Quite frankly, when it comes to Batman on the big screen, it can be difficult to tread new ground in distinguishing one Batman from another. Directors have attempted this through various tones: we’ve had campy, subdued and suave, downright ludicrous, grounded (if that’s even possible), and even ultra-violent. Needless to say, when you’re introducing a new Batman, you’re going to have to do something innovative with your take on the vigilante or it will simply blend into a mediocre menagerie of Bruce Waynes. A new Batman always makes me a bit hesitant, as even I begin to feel the fatigue of it all and on top of that I don’t think I’ve seen an actor pull off every facet of Batman to my liking. Never have I really felt that we’ve seen the world’s greatest detective aspect in full swing in combination with intimidation, brutality, combat prowess, and a strong Bruce Wayne performance to top it off. And honestly, we may never see it, but nonetheless I was still very curious to see Robert Pattinson (who I’ll admit doesn’t really fit the build, but I enjoy as an actor) give his rendition of the caped crusader in Matt Reeves’ The Batman.

Now after seeing the film, I can at least say that a complete Batman with all of the aforementioned qualities was attempted. To start off with some positives, I thought every actor gave a good performance for what they were given. Not every character received a lot of screen time, but they maximized every opportunity when they were present. Zoë Kravitz and Andy Serkis as Selina Kyle and Alfred Pennyworth respectively, are good examples of this aspect. However, some of the really standout performances come from Paul Dano as the Riddler and Colin Farrell as Penguin. Dano played a cerebral Riddler with a sinister grit to him mixed with a great level of eccentricity that completed the character for me. He felt both sloppy and calculated which made for a very real take on the character, giving you shivers with a simple smirk. Farrell’s performance as I’m sure you’ll hear has him utterly unrecognizable as Penguin as he fully immersed himself in this role with not even a trace of his appearance or accent visible. You really forget that Farrell is playing him, making Penguin feel like a true part of this universe. I thought Jeffrey Wright’s performance as Jim Gordon was serviceable with a little more screen time than others, though like Kravitz and Serkis not really a lot to do. (Minor spoilers ahead)

Finally, this leaves the elephant in the room of Robert Pattinson as Batman. To put it succinctly, I came away from this film feeling pretty lukewarm about this Batman. It’s not as if the performance was bad, it just lacked a certain presence that kind of felt middle of the road for me. This version felt a little too soft spoken to the point where a lot of the exposition in this film gets lost in utterances and whispers, in fact that goes for a lot of the characters. On another note, with the exception of a few scenes, the combat for this movie lacked a lot of impact in the sound design and ended up feeling very clunky and muted (I will admit that the poor sound design could have been a product of my particular theater). This film is being touted as an investigative crime mystery that has Batman really demonstrate his detective side, but honestly, I didn’t really see Batman do a lot in that regard. Most of the hard work was spoon-fed to him by Alfred while he answered a bunch of simple riddles and scanned things with his contacts. And even then he seemed to fail at every turn, which makes the Riddler engaging but reflects poorly on Batman as a character. Riddler ultimately succeeds in everything he wanted to do, just with a few minor inconveniences because Batman is helped by a random cop identifying a tool. I will say that this failure on Batman’s part does create an effective motivation for character growth as Batman feels he must be more than vengeance for Gotham, but as a story beat it made him very unimpressive. If all of that initial failure had culminated in Batman finally getting the upper hand over the Riddler, allowing him to thwart more of his plans, that would have made Batman feel competent while learning the same lesson. Lastly, Pattinson’s performance as Bruce Wayne was too broody for my taste and without that distinction between Wayne and Batman, it facilitates a character that feels very one-note and doesn’t give the actor a lot of range. A lot of people will defend this Batman by saying that he is very new to this and still learning how to navigate both lives and this city, but just because that’s what the director was going for doesn’t mean it makes for a captivating Batman story.

Another positive to The Batman would have to be the cinematography from Greig Fraser and shot composition which I thoroughly enjoyed throughout; if anything, it’s the visuals that really told a comprehensive story through framing, shadows, and use of color that really stood out to me. Although the music and score by Michael Giacchino were great, it did overshadow some of the dialogue at times making it frustrating when they already spoke so low to begin with but that’s just a minor gripe. And while we’re down here in nitpick alley, I will say that the plot was a bit convoluted with so many minor characters to keep track of that it became a little overindulgent and bloated. A simplified (not dumbed down) and more personal story would have served better here and one without a completely forced romance between two characters with no chemistry. Also, the humanitarian Batman scenes did come off pretty cheesy to me, in fact those scenes could have better served Bruce Wayne as a character, helping his city and fleshing out his growth as a philanthropist in the spotlight and finding that balance between lives. Unfortunately, the last thing I have to mention is the pacing of this movie was abysmal at times, slowing down to a complete crawl, only keeping you interested enough when a scene finally changed or something exciting was revealed. For a movie that was nearly three hours, I see the pacing issue as a huge detriment, which is probably why I wouldn’t watch it again, leaving me coming from the theater not completely disappointed but not really enthusiastic either. The person who cut together the initial teaser trailer with Nirvana playing over it deserves a lot a praise because that’s what drew me in to begin with, but the film as a whole merely felt above average.