The Batman will mark the debut of Robert Pattinson as the title character, and this version of the Caped Crusader is already much more brutal than the previous ones. Batman's history on the big screen began in the 1940s with two serial films, and it has since seen different versions of Gotham City and its famous vigilante, but it has also been full of ups and downs. After the success of Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin were a major disappointment, but the Caped Crusader was given another chance in the 2000s with Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.
The DC Extended Universe welcomed its own version of Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, with Ben Affleck taking over the role. Affleck reprised his role in Suicide Squad (in a cameo appearance) and Justice League, but the underperformance of the latter led Warner to re-evaluate its approach and plans for the DCEU and its multiverse. As a result, the studio moved forward with a Batman movie separate from the DCEU and with a different actor on the lead: Robert Pattinson. Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman follows a younger Bruce Wayne on his second year of crime-fighting in Gotham City and also focuses on his detective phase, a side of him that has been mostly left aside so far.
The Batman will also see the title character come across some of his most notable enemies: Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Colin Farrell), and The Riddler (Paul Dano), with the latter serving as the movie’s main antagonist. As the release date for The Batman fast approaches, plot details continue to be kept under wraps, but the teasers and trailers have given the audience a good look at the tone and style of this new version of the Caped Crusader, showing a much more brutal Batman, which actually fits this younger version.
As this is a Batman who is still in his early years as Gotham’s vigilante, he’s an unpolished version of the hero everyone knows, more so when compared to the previous adaptations, who were more experienced than Pattinson’s. The trailers have shown this new Batman brutally attacking gang members and Cobblepot’s henchmen, and it’s all because this Batman is driven by revenge, with Pattinson sharing at CinemaCon that Bruce is “really working out his rage. All the fights seem very personal”. At this point in his journey, Batman doesn’t have much control over his actions and is letting his emotions control him for the most part, his methods are still unrefined (as seen when he tasers a clown gang member), and he still hasn’t come up with his own code, so he will surely end up doing stuff that he will regret but will help him build his code and become a better hero.
Among the things that make The Batman so exciting is seeing this different and earlier phase of the character, as other versions have shown his origins but then jump to an already experienced Batman. Robert Pattinson’s Batman is more brutal than the rest, and these somewhat reckless actions will have consequences that will further build the character, and these can help make this version of the Dark Knight stand out from the rest even more.
