The Batman

Year:  2022

Director:  Matt Reeves

Screenplay:  Matt Reeves and Peter Craig, based on characters from DC Comics

Starring:  Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell

Running Time:  176 minutes

Genre:  Action, superhero, crime, thriller

On Halloween night, the mayor of Gotham City is brutally murdered by a masked individual calling himself The Riddler (Dano), who leaves a series of cryptic clues aimed at masked vigilante, the Batman (Pattinson), the secret identity of reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne, who has been fighting crime in Gotham for two years.  As Batman investigates, he realises that The Riddler is just getting started, as more and more of the great and good in Gotham turn up murdered.  With the help of nightclub waitress Selina Kyle (Kravitz), who has her own secret, the Batman uncovers a vast criminal conspiracy, which hits uncomfortably close to home.  

It's tempting to roll the eyes at the thought of yet another Batman film, or indeed yet another superhero film as the last ten years has seen a seemingly endless stream of them.  The tendency, particularly of the Batman films, has been to get increasingly dark and gritty, which to be fair is in keeping with the character's origins in the pages of Detective Comics in 1939, but a long way from the colourful, campy Batman TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward which defined the character for decades, at least until the 1989 Tim Burton Batman film.  Despite Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997) the character seems to get darker and grittier with each new iteration, and this is possibly the bleakest yet.  Devoid of light (literally for the most part, the film takes place almost entirely at night in gloomy, cavernous rooms, and strobe-lit nightclubs), humour and mostly any sense of hope, this is Batman for the 2020s.   It is less of a superhero action film, although there are some very good action scenes, including a spectacular car chase, it's more of a gritty crime thriller, closer to films such as Se7en (1995).  Batman is more of a detective here, trying to crack the case by solving the clues and interviewing witnesses and suspects.  Robert Pattinson is good as Batman, and his Bruce Wayne is a very different take on the character.  Instead of the traditional billionaire playboy, his Bruce is a recluse lurking around the Batcave, always in black, listening to Nirvana and writing his thoughts in a journal. and seems to be more than. little bit disturbed, closer to characters such as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976) or Rorschach in the comic series Watchmen (1986-87), who incidentally was inspired by Batman.  Andy Serkis plays Alfred, Bruce's one connection to a normal life.  Zoë Kravitz is very good as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman, who helps Batman for her own purposes and whose moral ambiguity challenges Batman's black-and-white worldview.  Paul Dano is chilling as the Riddler, turning the character from a gimmicky prankster to a genuinely frightening killer.  Jeffrey Wright is good as Commissioner Gordon, Batman's friend on the police force, and one of the few honest cops in a corrupt city.  Colin Farrell is almost completely unrecognisable under layers of makeup as mobster and club owner the Penguin.  While the Batmobile does make an appearance in the film, and very impressive it is too, Batman uses less gadgets than usual in these films, mostly allowing his targets to hear his heavy footfalls as he looms from the shadows  This is an impressive and complex film which spins out an intriguing mystery and remains gripping throughout what could politely be described as a generous run time.  While this may be too dark and sombre for many people's tastes it feels right for the character, and I liked the fact that it was a smaller scale than most recent superhero films, and I also liked the portrayal of Batman as a crime-solving detective.

Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) and Batman (Robert Pattinson) in The Batman

The Magnificent Seven

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Antoine Fuqua
Screenplay:  Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk, based on Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni
Starring:  Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard
Running Time:  133 minutes
Genre:  Western, action

The year is 1879, and the small mining town of Rose Creek is plagued by ruthless industrialist Bart Bogue (Sarsgaard), who wants control of the entire town.  After Bogue turns a town meeting in the local church into a massacre, young widow Emma Cullen (Bennett), whose husband was killed by Bogue, and her friend Teddy (Luke Grimes) ride out to find gunfighters to help protect the town.  They find bounty hunter Sam Chisholm (Washington), who has a personal grievance against Bogue, gunfighter and gambler Josh Faraday (Pratt), sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheux (Hawke), and his associate and expert knife fighter Billy Rocks (Lee), wanted outlaw Vasquez (Garcia-Rulfo), grizzled frontiersman Jack Horne (D'Onofrio) and Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Sensmeier).  These seven have to protect a town of farmers against a ruthless army.

This is a remake of the classic 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven, which in turn was a remake of the 1954 film Seven Samurai.  This is a hugely entertaining, classical Western, full of the traditional tropes of the genre, there is even a scene where the piano stops playing when a  character shoulders into the saloon.  I have to confess, I am a huge fan of Westerns, and this film left me with a big smile on my face.  It's a good old-fashioned romp, in the best sense, full of action, and daring-do, with a dash of humour and emotion (the final moments have real emotional weight).  Washington and Pratt provide real movie-star charisma.  Aside form a more diverse cast, this is very much a traditional Western, and doesn't really do much that hasn't been done before, but for old-school Saturday matinee fun, it certainly delivers.

Vincent D'Onofrio, Martin Sensmeier, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ethan Hawke, Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Byung-hun Lee are The Magnificent Seven

Orphan

Year: 2009
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Screenplay: David Leslie Johnson, from a story by Alex Mace
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Aryana Engineer
Running Time: 123 minutes
Genre: Horror, thriller, psychological

Summary: Recovering alcoholic Kate Coleman (Farmiga) and her husband John (Sarsgaard) find their already strained marriage stretched to breaking point after their third child is stillborn. They decide to adopt a nine year old Russian girl named Esther (Fuhrman) from a nearby orphanage. At first glance Esther, who is a talented painter, appears firendly and intelligent, if slightly strange.
At the Coleman household Esther is welcomed almost immediately by the Coleman's deaf-mute daughter Max (Engineer), but she is disliked by the older child, Daniel (Bennett), who immediately takes exception to Esther's mannerisms and eccentric taste in clothes.
Before long Esther begins to display increasingly violent and manipulative behaviour. However, as Kate becomes increasingly suspicious of her John refuses to believe that Esther is anything but misunderstood. As their relationship begins to disintegrate Kate becomes determined to uncover the secrets of Esther's past.

Opinions: This film belongs to the "evil child" sub-genre of horror (which includes The Bad Seed (1956), The Omen (1976) and The Good Son (1993) among many others) as well as the "cuckoo in the nest" sub-genre in which a family comes under attack from an enemy within.
The film is slow to get going and the final half hour gets ludicrously over the top, but mostly it is an impressively atmospheric slice of horror. Moving at a deliberate pace the film builds up it's characters and their relationships, allowing for a number of elements to be dealt with more subtly (such as John's infidelity and Kate's guilt over an accident involving Max). The film, which was shot near Montreal, also gets a lot of milage out of the wintery landscapes.
The performances all round are superb, with Isabelle Fuhrman delivering a standout performance as the murderous child, seemingly all sweetness and light, but with a cold, dead-eyed stare which makes The Omen's Damien look about as threatening as Dennis the Menace. Vera Farmiga also impresses as the increasingly suspicious mother.
It's a good and effective psychological chiller up until the last half hour or so when it all goes into slasher movie territory. Still, it is more than watchable and provides plenty of good chills, and is worth watching for the perfomances if nothing else.



Vera Farmiga and Isabelle Fuhrman in Orphan