Issues The Batman Needs To Avoid

We’re less than five months away until the highly anticipated Matt Reeves feature that will see Robert Pattinson play the caped crusader. The film will dive into the second year of Bruce Wayne parading the streets as Batman, with the popular DC hero dealing with his most infamous villains, Oswald Cobblepot/aka The Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and Edward Nashton/aka The Riddler. It’s been ten years since Batman has had a standalone film, with The Nolan trilogy memorably redefining the comic book genre by its realistic and gritty approach to the world of Gotham. Originally, Ben Affleck was set to reprise his Batman vs. Superman and Justice League role here, but the actor opted to step aside due to personal issues and Reeves took over the entire project. There have been five different incarnations of the popular superhero with Robert Pattinson being the sixth. The franchise has had plenty of unforgettable films, but it’s also had its fair share of misses as well. This article will list the things that the upcoming Batman film will need to avoid in order to be a success.

The Batman Needs to Avoid Replicating the Nolan Trilogy

Nolan’s trilogy of films will always hold a special place in the hearts of many fans of the Batman series. By no means was this trilogy perfect, but Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises come very close. The key thing that made Batman work so well is the dark and gritty approach that Nolan took to Batman and Gotham city. Now, various cartoons of The Batman have usually taken a serialized approach with the brooding dark knight; however, the live-action counterparts leaned on the campy aspects of the popular superhero. In truth, the gritty style works perfectly for the caped crusader and Gotham, thus there’s no problem with Matt Reeves carrying on the tradition of taking the dark approach here. However, it’s key that Reeves carve out his own style and not try to repeat the same patterns that made the Nolan trilogy successful. That’s one of the key mistakes that Zack Synder made when trying to adapt the Superman comics. Everything felt depressing and unnecessarily dark, which actually doesn’t work for the world of Superman. Wisely, Matt Reeves seems to be taking a different approach with the character of Batman, notably stating that he was focusing on the detective side of the caped crusader during his first two years on the job. Despite the greyish color palette, or dour tone, and it’s the realistic approach to the villains of Gotham city, Batman doesn’t seem anything like the Christian Bale version. As long as the journey of Batman differs from the past versions then Matt Reeves’s The Batman will be fine.

Please, No Woke Messages in The Batman

To be clear, I have no issues with Jeffrey Wright and Zoe Kravitz taking over the role of James Gordon and Selina Kyle. Both are extremely talented actors and I look forward to their take on the respective characters. However, let’s make James Gordon and Selina Kyle layered characters without being Black or a woman one of their traits. Hollywood has been going a little woke crazy as a late and the main issues is that their political messages stick out like a sore thumb. If the political message ties into the entire arc of the film, then that’s perfectly fine, but the two characters shouldn’t be defined for their sexuality, race, or gender. One of the most cringeworthy moments in the Batman lore was the CW’s Batwoman, who kept beating audiences over the head that she was a strong woman. Great! But we need more than that. Who is Selina Kyle? What are her strengths? What are her weaknesses? Why is she great other than the fact that she’s a woman? Based on the trailers, it does appear that Reeves will also play up the romantic history of Batman and Selina Kyle, which is good as it would be a shame if the film simply ignored the sexual tension between the iconic characters. I don’t expect much from James Gordon considering that this isn’t his film, which is perfectly fine. As long as we don’t get cringeworthy quotes like, “It’s funny. I can’t actually remember the last time you were the one risking something. And by the way, the women are always saving the men around here. You might wanna think about changing the name to X-Women.” then the movie should be fine.

Zack Synder