Since Christopher Nolan left the building for good and the attempt at shoehorning Batman into the primary-colour fantasy world of the Justice League with stolid Ben Affleck in the role fell flat on its face, it's time for yet another reboot of the DCEU's most layered protagonist. Emo is now the way to go, and that Robert Pattinson can certainly do, but it's an all-round improvement, with the fewest gadgets on show of any Batman film, and being as close to realistic action and violence as the genre can possibly allow. Even the daft batgrowl of Nolan's films is replaced with Pattinson talking so softly that it forces the viewer to actually pay attention to what he's saying, and the villains, likewise, are stripped of their most cartoonish elements to good effect, including the Riddler, who Batman has to stop from sending the city into chaos by exposing and killing all the agents of corruption within its administration. Not quite just a regulation nutjob, but one with an agenda twisted by America's current fixation with the notions of empty promises and fake news.
It's definitely overlong, which now seems to be the norm for the big hitters in the superhero field, but gets by on not insulting the intelligence of the audience and some captivating visuals in the midst of the predominant murkiness.
7/10
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