Superhero movies take on a different tone depending on who’s directing them. Batman movies have shifted from the campy pop-art series that Adam West starred in to the dark and gritty era of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. To that end, Batman Begins writer David Goyer gave his input on what he thinks of Robert Pattinson’s The Batman.
David Goyer worked on all three of Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Batman movies, so spending so much time in Gotham City means he knows a thing or two about how entertaining audiences with a successful Batman story. Goyer previously described The Batman as a “fun experience,” and in a recent interview with IGN, Goyer also loved the movie's “detective angle,” saying:
I think Matt Reeves is a very good filmmaker,. I had no idea what I would think of [Robert] Pattinson but I liked him. And I was like, I buy it. He's a different take on it. But I buy it. I thought the chemistry with Zoë [Kravitz] was amazing. I liked how Noir it was and I liked that they went in the detective angle and I liked what they did with Riddler. I liked it.
The Batman director Matt Reeves clearly had a unique vision to offer for the iconic character. After all, he turned down directing Ben Affleck’s Batman not because he had anything against the script, but because he did not feel a personal connection to it. Reeves was inspired by 1971's Klute and 1974's Chinatown, which were two great films he grew up with. David Goyer is absolutely right that the “detective angle” was one of the things that The Batman does better compared to other films in seeing Bruce Wayne as a man who solves Gotham’s greatest crimes. We get to see more of a sleuthing side to him compared to any other version. The Batman being more of a noir tale is a nice tie-back to the tone brought by the comics, but we still get the emotional aspects and dark tone we’re used to seeing in a Batman movie.
Matt Reeves took a big risk not only in the casting choice of Robert Pattinson, but in giving a different take on Batman that audiences haven’t seen in a long while. Did the risk pay off? The critics certainly seem to think so, as the Caped Crusader's latest movie has an 85% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. It looks like The Batman can be a great opportunity to introduce audiences to the neo-noir detective film genre that inspired Matt Reeves to make this movie in the first place.
It's been confirmed that Robert Pattinson and “the whole team” will be back for The Batman 2 . With the phenomenal box office success The Batman delivered, that should come as no surprise. While we don’t know when this anticipated sequel will hit theaters, producer Dylan Clark did say we should expect it to arrive in “less than five years.” It’s nice to know we don’t have to wait the way we had to for an Avatar sequel!
See why David Goyer and many others praised The Batman by watching this action-adventure superhero film now on your HBO Max subscription.
