sadistic form was allowed in the comic books.
How to view then a brooding youthful Batman, one that fits somewhere between the excellent portrayal of the young Bruce Wayne in Gotham by David Mazouz, and Christian Bale’s performance in the Christopher Nolan trilogy, and whilst it may have come a surprise to many, the latest to inhabit the suit and the mask of the reclusive socialite millionaire, Robert Pattinson wears it well. Arguably not in the same class as Keaton and Bale, but well enough to feel secure in the actor’s vision and stance.
The Batman rewinds the clock, it is a film that feels its way through the early part of the Dark Knight’s career, not long after he returns from his mysterious period of reflection under the tutorship Ra’s al Ghul, but before Gotham truly understood they had a menacing hero in their midst, and it is one that could be argued fits more into its Noir background than any other.
Brooding, almost besotted with the idea of agonising over the path taken, a man bordering on the edge of obsession, and to whom is willing to cut adrift his id in exchange for the super-ego to reign free, this is a different Batman, but one steeped in its own mythos with care-free justice; and one that arguably could not have been played by anyone else but British actor Robert Pattinson.
It is a performance underpinned by the reveal of his father’s own secret, the lie told, and the openness of all who inhabit this world a question on morality…is a man still considered good and just if they make one mistake. This is crucial to the way we are urged to decry anyone who otherwise leads a blameless, selfless life, and yet makes one wrong turn; the modern belief that we deserve to be shamed forever despite all the good we have may have visited upon all in our sphere of influence.
With a terrific performance by Colin Farrell as The Penguin, and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, The Batman is a hero for a more confused time, where even to be a hero is shrouded in the possibility that you are wrong. Moody, mean, and verging on the magnificent, Batman has been resurrected for a new generation.
Ian D. Hall