What do critics think of Dark Knight’s new film?

Batman has taken many forms on the big screen, from goofy and suffocating to polite and rude. Matt Reeves’ Batman introduces the audience to a new iteration of the Dark Knight – emo.

The film, which hits theaters on Friday, has provoked mixed reactions from critics. Some praised the nearly three-hour film as a deconstruction of the superhero genre, others found it a grim stunt.

Warner Bros. “Batman” skips the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents, the spark that inevitably leads the young billionaire on his way to becoming Batman. Set in the hero’s second year as a masked crime fighter, the film follows the vigilant as he tries to catch a serial killer who targets corrupt officials in Gotham.

The standalone feature does not reconnect to other movies in DC Extended Universe.

Robert Pattinson wears a hoodie, with Zoe Kravitz playing Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman, and Paul Dano terrorizing as Riedler. Other cast members include Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot, also known as the Penguin.

The Batman currently has a 86% Rotten Tomatoes rating of 217 reviews. Here’s what critics think of the film ahead of Friday’s theatrical debut:

Unlike previous iterations of the comic book character, there is little difference between Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman in Reeves’ film, writes Bildy Ebiri in his review of Vulture.

The film does not spend much time on Bruce’s struggle with double life. Here, the billionaire is a thoughtful hermit who rarely appears in public, unlike other adaptations that portray him as a playboy or a common businessman.

“Robert Pattinson’s Batman enters so carefully, so quietly in most of his scenes in Matt Reeves’ Batman,” that you sometimes wonder if he’s not meant to be more of a ghost than a superhero, “Ebiri writes. “… Pattinson is tall, handsome, with straps, but he plays Bruce Wayne with such overwhelmed, sad despair that his body is practically concave when he’s not in a bat suit.”

The film also rethinks the typical superhero trope of subtle similarities between good and bad. It was discovered here, Ebiri wrote.

“Reeves shoots Batman in pursuit of his targets with the same psychotic, hard-breathing aesthetics he shoots Ridler,” he said. “Now we have to try to understand how the hero differs from the villain – as well as Batman.”

Read the full review by Vulture.

To many critics, Batman seems to be a cross between Saw, Seven and Zodiac. This is a film that deals with several genres: horror, thriller, noir, but feels limited by its PG-13 rating.

Riddler terrorizes the rich and powerful Gotham with murderous traps, happily enjoying his work, leaving mysterious clues about the masked watchman of the city.

However, “so much of this is about the value of the shock rather than something really scary,” Eli Glasner wrote in a review for CBC news. “Batman is handcuffed from his family-friendly PG rating, resulting in something like Disney +” Saw. “

Read the full review from CBC News.

“It’s time for Batman to get an appropriate R-rated film,” wrote Christie Pucco in her review of Batman for Mashable.

With Batman.‘ screenwriter / director Matt Reeves partnered with Robert Pattinson to turn once again on the iconic superhero, “she writes.” But without the freedom that R-rating allows, this film – full of threat and murder – feels toothless. “

For Puchko, one of the film’s biggest flaws was how he used Kravitz as Catwoman.

“Zoe Kravitz’s natural charisma is stifled in a role that makes her mainly laugh and spin while wearing skin,” she wrote.

Puchko noted that the chemistry between Catwoman and Batman lacks “spiciness”, pale in comparison to the sexual tension between Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer in 1992’s “Batman Returns”.

“Their forbidden romance feels more necessary than won or authentically lustful,” she wrote.

Read the full review by Mashable.

“On paper, Batman is a standard Batman story: he fights Gotham crime, confronts Ridler and the Penguin, and gets involved with Catwoman,” Katie Walsh wrote in a review of the Tribune News Service. “It’s basically Batman through The Godfather and The Zodiac, a serial killer mystery mixed with a mob movie. clown petty criminals from Gotham. “

With cameraman Greig Fraser (“Dune”), Reeves’ “Batman” has a unique aesthetic – a rain-soaked black-and-red palate with neon highlights. Walsh called the film “excitingly composed and illuminated,” noting that his style works with history, not against it.

Batman also has a new aesthetic in Reeves’ film.

“We’ve had a lot of Batmans, from the polite (Michael Keaton) to the funny (George Clooney), the stupid (Adam West) to the rude (Christian Bale), from the glamorous (Val Kilmer) to the lazy (Ben Affleck),” Walsh said. this Batman … is our goth Bruce Wayne, a more disgruntled young man than a billionaire playboy, and that allows Reeves as a director to play with all sorts of dirty characters and as a writer to fight the real function of Batman. “

“This is a necessary interrogation that offers a revealing twist on this famous character,” she said.

Read the full review from the Tribune News Service.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes.