DC Comics character ‘Batman’ was first introduced in a comic called The Detective Comics no. 27 in 1939. The character eventually gained popularity and was given his own comic series that debuted in 1940. Since then, there have been many comics as well as Batman movies that have been made, and each of them greatly differ from each other. The most recent Batman movie to come out is titled The Batman and was released in theaters on March 4th, 2022 and reached the HBO Max streaming service on April 18th. The Batman stars Robert Pattinson, who rose to fame from his appearances in Harry Potter and The Twilight Saga, alongside Zoë Kravitz, who appeared in Divergent as well as the HBO original series ‘Big Little Lies.’ Pattinson plays Bruce Wayne, a wealthy man in his early 30’s whose alter ego is the vigilante Batman, and Kravitz plays Selina Kyle, a cocktail waitress who is secretly Catwoman. The Batman was directed by Matt Reeves and has a runtime of two hours and fifty six minutes.

When the news first dropped that Pattinson would be playing Batman, there was lots of talk. Some were excited to see him take on this iconic role, but others were furious about the recasting of this character. As of 2022, Pattinson is the sixth person to play Bruce Wayne in the past 32 years. The Batman is the 14th movie that features the superhero in it.

This movie cost around $185 million to make and was primarily filmed in England. The sales from the opening weekend of this movie totaled to be about $124.2 million but the gross revenue continued to grow. As a whole, the movie generated around $359,052,000 in gross for the US and Canada and around $735,152,000 in gross worldwide. As of April 2022, The Batman is the top grossing movie of the year so far. The Batman compared to other DC movies is tracking around 8% behind The Dark Knight Rises, 10% ahead of Justice League, 43% ahead of Wonder Woman, and 45% ahead of The Dark Knight.

The actual movie itself has a good storyline with just enough twists and turns to make it interesting. Please note that going forward, this article will contain spoilers for the movie. The movie opens with a graphic scene that, in my opinion, sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The Gotham City mayor is killed by the unknown villain and Batman is called to investigate alongside the police force. The villain left a riddle for Batman and continues to do so throughout the movie. Batman discovers evidence about the murder and leads him to a nightclub that is frequented by members of the mob. At this club, he meets Selina [Catwoman] and follows her home to ask her what she knows. After discovering she has no information, he sends her back into the club to try and get answers from some of the shady people who commonly visit the club. The team discovers that there is lots of corruption surrounding the city’s officials and that’s why the first victim was killed.

We learn that the villain goes by the name ‘The Riddler’ and riddles are a big part of his plans. The majority of the city shows up for the mayor’s funeral when an unexpected visitor, the district attorney, drives his car into the middle of the service and steps out to reveal a time bomb strapped to his neck that will go off if he incorrectly answers three riddles. Batman helps him answer the first two, but he refuses to answer the third which is the name of an informant who gave the police information that led to one of the biggest drug busts in the city’s history. The district attorney is killed and Batman is left to find the informant along with police lieutenant James Gordon. They speculate that the informant is a man called Penguin but after a long car chase scene, Batman learns that he was not who they were looking for.

Batman and Gordon follow the Riddler’s trail to an abandoned orphanage funded by Waynes murdered parents, where they learn that the Riddler holds a grudge against his family. They learn that Bruce is his next victim but since he’s not at his house, there’s one person left to fall into the Riddler’s trap. Bruce’s caretaker, Alfred, opened the letter addressed to Bruce which turned out to be a bomb and he is hospitilaized. During Batman’s time at the orphanage, the Riddler claims that Thomas, Bruce Wayne’s father who was running for mayor before he was murdered, hired Falcone, a suspected member of the mob, to kill a journalist for threatening to reveal a family secret. Bruce confronts Alfred because he looked up to his father his whole life, thinking he was a good man. Alfred tells him that Thomas only asked Falcone to threaten the journalist and planned to turn himself, as well as, Falcone over to the police once he found out the journalist was murdered. He also told Bruce that he believes that Falcone had Thomas and Martha killed to prevent this.

Falcone is revealed as the informant for the drug bust as well as Selina’s father and she goes to try and kill him. Batman arrives in time to stop her, but the Riddler kills Falcone as he is being arrested. The Riddler is then unmasked and

revealed as forensic accountant Edward Nashton and is arrested. He tells Batman he idolizes him and took inspiration from him when targeting the corrupt. Batman realizes that the Riddler has one last trick and discovers that there is car bombs planted around Gotham and the Riddler has convinced an online following to assassinate the mayor-elect later that night. The bombs destroy the breakwaters and flood the city. A shelter is set up at an indoor arena, where the Riddlers followers attempt to kill the mayor but are stopped by Batman and Selina. At the end, Selina deems Gotham beyond saving and leaves the city and Bruce behind while Batman tries to help the city recover.

The ending to some is a sort of cliffhanger leading us to believe there could be a sequel. Overall the reviews of the movie are pretty mixed. Some hated it and others loved it. One student at Liberty saw this new movie and has their own thoughts on it. Taya Zapf, sophomore, has seen the movie three times and was very impressed.

“I really liked it and the main thing I like is the cinematography. The whole plot was amazing and although it was a pretty long movie, I never really got bored during any of it.”

She also shared her favorite part of the movie.

“The car chase was definitely one of my favorite scenes.”

Overall, this movie has pretty mixed reviews but there is no debate about it being remembered for years to come. With it being the top grossing movie of 2022 so far, more and more people are watching it and with that, it could eventually be the most watched Batman movie ever.