The Batman is not, as the name would imply, a movie about a valet to a military officer, but a superhero movie starring Robert Pattinson, Andy Serkis, Zoë Kravitz, John Turturro, Paul Dano, Colin Farrell, and Jeffrey Wright.
It's two years into the vigilante-ing career of the Batman (Pattinson), and he's managed to make a friend and comrade in the Gotham City PD - one Jim Gordon (Wright). Gordon lets him in on an investigation into the murder of the mayor (Rupert Penry-Jones), who has been beaten to death and surrounded in puzzles. The killer, calling himself the Riddler (Dano), has a grudge against the rich and powerful of Gotham, and that includes the criminal element. The mob boss Carmine Falcone (Turturro) really runs the town, despite the idealistic Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) running for mayor to try and fix things.
So we've got the mob dealing drugs, fronted by Falcone and his flunky the Penguin (Farrell), we've got the street-level criminals smashing shit up, we've got the Riddler knocking off corrupt officials, we've got the mysterious Selina Kyle (Kravitz) working for both revenge and money, and in the middle of it all is Batman, trying to get a handle on it.
It is a real shame that this movie came out when it did, because I think it might actually be the best Batman movie. It's not an origin story, but the murder of the Waynes figures into the plot. It's not really a Year One story, but Batman is obviously still finding his feet, especially in balancing his life as Bruce Wayne. The characters we know and love are present, but the takes on them are different enough that they feel fresh - the Riddler, instead of being a Frank Gorshin (or, god help us, Jim Carrey) buffoon, is a savage genius, setting everything up and manipulating frustrated and disenfranchised people to rise up and kill. The scene where he really comes together, though, is when Batman confronts him in Arkham Asylum and he realizes that Batman has been trying to stop him, rather than helping him in his mad quest to destroy the city and he completely unravels. Alfred (Serkis) isn't just a butler or servant, he comes off more as Thomas Wayne's former bodyguard, and one throwaway line about teaching Bruce to fight provides all the context for their relationship we need.
Also, holy shit, Batman gets to actually be a detective. The puzzles and riddles aren't as ridiculously easy to figure out as they were in Batman Forever, so people actually seem somewhat clever for puzzling them out. He still has his gadgets, but the movie isn't about them, and Batman gets to take on some self-sacrifice to save people, not just to hurt bad guys.
I think the real star of the movie, though, is Gotham City. It reads more like New York than some other depictions, and we come away with a better sense of the history of the city, and the feeling that it has a lot of bodies left undiscovered. The city feels organic and has a life of its own, and it feels bigger than the story we get to see in the movie. That's pretty impressive to pull off.
The Batman's biggest problem (apart from the fact that it's more than 3 hours long - it doesn't drag, but it doesn't fly by, either) is that we got two Burton films, two Schumacher films, three Nolan films, and a couple of portrayals of Batfleck before this one. It's enough like Nolan and Burton that it's easy to sleep on it, and that's a shame, because the cast, the production design, and the story are all really impressive.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Everything Everywhere All At Once
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