ReviewThe Batman movie review: Robert Pattinson plays the Caped Crusader in Matt Reeves’ dark and utterly compelling new take on the DC superhero

Robert Pattinson’s Batman broods with the best of them, and with violence sewn into its very fabric, the film turns out to be an astonishing rain-soaked noir

In Matt Reeves’ intricate story, the Caped Crusader faces mystery figure The Riddler, played by Paul Dano, and an unrecognisable Colin Farrell as The Penguin

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Jeffrey Wright (left) and Robert Pattinson in a scene from The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves. Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano co-star. Photo: AP

Published: 1:00am, 1 Mar 2022Updated: 1:33am, 1 Mar 2022

5/5 stars

To create a Batman film able to compete with – or maybe even eclipse – Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy takes some doing. Matt Reeves has done that with The Batman.

A rain-soaked noir, this is darker – in more ways than one – than any previous Caped Crusader chronicle, with Reeves crafting a film that exists largely in the night-time gloom.

A vigilante, Batman (played impressively by Robert Pattinson) is on the fringes of the law – his only supporter on the inside being Gotham City PD member Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright).

But when a mysterious, masked figure kills the mayor, and begins leaving ciphers for “the Batman”, he’s drawn into a puzzle that will take him into the heart of Gotham City’s underworld, in which villains mingle with corrupt district attorneys, cops and politicians.

That mystery figure is The Riddler – though Paul Dano plays him far removed from Jim Carrey’s impish incarnation in 1995 movie Batman Forever.