Buy popcorn. Get a cold drink. Prepare yourself for three hours of blood, lies, corruption, malice, whisper fighting, whisper talking, car chases, punching people, motorcycle chases, motorcycle/car chases.

Fans of the darkness of DC will enjoy this flick to the max. Every ounce of darkness that could be squeezed in, was squeezed in. To the point that, we still can’t prove that Robert Pattinson wouldn’t have sparkled in the daylight. There was no daylight. The burning question lives on in our adolescent brains.

Story time: Batman is Vengeance in this one. They never say why. I’m assuming it has to do with his comics which I have not read.

The big bad baddie is The Riddler, who is sufficiently creepy and sadistic. But, bonus bad guys include Falcone, Penguin (surprisingly humanized in this iteration) and then of course, Gotham City is cast as a bad guy itself. So much corruption.

Catwoman is in this one a LOT, but sorta presents as angsty, early twenties, troubled child of a murdered mom and surprise dad. (No spoilers, you’ll have to watch it for the big reveal.)

Pattinson pulls off gothic, emo, sad, orphan, billionaire boy pretty well. We don’t get much of his Bruce Wayne story. That’s kind of addressed at the end though. He whispers a lot. Wayne Manor is AWESOME. I wish we could have seen it with the lights on.

The main story is pretty well woven. Easy to follow for the most part, some plot holes. Good dialogue writing. Good music score. Long. So long. Buy the expensive popcorn and drink okay? You’re gonna need it all. There are like, seventeen endings.

Content warning for the fam, if you’re taking kids, know that it’s rated PG13 for intense violence and they take advantage of their one f-bomb allowed. Do with that info what you will.