Highlights
- The Batman takes inspiration from the 1992 animated series, making it the closest portrayal to that version of Batman, which many fans will appreciate.
- The film showcases Batman as a detective who actively investigates crime scenes and works alongside the police, which differs from previous portrayals where he analyzed information in the Batcave.
- The story in The Batman centers around Gotham’s crime families, providing a direct impact on Bruce Wayne’s personal life, mirroring the focus on crime families in the animated series.
Every live-action Batman movie has its own unique factors in what makes up the character of both Batman and Bruce Wayne. Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) virtually set the blueprint for how the Caped Crusader has been portrayed since then, giving him a much darker, more serious tone than Adam West’s (that’s not a slight on the original hero). Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy saw Bruce ramp up the playboy facade to especially counter who he really was when the mask was on. And the Schumacher movies were their own entity entirely.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman, though, took a lot of inspiration from the 1992 classic Batman: The Animated Series. Out of all the talented actors who have portrayed Gotham’s Dark Knight, there’s no question that Robert Pattinson was the closest to the animated Batman that ruled throughout the 1990s.
RELATED: How The Batman Movie Poster Captured The Feel Of The Film
That’s not to take anything away from the other renditions of Batman, seeing as though Nolan’s The Dark Knight is arguably the greatest Batman project of all time. But for anyone who was a die-hard fan of the animated series — and there are many out there — The Batman may be the closest thing they have to feeling that nostalgia to the wonderful Kevin Conroy days.
Batman as the Detective
|
The Batman |
|
|---|---|
|
Director |
Matt Reeves |
|
Writers |
Matt Reeves, Peter Craig |
|
Cast |
Robert Pattinson, Paul Dano, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, John Turturro |
|
Release Date |
March 4, 2022 |
|
Runtime |
176 minutes |
|
Where to Watch |
Max |
There’s a reason one of Batman’s nicknames is The World’s Greatest Detective. His character is more than capable of solving a mystery or a crime, and it’s shown very effectively in nearly every rendition of Batman. But what isn’t always shown is Batman working directly with the police at the scene of the crime.
A lot of times — and this is very prevalent in the Dark Knight trilogy — Batman simply gathers information he’s given or that he has access to thanks to either Gordon or Lucius Fox, and goes back to the Batcave to analyze it. The Batman, however, sees him actually go to the scene of the crime and look at direct clues within the area that the police might have missed. This may be easier to achieve because of the involvement of the Riddler.
The Riddler is really the first time in a live-action Batman film that Batman’s dealing with a calculated serial killer, and one that leaves very abstract clues behind, as well. So, it makes more sense that he’d be at the scene instead of just reading whatever paperwork was filled out by Gordon after the fact. But this also reinforces the notion that The Batman is most like the animated series, because in the series, Batman was constantly at the scene of the crimes he was investigating. Whether the police were there or if he snuck in after they left, he would gather evidence like fingerprints or a hidden message somewhere — very much like how Robert Pattinson’s Batman does to try and track down the Riddler — and bring that evidence back to the cave and analyze it directly. And, as always, Jim Gordon is seemingly the only one who welcomes Batman’s help, and the other officers aren’t afraid to voice their opinion on the matter.
The Story is More Focused on the Mob
The animated series deals so much with the crime families of Gotham, including Falcone, Maroni, Bertinelli, and several others. While Batman Begins deals with both the Falcone and Maroni families, the rest of the series doesn’t really revisit any of that in depth. Even looking at the Penguin in Batman Returns, a character who, in the comics, is often seen being heavily involved in the organized crime of Gotham, but has virtually no part in that industry in the film.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman is so centrally focused on the Gotham crime families, so much so that it provides a direct impact on Bruce’s personal life. In Reeves’ story, Thomas Wayne got caught up in working with Carmine Falcone, and that ultimately led to his and Martha’s murder, the very event that made Bruce into Batman. Adding the Penguin to the mix just more accurately calls back to who the Penguin is in both the comics and the animated series. Plus, it’s revealed that Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, is Falcone’s illegitimate child, which is a fun concept to toy around with.
Batman: The Animated Series has a lot of instances in which the Gotham crime families are involved, most notably Rupert Thorne. His first appearance was in the episode “It’s Never Too Late” (season 1, episode 6), and he went on to appear in nine other episodes, including the two-part special about Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face. A lot of times, Batman fights against big villains like Scarecrow or Mr. Freeze, but the animated series has the freedom to showcase the everyday criminals he faces off against, something that The Batman follows the lead of.
The Difference: Bruce Wayne
|
Who Has Played a Live-Action Batman |
|
|---|---|
|
Adam West |
Batman (TV Series, 1966-1968) |
|
Michael Keaton |
Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992) |
|
Val Kilmer |
Batman Forever (1995) |
|
George Clooney |
Batman & Robin (1997) |
|
Christian Bale |
Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) |
|
Ben Affleck |
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017) |
|
Robert Pattinson |
The Batman (2022) |
It’s fascinating because, despite taking a lot of inspiration from the animated series, The Batman has a crucial difference in portraying the other half of the main character: Bruce Wayne. In the animated series — as well as most of the live-action films — Bruce Wayne plays into the facade of being the billionaire playboy, one who can be careless with his own money, yet is the responsible and passionate philanthropist that his father was.
For instance, in the episode “Pretty Poison” (season 1, episode 9), Bruce funds Harvey Dent’s project of building the Gotham penitentiary. This, in turn, leads to Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy, seeking revenge on Dent for disturbing natural life in order to set up the facility. Nonetheless, Bruce was happy to provide his company as a source of funding. He is also constantly hosting parties and charity events for various programs around Gotham.
Bruce in The Batman, however, wants nothing to do with the business side of Wayne Enterprises. At one point in the film, Alfred informs him that he’s invited members of the accounting department from Wayne Enterprises over to discuss certain aspects of the company. Bruce is annoyed by this, telling Alfred that he doesn’t care about those things. Alfred rebuts, asking if he doesn’t care about the “family legacy”. Bruce responds:
What I’m doing is my family’s legacy. If I can’t change things here, if I can’t have an effect, then I don’t care what happens to me.
Even when Bruce goes out into public, like when he attends the mayor’s funeral, the press is shocked because they rarely ever see him. It’s a unique perspective on the character of Bruce Wayne, giving him a much darker, more lonely demeanor, almost like a hermit of sorts. But by the end, after the Riddler shows him how Thomas Wayne’s Renewal project — that would have funded the orphanage in Gotham — was cut off after his death, Bruce sees that he has more of a responsibility to this city than just fighting crime. He realizes that his resources as Bruce Wayne can also help the city’s prosperity and provide justice in its own way. It’ll be interesting to see which direction Matt Reeves decides to take this concept in the sequel film, scheduled to be released in 2025.
Batman
Batman is one of the most popular and well-known superheroes of all time. Created in 1939 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Batman has evolved over the decades into a cultural icon.
As a child, Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered in front of him. Since that day, Bruce made it his mission to fight back against the criminal element in Gotham City. Taking on the appearance of what scares him most, Batman faces off against powerful villains like the Joker, Two-Face, Bane, and the Penguin.
- Created by
- Bob Kane, Bill Finger
- TV Show(s)
- Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Gotham
Leave a Reply