Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ was highly anticipated by a wide range of people, especially because of the powerhouse cast that was selected for it, and for a movie that I thought couldn’t top ‘The Dark Knight’ for me, ‘The Batman’ had a lot of impressive moments. Fine, yes, I WAS excited about it primarily because Robert Pattinson was going to be Batman, but I did my best to appreciate the other aspects of the movie just as much.

The three-hour run time is a little hard to sit through, especially with how slow the story moves in the latter half of the movie. That’s probably my biggest complaint about ‘The Batman’: no matter how much I wanted to be excited by what was going on I was always fighting not to nod off. But that could also be a little bit on me; that’s what you get when you go to see a 3-hour movie that starts at 7pm.

The movie focuses on Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, living a lonely life with Alfred in Wayne Manor as usual, keeping himself secluded from the rest of the city. His adversary, Riddler, spends the movie killing various political figures in Gotham and leaving notes for Batman at the scenes–riddles for him to decipher. Through these riddles and the partnership Batman forms with Selina Kyle (this movie’s take on Catwoman), political corruption in Gotham is also exposed, and Wayne is forced to question his parents’ involvement in it as he also fights to find Riddler and stop his string of murders.

Maybe the biggest highlight of the movie is how good Pattinson is as Batman. Yes, I guess I’m a little biased as a Robert Pattinson fan, but he truly does portray the angst of the character well. He’s just as good as ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy’s Christian Bale, but even better at portraying the more pathetic aspects of the character.

And that’s another high point of the film: Batman isn’t a perfect or overpowered hero. One of my favorite scenes was when he attempted to glide down to the ground from the top of a building but ended up absolutely crashing and burning. This new Batman acts cool and has an uncanny ability to solve riddles, but he also can’t really talk to women or take care of himself. It’s great.

Though Pattinson was not the only star of the show. Zoë Kravitz was great as an alluring Catwoman, and I was shocked by how much I loved Paul Dano as Riddler. Again, as a ‘Dark Knight’ fan, I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy The Riddler as the movie’s villain, but his hijinks were actually pretty entertaining, and he could even be actually scary at times. How he silently hides in the shadows in the opening scene is so off-putting. 

The modern elements in the movie could at times be a little distracting, or even just straight-up silly. It was hard not to laugh when Riddler was thanking his online fans for their comments or when he and Batman had a cute little FaceTime call as a man’s head was about to be blown up. Many times throughout ‘The Batman’ I found myself smiling or trying to hold in my laughter and then remembering that it’s not supposed to be a comedy. But honestly, I personally love a movie that’s unintentionally weird and funny, so I didn’t mind that too much.

Overall I think this movie has something for everyone. Robert Pattinson for the teenage girls, a dark, gloomy mood for the ‘Dark Knight’ fans, and, as my boyfriend and surely any teenage boy who saw it said after the movie, “I like the Batmobile. It sounds cool.”