Early Reactions To 'The Batman' Movie Are Here: Critics Praise Robert Pattinson For His Performance

The Batman movie is being rebooted with Robert Pattinson as the titular hero. Before him, actors Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, and Michael Keaton had played the caped crusader. Pattinson had big shoes to fill and going by early reactions coming in from special screenings of the film, it seems like he has managed to do exactly that and has even exceeded expectations.

Pattinson will play Bruce Wayne in his second year of fighting crime as Batman as he tries to uncover the corruption in Gotham City while pursuing criminal mastermind, the Riddler, played by Paul Dano. This serial killer incorporates elaborate riddles, puzzles, and death traps in his schemes to prove his intellectual superiority over Batman and the police.

The movie will be theatrically released on March 4. There was a premiere of the movie in London on Wednesday and MTV UK shared high praise for the film in general and the director and the actor in particular. Hannah Flint from MTV Movies stated: "Matt Reeves delivers a nail-biting and fun Batman coming of age story." Other media outlets have stated that the film is "absolutely euphoric," "sensational," and "one helluva movie." Notably, Insider has stated: "Robert Pattinson will be your new favorite Batman."

The Twilight actor has come a long way from his days as a vampire. "I was aiming for quite different stuff," Pattinson had previously shared about pursuing the role of Batman. "Obviously it’s basically the jewel in the crown of the parts you can really get as an actor. But I’d never really thought I was anywhere close to doing it, and especially with the other parts I was attracted to at the time." The actor shared that he was a huge fan of the DC superhero growing up and wanted to play him in a film. He even kept obsessively checking for auditions for the superhero role.

Following the initial screenings, Reeves has shared: "What's so interesting is that they, and to me, the experience on the film, they have been so incredibly supportive and they loved, from the inception, the pitch. Once I wanted to put it into this world and that I wanted to do a detective story noir and that whole thing, they were very responsive. They were very excited about that. I said from the beginning, to do a standalone Batman film, you really have to ... There's a long line of great movies. And so, the idea that you can come and just do another Batman film, it has to be a great Batman film." Seems like he is well on his way to doing that. There are already talks of a sequel as well.