What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*

Movies

The Batman (2022)

The third iteration of Batman in less than 20 years – much like the third iteration of Spider-man – seemed uncalled for. There is still a rather young generation of filmgoers that remember when Christian Bale first graced our screens, as well as when Ben Affleck cast a shadow over it. And with DC’s recent track record with films, I wasn’t keeping my hopes up for this most recent revisitation to be able to hold its own. 

However, despite my low expectations, The Batman still didn’t deliver an experience worth watching. With its strange tone and even stranger directing, I found myself taken out of the world because of poor choices on what to do with the camera. I felt like director Matt Reeves couldn’t quite decide whether he was filming a hard-boiled detective story, a Michael Bay-esque action blockbuster or a disaster movie. You’ll notice that I don’t mention comic book adaptation anywhere in there, because for all intents and purposes, Reeves just wrote the story he wanted and then shoehorned beloved comic book characters into it.

As far as the caped crusader goes in this film, Robert Pattinson presents an angst-ridden version of the character, an emo kid who listened to heavy metal in a darkened basement, and never quite grew out of it as an adult. The reclusive Bruce Wayne is as much a mystery in Gotham society as his masked alter-ego. It was very hard to buy his mission to improve the city when he is so rarely willing to step out into it as Bruce, and only sees the gritty underside of it as Batman. What make it worse is how blandly Pattinson plays the character.

A similarly underdeveloped character was Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz). I can only imagine that the filmmakers meeting went something along the lines of deciding it was enough to give the character daddy issues as motivation for her robbery and vengeance. Also, she was willing to pursue a relationship with probably the first man who showed a semblance of kindness to her. Selina was objectified through the entire film, and while this is a characteristic of the Selina in the source material as well, the lack of development of the character makes it that much more glaringly obvious.

I will say that I enjoyed some of the other cast members. It was lovely to see Paul Dano in something again (for all of 5 minutes that he actually had his face uncovered that is), and he played The Riddler with a manic that fit him well. Colin Farrell’s Penguin was delightful to watch too, with his quick wit and quicker mouth. 

But the additional cast members were a rare plus point to a generally abysmal film. I personally think that the character needs to be left alone for a few decades, and that a few generations down, when people have had the time to miss him, the Dark Knight should make his return.