It's been 10 years since we've seen a solo iteration of the most famous masked avenger. After the shameful treatment given to the vision of Snyder and Ben Affleck's Batman (perfect in Batman V Superman, but much less transcendent in both versions of Justice League) it is now up to Matt Reeves to revive the Bat Man, now played by Robert Pattinson. The filmmaker of the last two (extraordinary) Planets of the Apes tries to introduce Batman for the first time as "the greatest detective in the world" during his second year of activity as a vigilante confronted by the scary Riddler (Paul Dano) who will lead him to discover the truth about the corruption of Gotham… The bet is half successful. We can approach The Batman in two ways: an adaptation of the Batman myth or a neo-thriller evoking a whole section of Hollywood crime fiction/film noir. 
A faithful adaptation
As an adaptation of the comics, The Batman manages to both be faithful to Bruce Wayne while reinterpreting the myth by presenting us the billionaire as a depressed and decadent Kurt Cobain, traumatized by the death of his family, rejected by all: By the people as a symbol of the wealth and corruption of the city's institutions, As a vigilante, frightening the Gothamian population, refusing to accept him as a hero. And we can only understand this one, Batman being indeed an ultra-violent and ruthless vigilante, having no compromise to fight crime. We are not dealing with a playboy as we have seen in previous adaptations of the bat man, but a freak struggling to control these impulses, disturbing and frankly creepy. The mythology of Batman is perfectly adapted, between these borderline criminals (Colin Farrel is absolutely unrecognizable), the mafiosi who pull the strings, the fact that Batman is unable to stop crime but seems to stir it up, the fight against corruption… All these elements are clearly inspired by the best Bat Man comics. A Long Halloween, Year Zero, Year One, Silence, the court of owls… All these inspirations are felt on screen. The fan of the comics will appreciate to see that Reeves has taken the best of the elements of each of these comics (and the video game saga Batman Arkham) to be able to create his own universe. Unfortunately, this ironclad fidelity makes the narrative quite predictable. And that's when we realize that The Batman has real flaws. 
Visually, The Batman is phenomenal. Greig Fraser's photography is sublime, the artistic direction both gothic and cyberpunk makes it possible to create a real city. Matt Reeves manages to create an atmosphere that is both gothic, romantic (of the literary movement) mesmerizing, carried by the phenomenal soundtrack of Michael Giachinno. The action scenes, although rare, are generally quite impressive in intensity, although a little too classic to really mark in the long term (except perhaps a Friedkin-worthy chase scene between the penguin and Batman). The first half of the film is a real success on all levels, starting with the first two sequences of the film, to die for.
A political failure
However, the film ends up being derailed: While throughout the story, the clues give the bat man a hard time, everything is linked a little too easily (such as the twist of the film which is discovered thanks to the dissemination of video on social networks which seems to be the ultimate laziness for an investigative film), the dialogues fish with them the interpretation of the actors : Pattinson, although extremely well chosen, does not seem to do well in some scenes, where Bruce Wayne begins to feel emotions other than anger. The idea of making The Batman a film about a man who learns to become himself and who must assume his past and his legacy to become better is nevertheless excellent in theory. In practice, this translates into scenes that are always well done, accompanied by tunnels of awkward dialogue that do not help the actors at all. 
However, the cast is excellent : Colin Farrel as Penguin is clearly one of the best characters in the film, hilarious as a Joe Pesci gangster, John Turturro does very well as Carmine Falcone, Vito Corleone's decal (on this point, the mobster is much better represented here than in Batman Begins), Jeffrey Wright is impeccable as Gordon. Pattinson is a very credible Batman, despite some problems mainly due to the writing. Andy Serkis as Alfred manages but is probably one of the least interesting butlers in the franchise (Michael Caine obviously remains on top). Dano, on the other hand, delivers a correct interpretation, sometimes a little too grotesque at times. The relationship between Batman and Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) is not uninteresting but turns out to be extremely disturbing or problematic. From their first meeting, Wayne turns into a stalker, Selina Kyle, in a relationship with a woman finds herself after the death of her right companion in the arms of the bat man who has no justification except the fact of wanting once again to represent the romance between the masked avenger and the cat woman. If Reeves is clearly inspired by the codes of film noir and the femme fatale, we can not help but be disturbed by this almost bi-phobic representation that we find in the relationship between these two characters. 
More seriously, The Batman tries to talk about today's world, especially with the Riddler. Psychopath who embodies the miserable Gotham, unlike that of Bruce Wayne, he finds himself as an ersatz Trumpist, pushing these stooges to set up the armed struggle in order to overthrow the established order (obviously evoking the attack on the capitol although the film was already shooting). Matt Reeves is trying to make a political superhero thriller about today's America, Cannon's. Unfortunately, the program seems to be far too ambitious, The Batman having trouble illustrating the political turmoil of this universe except by the dialogues and the climax. As a blockbuster and superhero movie The Batman is a much more polished work than average and respectful of its audience. As a political thriller, we are dealing with a film that collapses like a house of cards. Not unpleasant to look at but far too fragile to fully convince, The Batman has the strengths and weaknesses of a Batman Begins. We can only hope that in case of sequel, it will be up to The Dark Knight this time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwYECrStWlY
