After what feels like months and years of waiting (because it has been), The Batman has finally been unleashed, and the reviews are now in. So was it worth our patience, and have director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson managed to bring something new and refreshing to Batman’s mythos, or is the movie merely a cookie-cutter comic book outing? Thankfully, it seems to be the former.

We shall begin with IGN’s Alex Stedman, who gifted The Batman a perfect rating of 10/10, calling the movie a “beautiful nightmare” and heaping praise on the cast, particularly Paul Dano and Zoe Kravitz as The Riddler and Catwoman, respectively.

“Writer/director Matt Reeves managed to make a Batman movie that’s entirely different from the others in the live-action canon, yet surprisingly loyal to Gotham lore as a whole. Ultimately, it’s one that thoroughly earns its place in this iconic character’s legacy.”

Peter Debruge from Variety was equally enamored with The Batman, calling it one of the best examples of the comic book movie genre and again praising director Matt Reeves’ approach to the well-worn material.

“Registers among the best of the genre, even if — or more aptly, because — what makes the film so great is its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney meanwhile commended The Batman for its depiction of the DC icon, and while they admit that a few more laughs would have been welcomed, they assured that the movie at least earns its long runtime.

“It’s a soulful nocturne of corruption and chaos, and as much as I longed for a few more glimmers of humor, at no point during the hefty three-hour run time did my attention wander.”

Robert Daniels of The Playlist rated The Batman an impressive A- and praised the movie for leaning away from the trappings now found in the comic book movie genre; “Matt Reeves The Batman should tell audiences that other superhero movies are possible, and yet more, they can exist outside the formulaic tentpoles filling theaters today.” Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting described The Batman as “a masterful and heady introspection on vigilantism, told with foreboding grit and intensity atypical of the genre.”

Despite a lot of unease over his casting, many have commended Robert Pattinson for his portrayal of The Dark Knight. Thrillist’s Esther Zuckerman took some issue with the movie as a whole saying, “The Batman doesn't quite rise above its ubiquitous genre in the way that it maybe hopes to,” but concluded that “when it stays street level, it's a tantalizingly creepy mystery, anchored by Robert Pattinson's eerie take on the Caped Crusader.”

While Empire’s John Nugent felt that The Batman did not quite drift far enough away from both the Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder areas as some had perhaps hoped, they praised this iteration of Gotham and could not wait to return for more.

“Though not a totally radical refit of the Nolan/Snyder era, it establishes a Gotham City we would keenly want a return visit to.”

Sadly, Not Everyone Fell in Love with The Batman

Of course, it can’t all be positive, with Richard Lawson from Vanity Fair feeling that The Batman was simply proof that everything that can be done with the character on the big screen has been done.

“The reality is that there is probably nothing truly novel to be done with Batman at this point... Try as Reeves and his co-screenwriter Peter Craig might, they can’t squeeze much higher-meaning blood out of a fatally depleted stone.”

These sentiments were largely echoed by Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post who said, “There’s an unshakable feeling here of “What’s the point?” Not to mention the nearly three-hour length. Holy runtime!”

But we shall end on a positive note, with Robbie Collin from Daily Telegraph gifting The Batman a perfect 5/5 and applauding the film noir approach to The World’s Greatest Detective.

“A sprawling and sinuous urban detective thriller, with the intricately unhinged red-wool-on-corkboard plotting of classic film noir.”

Directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell, The Batman is due to be theatrically released on March 4 by Warner Bros.