Seven and The Batman probably shouldn’t share that much when it comes to their trailers but from the use of shadows and the encroaching darkness and the suspenseful pauses and flurry of action, it’s hard not to see the similarities. Plus, there is a killer at loose in both of them, even though turning the Riddler into a killer is definitely a bold move considering that he’s never really been seen in the same kind of light as John Doe from Seven before. He’s definitely been a diabolical villain, but almost never a psychopath like the Joker or another few villains that could be named from Batman’s gallery. But looking at these two trailers side by side it’s easy to see a few similarities since both of them are taking place in cityscapes where the buildings loom, the streets are somewhat disordered, and there’s a general feeling about the law that’s not exactly anarchical, but is still anything but fully trusting or cooperative. Think about it, in Seven there were few people that were able to pin John Doe down, and the feeling isn’t just because they couldn’t identify him, but also because he might return and wreak even worse havoc on their lives. Considering what Doe did to a few of the people on his hit list it’s easy to think that those that managed to survive didn’t want anything to do with him after that encounter. With Batman, the feeling is mutual for some criminals, but likely as not he’ll still be challenged since he’s the guy that’s trying to shut the criminals down, so it’s only natural that they stand against him.
Seven was a dark movie without a doubt, but it’s hard to think of Batman becoming the same way, even if that’s what it appears to be that we’re seeing in the initial trailer. Maybe there’s more to it and things will lighten up just a bit, but so far it looks pretty dark and it looks as though Bruce Wayne is going to be a very troubled individual. The final image of him in the trailer makes Bruce look like a man that’s on edge and is about to be tipped over at one point or another. Plus, the Penguin looks like a hardcore mobster and not the whimsical character that people have seen in the movies before or even on the Gotham TV show. So far The Batman looks like something that finally took the realism of the story and applied it in a way that people are just now starting to realize is going to be a lot different than anything they’ve seen before.
It’s really enough to make a person wonder if Matt Reeves did in fact take some inspiration from Seven when trying to make his Batman movie since the visuals aren’t too far off and the use of darkness within the movie thus far has a huge similarity to the movie. But of course, the content is going to be different since Batman would likely catch John Doe a lot quicker and beat the living hell out of him before hauling him off to jail. Will the current Batman be doing this though? It does appear that he’s more than willing to beat a criminal down and won’t be taking a lot of guff off of anyone. It could be that he’s still being portrayed as a young man and not someone that’s been fighting crime for years on end, much as Christopher Nolan’s Batman depicted since Christian Bale’s character started out as a young man and was also quite impetuous. But the difference there is that Bale’s character didn’t go around beating the hell out of a person when a few hits could do just as well. Granted, he would keep hitting someone if they got up again, but from the one display we’ve seen, this new Batman is going to pummel his enemies into the ground until they’re no longer moving. But maybe that’s just the trailer, and we’ll see something different when all is said and done.
As of now, looking at both of these trailers side by side, it’s very easy to see how alike they are, and it is kind of eerie. But it’s also kind of interesting as well since it does feel as though this might have some bearing on Matt Reeves’ movie, even if he wasn’t really thinking about it when he started up. As far as The Batman goes right now though we’re going to have to wait and see what will happen with it since Robert Pattinson was recently diagnosed with the coronavirus, meaning the movie had to be shut down again. At some point, one would think that something has to give, but so far things are still progressing when they can.
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