*This article contains spoilers* 

I can confidently say that “The Batman” is close to, if not one of the best superhero movies ever made. Despite it having a few flaws in the plot and a long running time of two hours and 56 minutes, I never felt the need to get up or take a break from the film. I was glued to my chair.

As of Sunday, March 6, “The Batman” has already racked in a total of $128.5 million, despite only being released two days prior. But what made this movie so enticing? What pulled all of these people back into the theater, possibly for the first time since the pandemic?

This response was in part due to the phenomenal casting. Unlike Marvel, the DC Universe’s actors and actresses have switched around a lot and varied throughout the series. However, with their new production of “The Batman,” they found a perfect match by casting Robert Pattinson as Batman. While I had my doubts about his ability to portray someone with such a dark and eerie personality, Pattinson nailed it in every aspect — from the voice, the looks and all the way down to his posture. Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, who played Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman, perfectly emulated a superhero pair hiding their true identity while fighting crime, playing the plot extremely well.

Throughout the movie, Batman, a vigilante in Gotham City, joins forces with police officer James Gordon, played by Jeffrey Wright, to find the identity of a killer going by the alias “The Riddler,” played by Paul Dano. These crimes begin when The Riddler brutally beats the city’s mayor to death and leaves a gruesome message in blood on his duct-taped face reading ‘no more lies.’ This message is repeated after each murder The Riddler makes, along with a card addressed to Batman himself. These recurring messages and themes throughout the film tie the plot together, adding to its already seamless appearance.

During the process of discovering The Riddler’s identity, Batman sneaks around the city and eventually runs into Kyle, who reveals not only that she is Catwoman, but that her girlfriend is possibly on the bad end of a deal with someone corrupt in the government.

After their confrontation in Kyle’s apartment and deciding that they share common goals, the two vigilantes decide to team up. After busting a previously thought to be disbanded drug cartel, Batman and Catwoman continue solving clues leading them to The Riddler, who has started to gain followers from an account on social media.

Later in the movie, upon arriving at The Riddler’s apartment, Batman is able to find a video of The Riddler that had been previously unavailable to the public. Through this video, he learns of The Riddler’s final plan. When all of Gotham City becomes threatened by it, Batman and Catwoman swing into action.

However, this scene was corny and its outcome was obvious. While the camera angles were beautiful, it was one of the only scenes in the entire movie that I did not enjoy. We have the hero dangling over the edge being faced down by an enemy, before being courageously saved by someone else, who has then put their own life in danger. Even though the cinematography kept me hooked, I could tell what was going to happen long before it did.

The end credits scene for “The Batman” was, in itself, very complicated. It leaves you with a simple message, and a brief flash on the screen before the movie ends. However, after a deeper dive on the internet, you can find that the message briefly displayed on the screen is a link to a website. Here, you are given riddles in the same style of the clues The Riddler gave to Batman, eventually leaving you with a message in his invented language.

“The Batman” was incredibly well done. The acting and casting were spectacular, the visuals were enticing, and while the movie ran for quite some time, I was thoroughly engaged. A possible downside to this movie would be the multiple plots that occurred in the long running time. While Batman is chasing down the main villain, there are side stories of drug cartels, villain gangs and romance. So, summarizing the movie as a whole can become extremely confusing. But it is, in more ways than one, most definitely worth the watch.