The Batman has finally been released worldwide and fans can not stop hyping about the Cinematic piece of art that Matt Reeves has created. It is not only the best Dark Knight movie but perhaps the best comic-book superhero movie ever made. Robert Pattinson has done full justice to the role and has definitely become the favourite Caped Crusader of many DC fans including me.
There is a lot to talk about in the movie and we shall be covering all of it in this article. Here, we will break down the full movie scene-by-scene and discuss the parts that were the best and had great significance in the movie.
Robert Pattinson’s Narration
Robert Pattinson narrated a major part in the prologue and epilogue of the movie. I’ve got to admit that the very voice of the Batman actor was enough to send chills down the audience’s spine.
We know that The Batman is no origin story and it shows a Batman who has already been doing what he does for the last two years. Robert Pattinson’s narration in the prologue pretty much sums up his two years’ worth of experience in the best possible way.
Matt Reeves has also used his narration over some incredible footage to beautifully paint the image of exactly how scared Gotham’s goons are of Batman.
On the other hand, Robert Pattinson’s narration in the epilogue serves the exact opposite purpose. It gives hope and shows how much his recent experience has changed him positively and provides a great closure to the movie.
Batman – A Nocturnal Animal?
In Robert Pattinson’s narration in the prologue, he says that seeing the nights of Gotham City for two years has turned him into a nocturnal animal.
The Batman actor has previously mentioned in several interviews that 2 years’ worth of experience has broken the vigilante and he is somewhat enjoying what he does. The Batman is now just one other element in Gotham City that other people are afraid of.
Although he only hurts the bad guys, it is hard to distinguish between him and his Victims.
Paint Faced Goons
We see a group of goons with white paint smeared across their faces sitting in a train in the very first scene. They try to mug an innocent man right after he steps out of the train.
Well, I could not help being reminded of Joker(2019) after seeing this scene. Remember the last scenes of Joker where a bunch of guys dressed just like him, called them their fans and got inspired from his criminal activities? The group who mugged the man in The Batman looked exactly like that.
It was the first clue that suggested that maybe a version of Mr J is very well present in this Universe.
“I’m Vengeance”
When one of the masked goons asks Batman who he was, he said “I’m Vengeance” after beating the literal crap out of him. It was followed by an epic fight scene which we also saw in one of the trailers.
The ‘I’m Vengeance’ line has been used on several occasions in the movie including an instance when Catwoman mocked Batman by calling him ‘Hey Vengeance’.
The line perfectly defines Robert Pattinson’s batman at the beginning of the movie. He is the epitome of ‘inflicting punishment’ on the wrongdoers of Gotham and is always angry. This is important for the movie as we see him transforming into a much better version of himself by the latter part of the movie.
Batman Re-Watches his adventures
A unique feature of Robert Pattinson’s Batman is that he monitors his daily activity as the vigilante after returning to the Batcave. He wears special lenses that record everything that he sees and after returning, he plays those videos back to note down every detail on his Diary or daily journal. That is what he narrates in the movie.
Although it serves the bigger purpose of helping him investigate cases (like we saw later in the movie), the main reason why Bruce records his adventures and notes everything down in a journal is that in the morning, he often forgets what he did the previous night. He mentioned this in the prologue narration.
The World’s Greatest Detective!
Batman is often called the ‘World’s Greatest Detective’ but we had never seen him thoroughly investigating a case using his skills in the DCEU….well, until now.
Matt Reeves has done to Batman the Detective and we could witness the Caped Crusader’s sleuthing skills right from the beginning of the movie.
When Batman went to Mayor Don Mitchell Jr’s house to investigate his murder by the Riddler, he almost immediately solved the first part of Riddler’s riddle.
Throughout the length of the movie, he kept on looking for clues and unsolved the case with some help from Lt. James Gordon and Alfred – Just like a true Detective does!
A Batman that is not helping?
The series of cruel killings by the Riddler makes Batman question his existence. Is he even making a difference in Gotham City? He asks this himself constantly.
However, he himself mentioned in the first scene that he has to choose his victims because he cannot be everywhere.
This notion ends at the end of the movie, however, as Bruce finds a new purpose for continuing as the Masked Vigilante.
Oz Cobblepot a.k.a Penguin
Penguin is one of the most dangerous ‘Gentleman’ mob leaders of Gotham City in DC Comics. However, the version of Penguin that Colin Farrell portrayed in this movie has not transformed into his fullest potential yet and is thus still called by his name – Oz Cobblepot.
Although Oz is an influential bad guy, being the right hand of Carmine Falcone and is also involved in a number of evil businesses. However, he is not yet the Penguin from DC comics that we are acquainted with.
However, the ending of the movie has opened up an opportunity for Oz to become achieve extraordinary power in Gotham City after the demise of Carmine Falcone. In the sequel of The Batman, we could thus see Oz’s transformation into Penguin after he gets absolute control of Gotham.
Bruce Wayne’s Sunglasses
It is the little comic-book accurate details of The Batman that make it so awesome. We see Bruce Wayne wearing black sunglasses in the morning because he stays up in the dark and thus has to struggle to adjust to all the bright light in the morning.
Selina Kyle…but not Catwoman
Although Selina Kyle was introduced in The Batman, the term ‘Catwoman’ was never used for her throughout the movie. However, there were several Cat references and puns (like the 9 lives one) to tease the character.
Zoe Kravitz has done an excellent job portraying Selina Kyle though. Matt Reeves’ version of the character, like that of Oz, is one who has not fully understood her potential and has will transform into Catwoman only in the future.
Unlike the previous portrayals of the character, though, Selina Kyle has not been shown to be a burglar. Yes, she thus breaks into places but only for the people she loves.
The Bat and the Cat – Has a nice ring to it!
Matt Reeves has been successful in showing the interesting relationship between Batman and Selina Kyle. Batman always asking Selina to not do anything without his supervision and Selina telling him that she can watch her back tells everything about the chemistry between the two.
The kiss and the romance scenes between the two were also well shot. Although the playboy side of Bruce Wayne was not shown much in this movie, Bruce seems to be instantly attracted to Selina from Scene 1.
A serial killer who wants to be known
The Batman takes a deep dive into the mind of a ruthless psychotic serial killer who murders corrupt figures of Gotham City and leaves riddles as clues to find out his next victim.
A big characteristic of the Riddler is that he wants to be known. After being arrested, he told Batman that he had been a nobody for the entirety of his life and after these acts, people finally knew him.
He thus intentionally left these riddles to kind of boast his act.
Gotham City is neck-deep in Corruption
Although Riddler’s methods can never be justified, he successfully brought to light the corrupt acts of several high-level officials who would have otherwise continued their criminal acts without anyone knowing.
Mayor Don Mitchell, D.A Gil Colson and Pete Savage were all respectable high authority personnel who were highly in touch with Gotham’s underworld and even let bad things happen for money.
This gives us an image of Gotham’s true state of corruption and crime and teases the upcoming DC HBO Max show on Gotham’s Police department (GCPD)
The other side of Bruce Wayne
Although Robert Pattinson’s Batman likes to call himself ‘Vengeance’ and is always this angry vengeful vigilante, he also has a softer part inside him.
Although he does not show any special affection towards Alfred usually, his concern for him when Riddler sent him the letter well established the fact that he cared very dearly for Alfred.
Moreover, when he saw Mayor Don Mitchell’s kid, he was reminded of his past and even ran to save him at the Memorial when the Car crashed into the building.
Robert Pattinson’s Batman is vulnerable
We usually know Batman to be this tough guy who is afraid of no one and wins any battle irrespective of how strong his opponent is. But Matt Reeves has humanised his Batman in this aspect.
Although Robert Pattinson’s Batman is fearless when it comes to saving others, he also had to run for his life (and to save his identity) when the Gotham police arrested him.
This is a major reason why Marvel’s Daredevil succeeded and probably why The Batman will too.
Alfred Pennyworth
Andy Serkis has done a great job playing the role of Alfred Pennyworth. The way he helped Bruce Wayne solve the cryptic riddles of Riddler effortlessly, shows us his true value as Batman’s Valet.
He also showed how dearly he loved Bruce and also revealed that he had taught him how to fight which is yet another comic-book accurate detail. To be precise, Andy Serkis is a perfect Alfred.
The Dirty Secret of the Wayne family
The last riddle of Riddler revealed some dark truths about Bruce’s own parents. The Riddler spoke about the two founding families of Gotham City – the Waynes and the Arkhams. Bruce married Martha who belonged to the Arkham family.
However, when he ran for mayor, a certain journalist unravelled some facts about Martha. He revealed that Martha’s mother had killed his husband and then committed suicide. However, the Arkhams had used their power to hide this news.
This had a negative impact on Martha’s mental health and she was even admitted to Arkham Asylum for a long time.
The Riddler said that Bruce Wayne had the journalist killed by Carmine Falcone to save his family’s reputation. This really messed up with Batman’s mind as he had never known this.
The Truth about Carmine Falcone
When Bruce went to Carmine Falcone to ask him about the truth of Riddler’s allegations against his father, Falcone said that Thomas Wayne had indeed asked him to do something about the reporter and that Marione had killed Thomas.
However, Alfred told Bruce that Thomas had asked Carmine to scare the reporter and not to kill him. He had said that he will confess everything to the police and later that night, he and Martha were killed.
With the help of Thomas Wayne’s Renewal fund, Falcone then became the most powerful figure in Gotham and the big organisations were simply his puppets. In the words of Oz, Falcone was the actual Mayor of Gotham for the last two decades.
Riddler’s Motive – ‘The Renewal’
When the Riddler revealed his motive, it turned out that the Movie Novel (“Before the Batman: An Original Movie Novel”) that was released a few months ago matches exactly with Riddler’s origin story.
Riddler was an orphan who lived in the orphanage that was built in an abandoned Wayne Tower. When Thomas Wayne promised the Renewal fund which would go to entirely towards charity, Riddler and his orphan friends saw a silver lining.
However, after Thomas Wayne’s death, the renewal fund went into the wrong hands who used it mainly for money laundering and for criminal acts. It was Riddler’s first experience of Gotham’s crooked and corrupt system and was a big factor that led to him becoming a psychopath.
Batman and Riddler Working together?
Riddler mentioned a number of times in the Movie that he and Batman were very similar to each other and that they were actually working together – Batman used his strength and power to bring the big figures into light after which Riddler executed them, exactly like what happened with Carmine Falcone.
However, Batman called him a psychopath and told him that they were totally different in all ways which ‘hurt’ Riddler.
Batman using a green Venom
In the last action scene, Batman injected a green steroid in his body to recover from bullet shots instantly so that he could save Selina Kyle. However, we saw that he completely lost his mind after using it and started hitting the Riddler goon uncontrollably after using it, probably due to the adrenaline rush.
In DC comics, a green steroid called ‘Venom’ was used by Bane to gain superhuman powers. In some timelines, Batman has also been seen using it.
Batman’s Transformation – From Vengeance to Hope
As we mentioned earlier, at the beginning of the movie, Batman liked to call him ‘Vengeance’. However, when a Riddler goon called him ‘Vengeance’ too after the final action scene, he realized that he was, unfortunately, becoming an inspiration for many negative people as well due to his anger, vengefulness and his methods.
In the very last scene, i.e, in the epilogue narration of Robert Pattinson we see him calling Batman a hope for people. Batman provides hope to the people of Gotham as they believe that someone is out there in the dark to protect them.
This character transformation of Batman is undoubtedly the biggest USP and the best part of the movie.
Shoutout to Bludhaven
When Selina Kyle bids farewell to Batman, she says that she is going to Bludhaven. Bludhaven is a famous city in DC comics that is situated near Gotham City.
It is the city where Arrow and Nightwing operate.
Political Anarchy in Gotham and the fight to Replace Falcone
Although the last scene of the movie gives us hope about the city of Gotham, it also leaves a big question. Who will rule the mafia of the City now after the death of Carmine Falcone?
And that is when we are given a shot of Oz Cobblepot looking at the city. We know that a Penguin HBO Max series is in the making and it might show Oz Cobblepot’s journey to the top and his transformation into the infamous DC Kingpin – Penguin.
The Unseen Arkham Prisoner
Perhaps the most interesting and spine-chilling scene near the end of the movie was when Riddler talks with another cell-mate after his plan failed.
An ‘Unseen Arkham Prisoner’ tried to motivate him through the walls and befriended the riddler. His face was not fully shown but his laugh at the end and the little bit of his face that we saw through the cell was evidence enough to prove that it was indeed the joker being played by Barry Keoghan.
The Batman sequel
The Joker being teased at the end of the movie might suggest that we might see the villain in the sequel of the movie. However, many are of the opinion that Pattinson’s Batman will face Mr Freeze in The Batman 2 instead. Nothing is confirmed yet though and we are waiting for an update. However, it is sure that the sequel is not coming before 2024.
Also Read:- The Batman director Matt Reeves confirms Arkham Asylum and Penguin Spinoff
