Mathias Larsen’s review published on Letterboxd:
“Me? I’m nobody, I’m just an instrument here to unmask the truth about this cesspool we call a city.”
Seems like everyone is watching this movie today.. because HBO just fucking crashed!
Absolute banger!
I would go as far as to say: this is the perfect Batman movie, not a perfect movie, that doesn’t exist, but everything the Christopher Nolan trilogy and especially the DCEU movies missed about the character, Matt Reeves nailed! The detective Neo-Noir feel, the element of fear over brutality - I loved that! And I haven’t read any Batman comics, I still know about that aspect of the superhero.
What a movie!
The plot is so good and the way it’s presented is so badass! And what a great introduction to The Twilight Crusader, that opening sequence was awesome! The Se7en / Fincher-esque influence is obvious but not as egregious as the King of Comedy / Taxi Driver influence of Joker, and Matt Reeves probably drew influence from a lot of different things I have not seen or read! And Michael Giacchino just hits different, what a score!
Introverted Bruce Wayne is awesome!
This is more of a psychological thriller than an action movie. There’s an emphasis on character, like no other Batman movie I’ve seen before, there’s a deep dive into the mindset of this man, and I loved it. They felt almost like opposites of each other, a bleak duality between them.. Bruce Wayne felt more like a disguise than Batman, great shift in atmosphere!
And don’t get me wrong the action is crazy! The fight choreography looks so good! The supporting cast was incredible too: Jeffrey Wright, Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano were all amazing. There’s a level of grit to the world building I also really appreciate. Gotham feels like it’s own city and not just a clone of New York. It’s able to feel extremely violent even with the PG-13 Rating and I can’t for the life of me imagine how good this would be if the rating was higher.
Some small issues
The cinematography is ok, it’s maybe a little too dark - No actually certain scenes are not lit properly, you don’t see shit. And I have some small nitpicks, but I don’t think they make it less enjoyable. I went in with a very critical mindset, I was expecting to find it too long and have more pacing issues especially with such a gargantuan runtime. I’m glad there’s no Joker.. I’m so tired of that character at this point..
Which brings me to my biggest issue..
And that’s the future of this potential franchise: This was first and foremost a movie about Batman, and I love that! But once you bring in Joker it’s no longer a focus on the protagonist, I mean we’ve seen so many portrayals of this guy in the last years and I’m so tired of him, the expectations skyrockets and we usually are dissatisfied somehow. I get it from a monetary perspective but let someone else shine man, let Bruce-y boy beat up someone else for once.. let the hero by the focal point for a while.
Overall - I hated the hype around it, but I get it, it’s incredible! Seems we still can make awesome superhero movies.
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