When Warner Brothers announced the release of a new Batman movie, the news was mostly met with skepticism. 

A brand new Batman movie starring the actor from Twilight that also succeeds Christopher Nolan’s trilogy seemed like an odd choice. But to my and many people’s surprise, this movie is fun, exciting, and thrilling, just like any good Batman film. 

The film explores Batman in a way that hasn’t really been done by past films. Matt Reeves’ take on Batman questions the character’s philosophy and has him change into a new hero by the end of the story. It’s definitely going in a different direction from previous Batman stories in terms of character development, but its execution is solid and works well with the overall story.

Reeves uses the characters in the film to explore philosophical and political themes. But while the film explores darker topics, the characters and story are still over-the-top and campy in a way that makes for a fun superhero movie. 

The acting also helps a great deal in setting a balance between dark themes and popcorn action. Robert Pattinson as Batman and Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman give great performances that get you invested in the characters, while still making them enjoyable to watch. 

Paul Dano as the Riddler was a great choice; he plays an entertaining but also terrifying villain. His performance definitely makes this movie distinct and memorable.

The score is also just straight up amazing. Michael Giacchino does an excellent job at setting the mood for each scene and elevating the action as well. 

Although, one of the lows of this movie has to be the lack of action. 

The film is paced as a detective story for most of its runtime, but that shouldn’t be a problem if you’re into interesting dialogue and uncovering mysteries. However, the three-hour runtime does feel dragging.

Even so, the movie makes up for its few action sequences by making every one extremely memorable. The action scenes are super well-choreographed, thrilling, and exciting.

This film is far from perfect, but in my opinion, it’s the perfect Batman movie. 

It has just the right amount of cheesiness while still maintaining its dark gritty tone that makes this superhero unique.