It is hard to review The Batman (2022), without addressing MCU's two-decade-long dominance over the superhero genre. Where the formulaic MCU succeeds, The Batman soares in defying it: no origin story, no grand supervillain-introduction (actually no supervillain at all), no smart-ass quips, no main fight-sequence, no archetypal overcoming-insurmountable-odds-victory storyline etc. One could ask: what kind of a superhero movie are we left with? Well, perhaps we have forgotten what motion pictures are about; sincere story-telling. The Batman starts out as a minor detective's story growing into a major crime saga. We are unceremoniously, but organically introduced to multiple characters of many motives and tragedies, but also hopes and ambitions - all of them breathes life into the depths of what Gotham City is and can be.
Before MCU however, we had multiple stand-alone Batman movies. The director Matt Reeves captures the essence of Batman in ways past silver screen iterations never could. What all his predecessors did (Burton, Schumacher, Nolan, Snyder), were adapting the source material for the big screen - in the blockbuster tradition typically with spectacles, fanfares, catchphrases, PG13 etc. Reeves however, adapted the source material in favor of a sincere Batman story. Don't get me wrong I love Nolan and consider TDK one of my all-time favorites, but it is essential to the Batman lore as it is to the blockbuster pantheon in which I find contradictory. Let me explain myself: Batman is not the typical superhero or blockbuster material. He is in essence a lone vigilante and is not flashy, he operates behind-the-scenes, solving cases out of plain sight and in the dark, infiltrating every layer of the city (not excluding legislation, politics, poverty, inequality, depression) - this do not spell money-making for the Hollywood execs. But by taking the risk on telling a sincere story of smaller scope in terms of action and spectacle, we gain a bigger ambition in terms of characterisation and drama. Never have we come as close to Batman as we have now!
Before MCU however, we had multiple stand-alone Batman movies. The director Matt Reeves captures the essence of Batman in ways past silver screen iterations never could. What all his predecessors did (Burton, Schumacher, Nolan, Snyder), were adapting the source material for the big screen - in the blockbuster tradition typically with spectacles, fanfares, catchphrases, PG13 etc. Reeves however, adapted the source material in favor of a sincere Batman story. Don't get me wrong I love Nolan and consider TDK one of my all-time favorites, but it is essential to the Batman lore as it is to the blockbuster pantheon in which I find contradictory. Let me explain myself: Batman is not the typical superhero or blockbuster material. He is in essence a lone vigilante and is not flashy, he operates behind-the-scenes, solving cases out of plain sight and in the dark, infiltrating every layer of the city (not excluding legislation, politics, poverty, inequality, depression) - this do not spell money-making for the Hollywood execs. But by taking the risk on telling a sincere story of smaller scope in terms of action and spectacle, we gain a bigger ambition in terms of characterisation and drama. Never have we come as close to Batman as we have now!