Beware the new, the darker ‘The Batman’ reboot

Above : “The Batman,” starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, opens Friday. (Photo/Warner Bros.)

I recall well the afternoon of June 23, 1989. I had been reviewing movies for The Spokesman-Review for all of five years at that point, and I was excited for something that was opening that very day.

It was Tim Burton’s “Batman.”

I know that I left the office early. I could rationalize it, though. Writing about movies, after all, was part of my job in those days. And besides, it was a Friday.

And while the film might seem campy now, Burton’s “Batman” was a game-changer. Because as anyone who can recall that era knows, “Batman” up to that point had been pretty much of a joke. I’m thinking mostly of the Adam West television show , of course. You know, BAM! POW! WHACK!

Yes, things had begun to change three years earlier when the four-part graphic novel, “The Dark Knight,” was published. As usual, though, it took the movies a bit longer to catch up.

But then Burton did. Based on a screenplay by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren, but depending mostly on the Oscar-winning production design of Anton Furst , Burton made a film that was darker both thematically and visually than the television show.

Of course, Christopher Nolan would take that darkness much further. His “Dark Knight Trilogy,” which began with 2005’s “Batman Begins,” continued with 2008’s “The Dark Knight” and ended with 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises,” is a good demonstration of how movie culture – and American culture overall – had changed in a decade and a half.

And if anything, both cultures are getting darker. Think of what director Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix did with 2019’s “Joker.” (And imagine what the forthcoming “Joker 2” might look like.)

On Friday, director Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson take over with a new film titled “The Batman.” Reeves helmed two of the “Planet of the Apes” reboots, 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” and 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes.” Pattinson, who earned fame through the “Twilight” series, has proven to be far better an actor than those films ever showed.

As the Batman, Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/Batman faces the ongoing corruption in Gotham City as evidenced by the emergence of The Riddler (played by Paul Dano), a rival in Catwoman (played by Zoë Kravitz ) and the disfigured criminal whom some call Penguin (played by Colin Farrell).

Other cast members include Jeffrey Wright as the police commissioner Jim Gordon and Andy Serkis as Wayne/Batman’s butler Alfred Pennyworth.

The critics are impressed … mostly.

National Public Radio’s Glen Weldon wrote, “What it does do, quite effectively, is tell a solid Batman story, with the most soulful and vulnerable Batman to ever grace the big screen. And that much, at least, is new.”

Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “It’s a movie of alternately promising and frustrating half-measures, in which Reeves’ shrewd storytelling instincts and the usual franchise-filmmaking imperatives repeatedly fight to a draw.”

Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine wrote, “Reeves loves these dead-end apocalyptic environments, and delights in tales that toy with the moral calculus of typical hero narratives. He has given us a Batman that he himself can believe in, not to mention a Batman that feels right for our times.”

As I wrote above, “The Batman” opens on Friday. I don’t go into an office anymore, but if I did I’d probably leave early.

Again.