Robert Pattinson-Starrer ‘The Batman’ Is the Best Film for Its Villains

Paul Dano as The Riddler in 'The Batman' is one of the best adaptations of the villain yet.

“Fear is a tool,” Robert Pattinson’s Batman’s baritone notes, and it’s a tool Matt Reeves has used brilliantly to create his iteration of the masked hero’s story. But he isn’t a hero yet— set two years after Bruce Wayne decides to become Batman, the story is about a vigilante who is seeking vengeance over justice.

Batman isn’t your regular, punches locked-and-loaded, superhero and is instead “the world's greatest detective”, something Pattinson’s Batman embraces as he searches for The Batman’s main villain, Paul Dano as The Riddler.

A DC film, especially when it's Batman, owes it to itself to do justice to its villains as the villains owe it to the film to complete the hero’s journey. Reeves’ The Batman does justice to all its villains by giving them the versions they deserved.

In The Batman, The Riddler played by Dano is a terrifying serial killer inspired by the Zodiac Killer and Jigsaw from the series Saw. This is an about-turn in the way previous iterations of The Riddler have been characterised— several actors have played the villain before including Frank Gorshin, John Astin, Wally Wingert, and Jim Carrey.

However, almost every version of this character, in his bright green costume riddled with question marks, seems more whimsical than villanous (or even campy with Carrey in the 1995 flick Batman Forever against Val Kilmer’s Batman).

Paul Dano gets a more fleshed-out version who is more true to the essence of The Riddler— an egotistical mastermind who always stays a step ahead of his foes, including the caped crusader.

Matt Reeves’ decision to focus The Batman on The Riddler is pure genius— not because we’ve seen too much of the Joker recently (including The Joker, which was all him) but because The Riddler throws Batman’s own flaws in his face.

A hero fighting his own self is a well-loved trope of the thriller genre and for good reason— when someone is invincible, their biggest foe is perhaps themselves, and brownie points for the bad side if their version has no morality.

That’s what happens with The Riddler and Pattinson’s Batman— the superhero realises that his goals are the same as his nemesis….vengeance. He is then faced with the ultimate question— is vengeance true justice? By placing The Riddler’s flaws so closely in proximity with Batman’s own, The Batman makes their back-and-forth darker, and more poetic.

Speaking of darker storylines, Batman and Alfred's relationship in the latest flick is much more complicated and nuanced. Alfred rises from his role as the loyal butler to an aide and someone who clashes with Batman about his idea of how justice must be meted out.

In The Batman, Alfred (Andy Serkis) is the one who has trained Batman in contrast to Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman Begins. However, Alfred training Batman in combat is still not a deviation from source material since he has a history as an Special Operations Executive in the comics. He was part of an organisation that spied on the Axis powers during World War II so it's no surprise that he is experienced in combat.

Then there’s the exploration of power and corruption through John Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Colin Farrell as the Penguin, another iconic character from Batman's rogues’ gallery. Both actors, brilliant in their character work, capture the dark side of power.

It’s an age-old adage that power corrupts but how much does it corrupt people who fear no one? How does power work for an apex predator? And Falcone is the apex predator in Gotham and Penguin, while not at the top, still is a major keg in the power politics that plague the town and have inevitably turned it into the crime infested cesspool it is.

The Batman had its plate full with the evils it wanted to address and it covers all its bases well by not shying away from its villains’ abilities. With images of violence and gore, reserved years ago for horror films, the film raises the stakes for its hero and the audience who feel the fear of the citizens of Gotham, one bat signal at a time.