Early reactions always tend to be hugely positive, because no studio is going to allow terrible reviews to circulate well before a movie hits theaters, but The Batman comes bearing huge levels of hype and expectation that fans are desperate for it to live up to.
The good news is that it looks to have done that and then some, with the embargo having officially lifted ahead of Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight debuting in theaters this coming Friday. For the most part, everyone appears to have instantly fallen in love with Matt Reeves’ Gotham City, although the praise isn’t 100% unanimously positive.
That 176-minute time is proving to be a point of contention, and it might well be the same among general audiences, many of whom aren’t sold on the necessity of a three-hour film about Batman. On the other hand, the latest reboot for the comic book icon has Pattinson, Paul Dano, Zoë Kravitz, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, and the rest of the cast singled out as firing on all cylinders, with the performances said to be fantastic across the board.
On the plus side, nobody’s expecting The Batman to drop Spider-Man: No Way Home-level spoilers either, so you won’t need to worry too much about major secrets popping up on your timeline between now and then.