Movies

Batman has always been my jam. My whole life, I've loved the comic books when i was a kid, I LOVED the TV show. When the Burton film came out I was entranced. I will never forget seeing Batman Begins, I couldn't believe it, that Nolan had the BALLS to tell it like it really is, that this is a dark, effed up world and main character. 

And this movie is just fantastic! Really, I can't say enough. It was utterly absorbing. The run time went by in a flash. I think the length is actually for the better believe it or not. The story is a great one. The film looks incredible, the sound is amazing, the score is superlative. The story takes you through the gamut of emotional responses, it really hits you in many different ways. 

But it's the performances that are going to be talked about with this movie. These performances are going to stand up forever, and they're going to keep this movie in very high regard going forward. They are uniformly superb. You're going to hear people talking about so many of them, because everyone is just note perfect. 

When we walked out of the theater, one of the first things i said to my wife was, "you know after watching that Jared Leto performance in House of Gucci, it's really quite entertaining, but it's so campy, but if you're going to try to do an immersive kind of characterization, Colin Farrell just blew that performance away".  And my wife says "oh my God, that was Colin Farrell? No. I can't believe it, I didn't even recognize him, and the whole time i just knew it was somebody BIG. If this had been Thanksgiving he'd have won an Oscar. Brilliant".  And even though we don't really care whatsoever at this point about the Oscars, that might actually be true. What a performance Farrell gives in this. He completely disappears in this role, and it was fantastic to see the character delivered this way in this story. I'll tell you; that's a really, really long way from Danny DeVito. Just a great performance. 

And Paul Dano is a great villain in this thing. He's so good here. He's mesmerizing. I loved how he's not even in this thing for quite a long time, not much. And then POW. As creepy a performance as I can remember in some time. And every scene that Zoe Kravitz and Pattinson are onscreen together, it's wonderful. You really want more; they are tremendous together. I mean, they are HOT in this. This performance is a break out for her, it's a real star making turn. Kudos to her for more than holding her own the whole way through this. And Turturro? What an absolute creep. Great work by him. 

Pattinson. He carries the whole thing. He is awesome here, he is perfectly brooding, quiet and intelligent in this. And brutal. I couldn't be more impressed with the guy's work here. Just in the past couple years, between The Lighthouse and this, wow. What a roll. And this is a real movie star type performance, i mean there's a lot of pressure here, and he just nails it, he hits it out of the park here. 

And Serkis; isn't great to actually "see" Andy Serkis in a film? LOL. Wonderful. 

The action sequences are balls to the wall here. The biggest set pieces are stunning. But really, what sets the film apart for me is the whole serial killer, detective procedural aspect of the story. It takes Batman to a whole different level. Which leads to....

There are 2 pretty obvious inspirations for part of this film. And I will say, that if you liked Zodiac, and if you liked Seven, well, then you're going to like The Batman. It's creepy as hell, it's scary, it's sobering, really, there is some extremely heavy sh*t going on in this movie, and it's just a great time in a movie theater. 

Please, please don't think of watching this at home on your TV screen or your IPAD. Go see this on the best screen in your city. For me, the IMAX in Irvine was a no brainer. Since they installed the laser at Irvine, that screen is magnficent. And it's HUGE. I'm going to give this a couple of weeks to sit, and then i'm going to go see it again, hopefully in one of the great IMAX theaters in the city (Universal City Walk, TCL, one of those). 

Blown away by this film. Matt Reeves, you are an artist of extraordinary merit dude.  What an experience. So much to take in, I'll be thinking about this for days. Awesome.