The new Batman film is genuinely good enough to warrant the definite article in its title. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was great and all, but this is the Batman. The proper one. The one fans recognise. The one who actually uses his detective skills to solve stuff before rearranging a criminal’s face with his fists. Yes, it may be a tad overlong, The Riddler’s riddles may not be the hardest to solve, and the ending may be a little underwhelming, but overall, this is the Batman film we’ve been waiting for – a dark noir thriller that just so happens to feature a psychotic billionaire who dresses up as a bat. So, now that they’ve nailed it, we can finally give this franchise a rest, right? Wrong.
While The Batman doesn’t resort to Marvel’s method of teasing a sequel with a post-credit sequence, it does hint that there’s more to come. If you haven’t seen the film, this is a spoiler and you should definitely look away now. If you have seen it, I’m talking about Barry Keoghan’s cameo as The Joker, who will undoubtedly return at some point to square off against Robert Pattinson’s Batman. Sure enough, both Pattinson and director Matt Reeves have already expressed a desire to make a trilogy of films in this gritty new Gotham, which should keep us in bat content for the rest of the decade. But with Ben Affleck still to make his final appearance as the Dark Knight in this year’s The Flash, and Michael Keaton reprising his version of the character for the same film and a forthcoming Batgirl movie, we’re well and truly approaching the bat-limit.
