It’s clear that Batman needs to have a moral epiphany but he feels too far gone. It’s all pretty grim, basically, which actually causes something of a dilemma, because when Reeves tries to deliver a more positive message – usually through Jeffrey Wright’s Commissioner Gordon or Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman – it comes across as hollow. He’s genuinely chilling, a man who takes sexual pleasure from killing, which he does wile wearing a home-made gimp mask (one of my favourite facts about The Batman is that Dano gets a music credit for singing Ave Maria, which is Exhibit A for just how weird this film is). There’s no a green-suited dandy here: this Riddler is a basement-dwelling weirdo who, although it’s never spelled out, definitely voted for Trump. With Batman portrayed as a psychotic villain, it falls to Paul Dano to up the ante as main antagonist The Riddler, a job he revels in. In case you didn’t get the message, the film uses Nirvana’s Something in the Way as a constant refrain, its opening chords becoming shorthand for Batman’s dejected mental state. With last night’s eyeliner streaking down his face – how else would he prevent crooks seeing pink rings of skin under his mask? – and lank hair falling across his brow, he looks like a teenage goth after too many bottles of Smirnoff Ice.
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