Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of the 2022 resurrection of Batman in Matt Reeves’ recent film and I think Robert Pattison did a very good job portraying a new take on the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman. He certainly is a much better actor than the Twilight movies would lead you to think.

The cinematography was also stellar, and sometimes magnificent – for instance, the shot in which Batman walks towards the Penguin, trapped upside down in his car. Michael Giacchino’s soundtrack also, while not as good as the work of Hans Zimmer, is certainly one of the best superhero scores out there.

However, despite all these wonderful components to this film, I was disappointed by the narrative. Perhaps it is because both the Dark Knight Trilogy and The Batman were drawing from the same source material, but I felt that the latter stole major plot points from the former, without trying very hard to hide that it was doing so.

For instance, the Riddler felt like another Joker, just not as interesting, or formidable. At the same time, he was trying to upset the established order and expose the corruption in Gotham, just like Bane did in The Dark Knight Rises. The movie ended with a climatic fight as Gotham was destroyed, like at the end of Batman Begins. The Riddler thought that Batman would work nicely into his plan, just like the Joker thought that the people on the ferries would blow each other up.

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