Written by: Keaton Marcus

Aggravated and aggressive in a deeply depraved and unsettling manner, but never losing its cool, calculated, and eerily deliberate exterior of detachedness. In sleek and sexy fashion, Matt Reeves takes this violent and depressed iteration of the titular character and posits him in a contrasting world too, say, Nolan’s setting, cleverly reflecting modern society. With Nolan intentionally designing Gotham to be a New York-type location in response to 9/11 and the war on terror, Reeves designs it as a hellish purgatory, lacking glamorization and grand cityscapes, and on the path to imminent destruction. It’s an unreal world where greed and corruption have taken over in full, and no one is representative of a “good guy.” Even Bruce’s tower feels decrepit and torn apart.

The comic book genre is changing. Reflecting on the massive success of Todd Phillips’ Joker in 2019, Reeves follows in similar footsteps. Phillips used the iconic character as merely a platform to examine American violence and disillusionment, with Reeves doing something alike; and as Joker owes to Scorsese a great deal, this does to several works from David Fincher, especially Zodiac and Se7en. It’s kinda funny that this hasn’t gotten the same amount of misguided hate for *plagiarism* but whatever. As Joker most definitely is, this is a very original work that wishes to do far more thematically than what meets the eye.

This is, in essence, a serial killer movie more than anything, with little reassurance in its delve into our largely digitized community today. Incel and Reddit culture are big ideas thrown around here with Paul Dano’s the Riddler. Reeves fundamentally understands this character, diluting the goofy cliches and stripping him down to some loner who doesn’t give a fuck about redemption. This character isn’t a joke anymore, and it’s terrifying.

Here, The Riddler doesn’t believe in hope for societal reformation as Batman does, and certainly doesn’t have anything to lose, so why not destroy it all? That’s the key difference between Bruce and the Riddler as characters. They both detest corruption and political masquerades, but the former seeks to mend the city while the latter wishes to see it burn. It’s a challenging and rewarding experience watching Reeves’ portrayal, and it’s no doubt heavily inspired by Spacey’s in Se7en in both characterization and screen time or lack thereof.

Examining this film from a critical standpoint, the frames feel textured here, clearly made by someone with genuine artistic integrity. Reeves goes full throttle here, with significant help from Greg Fraiser, a total upcoming Roger Deakins. What most MCU films lack is a singular aesthetic and approach in general, and that’s where the DC so often succeeds. Snyder’s depictions aren’t flawless for sure, but he has a unique vision, and sometimes that’s just enough for me. Otherwise, Pattinson and Kravitz are magnetic together, full of a genuine sensuality that Bale and Hathaway so disappointingly lacked in The Dark Knight Rises. Their chemistry is full of yearning and desire, and it does more for superhero films sexually than whatever Eternals (among so many more) have attempted to.

It’s beautifully made, doesn’t feel like three hours at all, and despite its largely grim attitude, full of heroic optimism by the conclusion. This is what comic book cinema needs to be, in my IMO.