The Batman Returns to Roots

**************What follows contains only minor spoilers.*************

The Batman is a different kind of Batman movie. If Ben Affleck is the older Batman, then Robert Pattinson is the younger Batman who is still finding himself. As the movie opens, we learn that Batman has been around for two years. He is trying to make a difference in Gotham City but it seems that he has had little more impact than to strike fear into the criminal element of the city. He is, in fact, called not Batman but The Vengeance. This is not particularly a spoiler because it is discovered in the first few moments of the movie. 

The Batman harkens back to the original idea behind the masked vigilante. He is one of the world's greatest detectives. It reminds us that Batman started out in Detective Comics in 1939 which is where DC Comics actually takes its name. This version of Batman still carries the idea that he will not use a gun. Although it is true that Batman originally used guns because he was basically a rip-off of The Shadow, by the time Batman #1 appeared on the shelves in 1940, he was developing his own mythos which included the fact that he didn't use guns. 

In short, The Batman returns to his roots, not as a superhero, but as a detective in a noir story. He is dealing with political corruption and crime bosses and his villains are from there. He must solve a dark and horrible series of murders that will uproot the very world he believed to exist. His villains are not the comic book, over-the-top prancing characters like the Penguin who wears a top hat, smokes a cigarette in an overly long filter, and carries an umbrella. The Penguin (Colin Farrell) is a member of the criminal underworld and former righthand of a now convicted and jailed crime boss. He must also deal with a crime boss and drug lord, Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).

Into this mix is thrown a psychopath calling himself Riddler (Paul Dano). This version of the Riddler is not some antic-driven, prancing Jim Carrey but a died-in-the-wool serial killer. He is not a derby-wearing, dressed in green question mark-covered suits, but a complex and brilliant killer. 

Added to this is Selena Kyle, Cat Woman (Zoë Kravitz). Selena is a more complicated character than in previous versions. She, too, has come from the criminal underworld. But she, like Batman, is a broken human who is seeking her place in the world. She is played by Kravitz in such a way that we understand why she is drawn to a character like Batman. 

Finally, is one of the main and often most under-utilized characters in Batman movie lore, Alfred (Andy Serkis). Only the series Gotham tried to use this version of Alfred. Since Bruce Wayne has lost his parents, Alfred trains him to protect himself. He is the reason Batman exists to a certain degree. He is more than the kindly tall and skinny butler. There is also the plus that in The Batman there is no scene depicting the iconic death of the Waynes. It seems the director/writer, Matt Reeves, finally gets that almost everyone knows how Thomas and Martha Wayne died. 

The more I think about The Batman, the better I like it. It is a complex and character-driven movie. It harkens back to the 1970s film noir mysteries. It is so much more than the shows where a crime happens and Batman shows up and beats up all the criminals. He investigates, he thinks, he interacts with the only cop he trusts, Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), who is not yes Commissioner Gordon but a policeman who wants to stop the corruption too. Batman gets things wrong and the solution is not some neatly wrapped solution. The Batman is a dark and gritty film about a great detective who must become more.