Elvis and The Batman - A Review of Two Blockbusters

Today I will discuss two of the bigger movies to come out in 2022 that both received Oscar nominations. I saw both of these films several months ago so these reviews are based on my memory of them such that I will not be discussing them in as much depth as compared to some of my more recent reviews. While I did enjoy both films I believe that Elvis was better as I found there to be a few problems with The Batman, which I will discuss. Thus, I will begin my review by discussing Elvis before moving on to The Batman. Lets begin.

Elvis:

Baz Luhrmann is one of the more interesting filmmakers currently working due to his unique vision. While most films are either set in the real world and others in fantastical ones Lurhmann’s films all seem to reside in a kind of grey area between the two which may not be for all audience goers but I enjoy. Elvis is a movie that focuses more on exploring the essence of who Elvis Presley was rather than trying to be a by the numbers film recounting his life which I thought worked as the latter approach could have result in a film that blended into the background of an increasingly cluttered pile of biopic films to come out in recent years. Austin Butler is exceptional here in such a way that though he may not perfectly resemble Elvis he none the less convinces you that he is The King through his charisma, voice, and body movements. Tom Hanks has been much maligned for his portrayal of Colonel Tom Parker and I must admit that his character is a bit of a cartoon villain though I am not sure if that is a bad thing given this is a Luhrmann film where heightened melodrama is often required and Hanks does not shy away in that department. Furthermore, the film’s heightened grandiosity allows the audience to see Elvis Presley's dance moves as devious, as they were seen by some at the time, even though they may have appeared more tame and unexceptional to modern audience goers had they been conveyed in a more grounded manner. The whole film moves along with such momentum that I never felt the two and a half hour run time between the visually stunning edits, set pieces, and spectacular cinematography that help give this epic story the grand scale it deserves. I give this film an 8/10.

Here is what I believe is one of the better sequences in Elvis which I think best demonstrates how the film captured the energy and scale of the figure Elvis was and the impact he had on his audience.

The Batman:

Going into 2022 I had high expectations for Matt Reeves’ film The Batman since I had enjoyed many of his other movies including his Planet of the Apes trilogy and Cloverfield. Furthermore, I loved the idea to have this be a crime thriller, unlike other Batman movies, much in the vein of a film like Se7en which is one of my favourites. However, in order to make a good crime thriller you must ensure that the plot is both consistent and focused to keep the viewer engaged which I feel this film failed to do even becoming quite convoluted in the second half which was not aided by the extended runtime of almost three hours. The key to any Batman movie though is the lead and Robert Pattinson is good here though I wondered if he could have done something different as I felt at times he was trying to channel Christian Bale rather than give his own interpretation of the character. While I enjoyed Pattinson’s portrayal of Batman I wished it was something more memorable and unique much in the way Joaquin Phoenix found his own voice playing the Joker instead of simply following the path Heath Ledger had paved in The Dark Knight. Pattinson is joined by Zoe Kravitz for much of the film, who plays Selina Kyle (Catwomen), and while her performance is strong it was undermined by poor fight choreography and a heavy reliance on CGI during action sequences involving her character making her seem artificial and thus hard to relate to as a viewer. Another actor who is let down by poor decision making on behalf of the filmmakers was Andy Serkis, who is a serviceable Alfred, but somehow survives an explosion which surely should have killed him which strained my suspension of disbelief to the point that it made me dislike his character since I felt it was absurd that he had survived what seemed catastrophic. Jeffrey Wright, who I often do not enjoy as an actor since I find he is often stiff and unfeeling in most of his performances, was very good here as James Gordon and developed a great onscreen chemistry with Pattinson’s Batman especially in one sequence where batman must escape from the police station. As for the villains I thought Colin Farrell, who is unrecognizable here as The Penguin, was fantastic while Paul Dano’s performance was too extreme and thus hard to take serious due to his overacting especially in one sequence where he is interrogated by Batman which made me cringe. This movie is a mixed bag but one scene I really enjoyed was the moment where Peter Sarsgaard has a bomb strapped to his neck resulting in a great amount of entertaining suspense. Matt Reeves does an amazing job here at creating a gritty Gotham city for Batman to investigate and become entangled in the criminal underworld. The cinematography here is also really strong especially in some action sequences where static camera angles are used to capture these moments in a unique way. My biggest disappointment with this movie was that the detective story line with Batman is mostly unrewarding as much of the work he does is revealed to be insignificant as shown in the climax of the film where Batman discovers too late that bombs have been placed around the city. Going through the pandemic where it felt as though blockbusters had become endangered species it was exciting to once again see a big production on screen even if the movie itself was not as great as I had hoped it would be. This is a movie I enjoyed even if it failed to live up to my expectations, which could be my own fault for setting them too high in the first place. In the end I gave this movie a 7/10.

Here is a scene from The Batman where Catwoman fights with the Batman and you can judge for yourself how authentic this fight feels as I believe there was to much CGI included here to make the scene feel unbelievable.