Batman has always been my favorite and most exciting character in the rapidly growing superhero mythology and mega-movies. Perhaps that is why filmmakers are always reimagining him and trying to figure him out even though he is increasingly exhausted by the very thought of himself.

What drew me to the Batman story all of my life was the darkness and moral confusion of this hero. From the beginning (and never on TV), Batman was tormented by his dual life and its secrecy.

In one of the early comic series, Batman (the Dark Knight) was so depressed by his split life and personality that he turned himself in to the prison where his worst enemies were being held and, in so doing, committed suicide. Reading this series was the first time I thought of being a writer.

This Batman echoes some of that depth and complexity in this movie by Director Matt Reeves.

At one point, he is beating the daylights out of  some street thugs, and one of them, shaking with fear and lying on the ground, looks up pleading and says, “please don’t hurt me.”

You can almost see this Batman (Robert Pattison) pause and wonder who the real thug is for a moment.

Another time, he is confronted by a criminal who asks him who the hell he is: “vengeance,” he answers, not justice or right. The movie kept me thinking, again and again.

There is real cinematic greatness in this film, balanced by the now-expected bullshit of explosions, crashes, chases, and brawls without end.

This movie just blew me away at first; some parts were deadly dull, some were just too loud. I didn’t expect to see a Batman or superhero movie where the very existence of the hero is questioned.

That’s the deal here; you get two hours of brilliant movie-making and one hour of colorful and well-executed cinematic overkill, the hallmark of the superhero film (the young men of China love lots of fights).

Matt Reeves has produced two movies here. The first two hours are dark (very dark), brilliant, thoughtful, gruesome, and creatively filmed and written. The second hour seems more like the other superhero movies, which is to say, ridiculously and expensively overdone.

These movies are literally judged on their excesses – car chases, crashes, explosions, violence. Each one has to top the other to keep from boring its sated audience.

When I say the movie is dark, take it literally. There are only one or two scenes shot in daylight, and even the gunbattles are sometimes visible only through the flashes of gunfire in dark rooms. Everyone in the movie seems nocturnal.

The movie is also beyond violent; it is sometimes – actually often-  disturbing.

Reeves seems to be trying to remind us that superheroes, with all of their great stuff and ability to sail through the skies, are not going to save us from the real problems we face in the world.

This Batman is having a crisis of conscience.

The news is with him on the limits of heroism.

Poor Gotham City is trashed once again, of course, and quite literally. The city needs some strong PR. Gotham is dysfunctional, corrupted, and chaotic. Even the robbers wear horror movie masks, brutality isn’t enough.

The Batman movies have made poor Gotham City their whipping boy; nothing good ever seems to happen there.

There is a solid and surprising political undercurrent in the movie.

Reeves seemed to have imagined the January 6 Capitol assault even before it happened. This Batman is stymied and frustrated by Gotham’s intractable violence and corruption. And by the anger and grievance of the city’s residents.

In this version, Batman realizes that for all of his power, strength, and gadgetry, he is no match for the anger and corruption, and grievance,  and thus questions the very point of him.

Gangsters and thugs rule the streets.

This is a grim Bat Man; there is no joy in the toys, slick weapons, and dramatic appearance of the Batmobile. Pattison almost smiled once in this movie but otherwise was miserable and dour for every minute of the three hours.

Reeves gave this movie a lot of thought, and it showed. He decided to forget the fun, and that showed as well.

He did a great job of getting us to rethink some of the smug and shallow assumptions of the superhero. These movies see the world black-and-white way, there is no doubt who is good and who is bad; in The Batman, there is a blurring of what is seen as good and what is seen as evil.

That’s the innovative and gripping part.

The black-and-white lines of good and evil are thrown away here and upended. This movie had me thinking and playing close attention for two straight hours.

The movie is intense and challenging.

You have to pay attention, at least until the car chases start. The whole superhero idea is fantastical, it has for years advanced the idea to young people that some hero with amazing powers will appear when we most need them to save us from evil.

I wonder if we haven’t started to believe it. Nobody human seems able to live up to our expectations. Leaders fall as soon as they are chosen.

As all modern directors seem to have to do, Reeves succumbed to the marketing demands of the superhero mega-movies, whose profits depend on their drawing tens of millions of young males from all over the world. Thus, car chases and explosions.

I’m sure he had no choice, and they are spectacular. They are also getting old.

The third hour went from thoughtful and somber to loud and even more violent; the car-chases are 20 minutes long or so, the Batman and the bad guy manage to wipe out whole neighbors, trucks, and hapless cars and freeways without getting scratched.

Batman is discouraged by his inability to figure things out and he is outmaneuvered by the murderous and creepy Riddler, a deadly and mad crime and corruption fighter in this role. (Riddle me that one.)

Bruce Wayne also has to face the unraveling of the Wayne good-guy mythology – particularly the murder of his parents, which was not what it appeared to be.

Here, Batman comes to wonder about himself and his simplistic and futile crime-busting and his notions of right and wrong in the face of monumental violence and evil.

Indeed, he asks again and again what good it does to beat up a street thug when his city is being torn apart by thieves at the highest level.

When his loved and martyred parents are accused of wrongdoing, he begins to come apart. The whole narrative of his life is thrown into question.

Reeves (Planet Of The Apes) brought some provocative ideas to this well-worn subject.

It’s a shame he had to pander to the marketers with a solid hour of explosions, car chases, bombs, fights, and gun battles as Batman sailed through the skies hanging off of buildings,  dodging bullets and clubs and fists.

The Riddler was miles ahead of him every step of the way. It was getting embarrassing. I’ve never seen a Batman mask look so serious.

I  much appreciated and enjoyed Reeves’s compelling examination of the blurred lines between good and evil and the limitations of the superhero, who in this case, is almost too human to do his work.

But this Batman was so one-dimensionally grim that I could never really attach to him. The filmmaking left me with my eyes open, and my jaw dropped at times.

This movie has many things to enjoy and think about, especially the cast. Robert Pattison is not the greatest Batman; he has only one speed – ponderous seriousness.

But he might well be the most thoughtful and interesting.

To lighten up the movie, Reeves brought in Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz).

Like the Riddler, she is Batman’s self-appointed vigilante, critic, and reluctant partner, seeking vengeance on behalf of a friend and other women who have been abused and murdered by members of Gotham’s creepy political and official leadership.

Of course, they fall in love, and Batman very nearly kisses her.

John Turturro is slimy and vicious as a top mobster. Colin Farrell is the Penguin, Andy Serkis is the faithful butler Alfred, and Michael Giacchino’s eerie score was beautiful.

There were long stretches of navel-gazing, sorrowful memories and past events.

And there are clear and troubling echoes of modern-day America, especially the perpetually outraged and aggrieved residents of Gotham City, and their leader, the Riddler.

Think about that, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The government is seen as dishonest and corrupt, and the grievance is justified. Perhaps Reeves is trying to tell us something.

You won’t smile once in this movie or laugh a single time, and I miss the dry humor and fun Batman had rushing in and out of his cave to fight bad guys and showing off his toys. In his loyal butler, he always had his “Q.”

Like the heroes of the James Bond movies, it was fun to see the new things he comes up with, and there were a few in this film.

There was some therapeutic value in the movie apart from some fantastic filmmaking; good is stronger and hopeful than evil when all is said and done. But it was close.

One day, a director will get to take on the Batman mythology without the big movie chains and obligations of the $300 million blockbuster movies and the marketers behind them,  and make a brilliant movie.

Reeves came close to pulling it off.

The movie is very much worth seeing; it was remarkably good in parts but was just too relentlessly grim for me. I’m not sure that’s what people want from superhero movies.

I can’t wait for the next one. Batman continues to fascinate us, we never tire of trying to re-imagine him or figure him out.

You will get a sore ass from the length, and don’t bring any young children anywhere near it.