I’ve been looking forward to The Batman for a while now. I’m not a “superhero” freak but I enjoy the Marvel Universe and I actually probably like the DC universe more because of the characters. There have been a lot of Batman movies over the years and there’s yet another one coming out this summer with Keanu Reeves playing the Dark Knight this time, DC League of Super-Pets.

Each actor that has played Batman seems to bring a unique take to the role. I probably liked Michael Keaton best followed by Christian Bale and then Ben Affleck. (yes, I think his personality lends itself to a dark, brooding role) Val Kilmer, George Clooney and others kind of fill in the gaps afterwards with no standouts among them. Robert Pattinson drops into that 2-4 spot with those others for me.

The role of Catwoman taking on a major portion of the movie adds an interesting perspective to this version. I like Matt Reeves as a director and visually I think he does a great job of keeping a dark movie from being too dark. (visually AND in tone)

The story is well-told but I felt it just lacked a little something. The other thing that missed the mark for me was the 3-hour running time. I just felt it could have knocked off even an extra 15-20 minutes. But, in all fairness, these big movies nowadays all seem to be pushing 3 hours.

Two sequels are already planned so it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep up the intensity or if it drops off. Paul Dano is a great villain and that is an important part of making sure these movies succeed.