By openly sporting smokey black eye paint in Matt Reeves' The Batman, Robert Pattinson subverts a Batman costume plot hole. Every big screen Batman carries a unique aesthetic, often reflecting the vision and tone of their respective movies. For instance, while Micheal Keaton's Batman dons a stiff cowl and yellow chest symbol in Tim Burton's relatively more comical portrayal of the Caped Crusader, Christopher Nolan's Batman is more tactical with his military-grade gadgets and suit design. Similarly, the intentional glitches in Batman's gadgets and his rough-around-the-edges suit in Matt Reeves' Bat-verse indicate how he is still in the sophomore years of his vigilante endeavors.
In all of his realism and purposefully flawed aesthetic, there is one element that specifically makes Pattinson's Batman stand out: his dark smokey eye when his cowl comes off. Considering how Bucky Barnes wears similar eye makeup in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy paints his face black before putting on his mask in Kick-Ass, this is not the first time a superhero movie has addressed the practicality of black eye shadow. However, since the black eyeliner of every other big-screen Batman comes off as a plot hole, because it magically disappears when they remove their cowls, there is evidently a lot more to Robert Pattinson's smudgy dark-eyes than meets the eye.
Batman's Black Eye Paint Was A Plot Hole Before
The brooding noir atmosphere and neo-gothic vision of Gotham in Tim Burton's Batman could have been the perfect setting for revealing Bruce Wayne's eye shadow under the Batman cowl. Unfortunately, the movie misses this opportunity and presents Batman's black eye as a glaring plot hole. There is a scene in Tim Burton's Batman where it is evident that Micheal Keaton has black paint smudged across his eyes underneath his mask. However, when he takes his cowl off, the eye shadow is magically gone. Like many other elements in Tim Burton's Batman universe, this only stretches the suspension of disbelief. By revealing paint smeared around Bruce Wayne's eyes, Pattinson's Batman subverts this plot hole and grounds his Batman in reality.
Why The Batman's Eye Paint Fits Pattinson's Dark Knight
Everything from Robert Pattinson's long black fringes to his reclusive attitude in The Batman screams "emo." No wonder he was labeled as "Emo Batman" by the internet soon after the premiere of The Batman's trailer. The fact that he actually listens to grunge music —specifically, "Something in the Way" by Nirvana — further nails down the dingy, sullen image that Reeves wanted to create for him. Owing to this, even the eye paint serves a bigger narrative purpose than mere practicality and adds more heft to the young Bruce Wayne's gritty, psychologically-troubled demeanor.
From a storytelling standpoint, the eye paint also stands as a metaphor for Wayne's skewed sense of duality in Matt Reeves' The Batman. Unlike the more mature and self-actualized versions of the Dark Knight in Nolan's, Snyder's, and Burton's movies, Robert Pattinson's Batman still seems to live with the trauma of his parent's murder. He is socially awkward, mindlessly seeks revenge, shies way in his Batcave, and is far from being the charismatic billionaire playboy that Christian Bale portrays. Because of this lack of self-awareness, Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne struggles to draw a line between his two identities. The black patches of paint that remain around his eyes after he removes his cowl symbolize this in The Batman by showing how Batman's darkness bleeds into Bruce Wayne's true identity.
