What the Critics Are Saying

"Michael Giacchino’s pitch-perfect score among the work of a sterling group"
Deadline, Pete Hammond

"Michael Giacchino has delivered his finest score to date."
Variety Jazz Tangcay

"Michael Giacchino’s sweeping, dramatic score brings it all together, creating a few epic moments worthy of one of comic books’ most famous characters."
IGN, Alex Stedman

"Michael Giacchino’s impeccable score sets the tone right from the get-go, as we are introduced to the slime of Gotham and how they perceive and fear the caped crusader. Giacchino’s music takes cues from the work of Danny Elfman while mixing in his own ominous, mysterious twist on the classic Batman theme. Batman’s narration, amplified by the score, is notably chilling as he remarks that, “when that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call, it’s a warning.” The delivery is signature Batman, classically noir, and perfectly creates a captivating atmosphere. "
Discussing Film, Ben Ralph

"…his realizations galvanized by a career-best Michael Giacchino score that pounds into your head as if Batman were sitting at the piano and playing it himself."
IndieWire, David Ehrlich

"Visceral use of sound is key to the film’s immersive effect, but even more so an absolute banger of a score by Michael Giacchino. The symphonic underlay might have seemed excessive in less confident hands, but the graceful incorporation of specific themes for Batman and Selina, as well as pre-existing music ranging from classical pieces to Nirvana, provides tonal variation to ensure that The Batman never becomes a punishing downer. "
Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney

"A composer with the creativity to be this generation’s John Williams, Michael Giacchino constructs individual character themes and a genre-mashing piano-and-orchestra soundscape that are essential elements in making “The Batman” a triumph."
USA Today, Brian Truitt

"…and a commanding, powerful score by Michael Giacchino, with a Batman theme that almost feels like it was birthed out of “The Imperial March.” Like its cast, Reeves has clearly found the best team to bring this version of Batman to life at every step."
Collider, Ross Bonaime

"Rather than leaning on a theme, Michael Giacchino’s score surprises, ranging from tense tribal drums to Nirvana "
Variety, Peter Debruge

"Didn’t get into it in the review, but Michael GIacchino’s score for THE BATMAN is wonderful. (Has there been a bad Batman score?) Austere and tense, with some Eastern European motifs, and, at one surprising point, what sounds like two pianos fighting. "
Vulture, Bilge Ebiri

"The result is some remarkable film craft, of a level rarely seen in modern blockbusters. Michael Giacchino’s brilliant, minimalist score completes the effect"
Empire, John Nugent

"And the film sounds even better, thanks to a remarkable Michael Giacchino score that alternates minimalist strums and imperial marches; it’s somehow in the same league as the operatic themes Danny Elfman once lent the franchise."
Club, AA Dowd

"Meanwhile, though the music owes at least a subconscious debt to the unsettling ambience of Howard Shore’s work in “Seven,” Michael Giacchino’s theme for the title character cooks John Williams’ “Imperial March” down to its most menacing elements and then cranks up the volume to ear-splitting, cavernous levels, making the audience feel like they’re watching the film from inside a stand-up bass whose strings are being manipulated with a large, blunt instrument."
The Wrap, Todd Gilchrist

"Could very well be Michael Giacchino’s crowning composing work. "
Variety, Clayton Davis

"Michael Giacchino’s score is a grand & haunting masterwork."
Next Best Picture, Matt Neglia

"The filmmaking on display from all departments is brilliant. @GreigFraser_dp cinematographer +
@m_giacchino score + James Chinlund’s production design is superb."
Collider, Steven Weintraub

"Michael Giacchino’s operatic score lives on the edge of unsettling. "
The Playlist, Robert Daniels

"Alongside Michael Giacchino’s minimalist, doom-laden score, Fraser’s lensing suggests the oversized emotions of graphic novels without their cartoonish excesses"
Screen Daily, Tim Grierson

"Reeves’ frequent sound-tracking of Bruce’s pain to Nirvana’s Something in the Way is too on the nose/beak, but Pattinson makes the angry little billionaire orphan schtick work, playing both a hero to a city and a victim to his own anger. (And the music-cue issue is rectified mightily by Michael Giacchino’s excellent, haunting score.)"
The Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz

"Greatly magnifying the power of scenes like these is the score from veteran composer Michael Giacchino. Best known for his Pixar movie music, he does something totally different with “The Batman”: percussive and horn-heavy, it is massive and demanding, and you will feel it deep in your core."
Christy Lemire, Roger Ebert

"Working a stunningly wide dramatic range, composer Michael Giacchino delivers one of his greatest scores, including a gorgeous “Catwoman” theme blending a ‘60s heist picture with a dishy French ‘60s romance, doomed romance division."
Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips

"PS Kudos to the Michael Giacchino score. It’s melodic, very Beethoven-esque and runs counter to the somber mood of impending doom. Keep it in mind next awards season."
Shoebox 411, Roger Friedman

"A pulsating score by Michael Giacchino evokes the fatalism of “Chinatown” without denying glimmers of hope that befits this tale of a lost child—the orphaned Bruce Wayne— trying to provide protection for other lost children. And Pattinson lets us feel his pain."
ABC, Good Morning America, Peter Travers

"Jagged horror movie strings and Michael Giacchino’s relentless score ratchet up the tension. "
CNET, Richard Trenholm

"There are things to enjoy here, in addition to Kravitz’s nimble work: John Turturro, hammy and slimy as a top mobster; Colin Farrell, almost unrecognizable as the oleaginous Penguin; Andy Serkis as Alfred; a crackerjack car chase; Michael Giacchino’s eerie score."
NYTimes, A.O. Scott

"Greig Fraser’s cinematography and Michael Giacchino’s score contribute to the film’s unique identity. Fraser uses light and shadow to good effect, including crafting several memorable silhouette shots. Giacchino’s work here may be the best of his career. It’s soft when it needs to be, percussive during the fight and action scenes, and finds a way to incorporate “Ave Maria.”"
Reel Views, James Berardinelli

"All of that is enhanced by a sensational score from Michael Giacchino, which brings a necessary rhythm to the story, as well as a general sense of foreboding."
Christian Science Monitor, Gregory Wakeman

"Michael Giacchino’s instantly iconic theme for him bears more in common sonically with “The Imperial March” than it does with more traditional themes of superheroes, underlining the moral murkiness of this vengeance-seeking vigilante."
Crooked Marque, Kimber Meyers

"Reeves binds it all together with a mordant tone, amplified by Michael Giacchino’s score and especially his doom-laden remix of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” – possibly the first instance in modern cinema of an indie rock fave being given a contemporary, breathy revamp and it not seeming obnoxious."
Austin Chronicle, Richard Whittaker

"It’s also enthralling and tailored to our time, an extended rumination on finding one’s moral compass in a world of all-encompassing evil. (The production was designed by James Chinlund. Michael Giacchino did the haunting music.)"
Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern