The Batman reviews: Critics praise Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz performances in new Matt Reeves film

‘The Batman is a very good Batman film. To think of it as anything more only leads to delusion or disappointment,’ The Independent’s critic wrote

The Batman is receiving positive reviews from critics ahead of its release, with Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz’s performances singled out for praise.

In Matt Reeves’ reimagining of the popular superhero, Pattinson’s Caped Crusader follows clues left behind by a sadistic killer.

While critics seem hesitant to give too much credit to Matt Reeves’ new film, so far it seems that the new movie is being considered a worthy addition to the canon.

“The Batman is a very good Batman film. To think of it as anything more only leads to delusion or disappointment,” wrote The Independent’s critic Clarisse Loughrey.

“Finally, we’ve been delivered ‘the world’s greatest detective’, as the comics like to call him, in flesh and blood.”

Further adding praise for Kravitz in her role as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Loughrey said: “Kravitz delivers the role with slinky, milk-sipping elegance.”

Variety gave the film huge praise in its review, calling it a “grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir [that] registers among the best of the genre”.

In another writeup, IndieWire said it spoke to a future “in which superhero movies of all sizes would become so endemic to modern cinema that they no longer had to be superhero movies at all... for better or worse. Mostly better.”

The Telegraph gave the film a five-star review, saying Reeves had “come up with a corker of an angle”.

However, not everyone was impressed. The Verge said: “It’s a perfectly passable return to Gotham with a spiffy car in tow — but it’s not the absolute jolt to the system the beleaguered Bat-movie franchise needs.”

Many critics also grumbled about the three-hour-long run time.

“The Batman didn’t need nearly three hours to tell what is, at heart, the relatively simple story of its hero’s moral awakening,” The Independent’s review commented, while The Guardian called the film “overlong”.

However, The Hollwood Reporter wasn’t phased by the lengthy film, with its critic writing: “At no point during the hefty three-hour run time did my attention wander.”

The Batman will be released in theatres on 4 March. Read The Independent’s full review here.