The story begins on Halloween in Gotham City. There is opera music playing. However, Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. is murdered thanks to this masked villain known as the Riddler.

For the past couple of years, billionaire Bruce Wayne has been working as Batman (secretly of course). He meets with Lieutenant Jim Gordon and investigates the recent murder. Sometime later, the Riddler leaves Batman a message.

The next evening, the Riddler kills the police commissioner Pete Savage. He also leaves another message for Batman.

At some point, Batman and Gordon discover a thumb drive from the Riddler in Mayor Mitchell’s car. They learn that Mitchell was having an affair with a woman named Annika Koslov at a nightclub called the Iceberg Lounge.

Batman questions the nightclub owner, who is known as the Penguin. The Penguin pleads ignorance.

Annika also has a roommate, Selina Kyle. She works at the Iceberg Lounge as a waitress. But without warning, Annika goes missing.

If that’s not bad enough, the Riddler comes back. He abducts a man called Gil Colson and secures a timed collar bomb around his neck. Then he takes him to a funeral, and their actions interrupt the service.

Batman arrives and the Riddler calls him with a phone duct-taped to Colson’s mouth. He warns him what will happen if Colson cannot answer the three riddles.

How much worse can this get?

I will admit that this film did not engage me that much. The very beginning was all right. However, most of it was dark and intense.

The nightclub scenes were a little milder. And I will also add that Robert Pattinson nailed his ability to portray Batman, who is often grim. This role differs a lot from his previous parts, like in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Cedric or the Twilight saga as Edward.

But someone I know pointed out that he made Batman’s hair too long. Bruce Wayne is known for looking professional and wearing his hair short and neat.

The plot was also hard to follow. I will admit that I used Wikipedia to help me write the narrative. Of course, all words are my own.

The film was also almost three hours long. I didn’t finish it. I left the movie theater about halfway because I had trouble enjoying the tale. I only saw it because it was for my friend’s birthday.

Overall, I really was not fond of The Batman. There are other superhero movies that I liked better, including some made by DC Comics.

Even though this film had good reviews by the general public and even Part 2 that came out later, it did not work out for me.

I give this movie 2 out of 5 stars.