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Reviews
The Batman (2022)
Audacious, unflinching detective noir take on the iconic character
A classic detective noir story soaked in horror and psychological thriller elements make this the most unconventional blockbuster film in years.
Pattinson is incredible in the role, as expected, alongside a flawless cast.
Gotham City's epic production design along with the masterful cinematography and score combine to create a fully-realised criminal underworld and a truly suffocating, absorbing graphic novel experience.
It's dark, heavy and thematically rich with a genuine focus on the emotional journeys of its protagonists.
Truly unique.
THE BATMAN first and foremost tackles the childhood trauma of nearly all the characters, revealing Bruce's motivation and perspective at this point in his journey.
Bruce is fully focused on living and breathing as Batman.
The scarred, paranoid rookie vigilante is consumed with rage and revenge, a dynamic that Matt Reeves is able to establish incredibly well in the first half of the picture.
I adored the vile, gothic hellscape that is Gotham City portrayed as a place no-one should find themselves in, drenched in rain and grime, adding to the sense of bleak hopelessness that fuels Batman to carry out vengeance on the city that ripped his life apart.
The photography is exquisite, retaining the pulp, stylised elements that make this feel like it was lifted directly from the pages of the detective comics where Batman was born.
It's refreshing and undeniably exciting to see an auteur's vision of a graphic novel truly come to life.
From the nightmarish opening and the pitch-perfect narration sequence introduction of Vengeance to the lethal cat-and-mouse game between The Riddler and Batman, there are a litany of stylistic and narrative choices that feel decidedly authentic.
I do wish the Bruce/Alfred bond was developed a little bit more so as to really punctuate a lot of the emotional revelations that take place in the second half.
The film is also too long and would benefit from certain beats either taken out or at the very least re-arranged in ways that emphasise certain key developments leading to the movie's conclusion rather than hinder their impact.
Despite this, THE BATMAN is an audacious, unflinching, methodical police procedural reboot of a character who has dominated the corners of pop culture for half a century, providing a fresh, immersive take that will leave comic book fans as well as regular audiences clamoring for more.
Uncharted (2022)
Uncharted, but not as you may expect it...
Whenever you take on the daunting challenge of adapting a video game franchise for the cinema, you face an uphill battle from the outset.
But adapting a video game franchise that happens to be one of the most successful and most fiercely adored out there is a task many in the industry will wince at.
After years of speculation and setbacks, on a road that includes a terrific, albeit incomplete, fan film project, UNCHARTED finally makes its way onto the big screen with massive expectations and an abundance of fans ready to burn it at the stake if it so much as gets Sully's facial features wrong.
So, does it succeed?
That's a complicated question to answer fairly.
Ruben Fleischer's UNCHARTED is a film that, much like Tom Holland's young Nathan Drake in the opening sequence, hangs in the balance. It isn't quite the natural successor to the Nathan Fillion-starring short film from 2018 and will likely leave many die-hard fans of the franchise feeling frustrated with its characterisation and plot. It also isn't quite the buddy action comedy by commitee that modern Hollywood has churned out in various incarnations. UNCHARTED manages to find the smallest of spaces in between these two descriptions -
while the fan film had the genuine cinematic fingerprints of the video games, this feature film substitutes those qualities for a deeper focus on comedy and chemistry and largely succeeds in that regard; however, it lacks the sheer thrills and carefully crafted plot points of the games in favour of predictable story beats and a glossy, stylish exterior fit for the 2020s.
But that's not to say UNCHARTED isn't exciting or even daring. It showcases its highlights with the best aspect of the games themselves - the action setpieces.
The choreography is frequently spectacular and is pulled off with genuine flair while the globetrotting locations are used to its advantage by being able to display a variety of indoor areas and outside terrain.
The performances are perhaps what stand out the most though - the chemistry between Holland and Wahlberg is fresh and organic and they really anchor the film and drive the plot forward with tenacity. Their relationship and character arcs are believable and help lay the foundation for the partnership Drake and Sully would eventually form in the games.
The comedy is actually pretty well written and plays to each of the actors' strengths but the overall pacing of the film can feel cluttered and awkward, especially with Antonio Banderas' crew, as the conflict and set-up between our heroes and villains can feel slightly disjointed.
The glaring issue here is it's glossy and stylish to a fault; the raw, gritty essence of Nolan North's tenure is watered down in order to make way for a movie star-led action-adventure that see-saws between a buddy comedy and an old-school treasure hunt. UNCHARTED is Sony's latest to exhibit what can happen by trying to please too many demographics; you slowly but surely lose the soul of the story you're meant to be telling.
Maybe the entire idea of telling the story of a young Nathan Drake just doesn't work and that Sony should've focused on adapting A Thief's End instead.
The cynic in me reminds you that the inevitable sequel(s?) wouldn't have been possible if that route had been chosen.
Ultimately, the fan film is more successful in transporting the suspense, pathos and texture of the game franchise than its big screen counterpart but Holland and Wahlberg's partnership as well as the action setpieces help lift this film to respectable heights, hopefully opening this world up to a new generation of fans.
The answer to my initial question, does it succeed? Yes, in many ways, just not in the way you want it to.
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I love old-school adventure films and i'm glad I supported this one as we desperately need more of them even if they stem from existing intellectual property.