When a killer starts knocking off Gotham City’s political figures, the Batman must dive deep into the city’s corrupt underground to uncover the madman’s agenda, and stop him from furthering his deadly plot.

Taking over the role of Batman / Bruce Wayne, Robert Patterson’s portrayal of the famous fictional crimefighter is a far cry from what one may expect to see considering the vast amount of source material there is to pull from.  Instead of the dark brooding vigilante whose name strikes fear into the hearts or criminals, and his alter ego the charismatic wealthy playboy, what viewers get is a man who seems as though he never outgrew his teenage emo phase, while trying to convince himself that he is in fact Gotham City’s Dark Knight.  These two qualities delivered with bland inner monologues makes one wonder if Batman just up and quit would anyone even notice.

On the other hand, Colin Farrell’s performance as Oz / The Penguin, his performance was the stand out of the movie.  Bringing to life a character that’s generally familiarized with comically exaggerated features, a monocle, and top hat, Farrell’s performance and updated appearance gives the impression of a character who could potentially exist in a real world criminal environment.  Agree to disagree, but Farrell’s performance as Oz was by far much better than the over hyped Heath Ledger performance as the Joker.

Playing the role as the films main antagonist the Riddler, Paul Dano comes across as unremarkable and honestly quite forgettable.  The role feels as though it takes a back seat to many other interactions between Batman and other characters.  The most memorable scene Dano has is when he confronts Batman with a shotgun and then proceeds to get pummeled moments later.  Quite the let-down for this characters role, but on the bright side as least he wasn’t copying Jim Carries antics when he played the character.

As for the rest of the cast, there’s nothing remarkable worth noting as they don’t seem to be afforded any chance at character development.  Whether or not this happens if the franchise moves forward is left to be seen.

Compared to previous movies, there just feels like something is off with this story and its visual delivery.  It almost feels like Batman is being shoe horned into a real world scenario opposed to the comic book feel of Tim Burton’s movies.  Even with the Nolan trilogy, with the exception of Batman Begins, to this viewer it felt strange as if it was trying to be more than a superhero movie.  In this viewers opinion, Batman needs to be in a Gotham City that isn’t visually represented by real cities which takes the imagination out of the movie.  While Tim Burton’s interpretation of Gotham City may have been a bit campy, it was better than for example than watching Batman run around Chicago pretending to be a fictional Gotham City.

While having a few attention grabbing moments which were few and sporadic, the script lacks the ability to grab the viewer and pull them into the darkness of Batman’s existence.  It can’t help be felt that the story was too slow and lacked the character of previous movies.  While this story focused more on the detective aspect of Batman’s abilities, it was this idea that made the film feel like it lagged when it should have been equal parts action and detective work.  Overall, this movie is a one and done, while maybe garnering enough interest to view again if there isn’t something slightly more interesting to watch.