The Batman is

a fresh start for the film series and goes back to Batman's roots when billionaire Bruce Wayne had just started as a masked avenger.

Partly inspired by Frank Miller's classic serial album Year One, which depicts Batman's first year as a law enforcement officer.

It sounds like a copy of a cliché but The Batman

is

the darkest Batman movie to date.

Gotham City is violent, dirty and the rain is constantly pouring down when we meet a young Bruce Wayne who is obviously suffering from mental illness.

He tries to

expose himself in a swamp of gangs, mafia, corrupt police, politicians and an epidemic of the drug "drop" that is consumed through the eyeball.

Bruce Wayne has "become a nocturnal animal" (as he says in a voice over) by being up all night, so much so that he has to wear sunglasses indoors…

The villain The Riddler who was portrayed with a comic madness by Jim Carrey in green tights in Batman forever (1995) returns in The Batman.

Transformed into a conspiratorial serial killer with a bondage mask (played by Paul Dano).

Riddler leaves

clues at the murder scenes, and the tracks lead deep into the corridors of power.

Soon, Batman clashes with Selina Kyle, known as the master thief Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz).

Her past is linked to the case and to a nightclub for Gotham's criminal beasts where the Penguin (Colin Farrell) rules.

Director Matt Reeves has released The Leather Patch from what is known as DC's extended universe.

Robert Pattinson's stand-alone pale emo-Batman sours to Nirvana and is a welcome renewal.

Not least after Ben Affleck shouldered the latex mantle and reinforced Batman's less sympathetic features, as in Justice League (2017) when Bruce Wayne is asked what his superpowers are and he answers "I am rich".

The Batman

wants to focus on Batman's status as "the world's foremost detective", something that has been overshadowed by cool gadgets and training montages in previous installations.

And yes, Robert Pattinson's Batman flips through binders and investigates murder weapons.

But he is often lucky enough to stumble across a clue or even a confession.

The detective story also becomes more and more confusing for each new character to be introduced (for the upcoming sequels) and the playing time is too long.

Another problem

is the lack of atmosphere between Batman and Catwoman.

Their interplay is more professional than convincingly sexy. 

The weaknesses are offset by the fact that the burdensome blackness is aesthetically based in the architecture, the costumes and a physical realism that is well captured in the action scenes.

It's as if Gotham has a harder gravitational force than the rest of the planet.

Something Batman himself notices when he tries to fly from a rooftop, and during a car chase against oncoming traffic with crazy aquaplaning - the film's most spectacular scene.

It's easy to yearn back to Gotham for The Batman.

Hopefully we will not have to stay the same length next time.