Despite the elitist and gatekeeping attitudes from directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, comic book movies aren't going anywhere. The genre hasn't burned out with audiences over the last decade despite a few predictions it would. And one of comic books' most popular characters is getting another run in 2021 with The Batman.
The movie hasn't started shooting yet, but over the last few months, we've been getting bits and pieces of information, mostly about casting. Robert Pattinson will play the caped crusader, and despite his checkered Twilight past, I think he'll make a fantastic young Bruce Wayne. Cocky playboy billionaire? I think Pattinson will do just fine.
I liked Ben Affleck as Batman well enough. The older more grizzled sense he brought to the character was unique. But where I felt like Ben Affleck fell short was in his portrayal of Bruce Wayne (granted he didn't do much of that). Pattinson, by comparison, should do great as Bruce Wayne, but we'll have to wait and see if he can kick butt as Affleck did while rescuing Martha Kent.
That's really the challenge for actors who are cast as superheroes. They have two characters to play, a superhero and a secret identity. I wrote about that in my column a few months back with who the superior Spider-Man was (Andrew Garfield, if you didn't read it). It's not enough for an actor to be a good Peter Parker (Tobey McGuire) and a good Spider-Man (Tom Holland). You've got to be good at both, as Garfield was.
And speaking of Spider-Man, specifically Spider-Man 3, there's a big lesson The Batman can learn from this film, given recent casting announcements of Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman and now Paul Dano as The Riddler.
With Catwoman and The Riddler as part of the movie, I'm sure we'll see a third villain cast at some point. Neither Catwoman nor The Riddler are really strong enough villains to carry an entire Batman movie on their own. That's why you had The Penguin along with Catwoman in Batman Returns and Two-Face with The Riddler in Batman Forever.
Don't misunderstand me. Catwoman and The Riddler are both solid characters. And they can absolutely carry stories on their own (Read: Batman: Hush). But those stories have to be kept in the comics. Hollywood just isn't capable of crafting a subtle enough story for either of them to shine on their own.
I don't know if The Batman will throw the Joker into the mix. I hated Jared Leto's portrayal of the character, and I'm pretty sure Joaquin Phoenix's Joker isn't going to appear in the DC Extended Universe anymore. I'm kind of tired of the Joker. I'd like to see an underused Batman villain come forward. Like Firefly. Or Deathstroke. That would be amazing.
Either way, I'm confident we'll get at least one more villain cast for show. And this has me a little worried not because of who Director Matt Reeves might choose but because whoever is picked will mark three villains in one Batman movie. And if Spider-Man 3 taught us anything, it's that three villains is too many. The choice makes the movie feel stuffed and bloated.
I remember when Spider-Man 3 was released. The first Spider-Man movie in 2002 (along with 2000's X-Men) showed Hollywood superhero movies that weren't Batman or Superman could work. They could be popular and good. Spider-Man was decent, and Spider-Man 2 remains one of the best movies in the franchise.
But Spider-Man 3 shot all that momentum to pieces and led Sony to eventually reboot the character with Andrew Garfield. The big sin for Spider-Man 3 was there were simply too many villains. The trailers made it look epic, but having Peter Parker battle with Hobgoblin, Sandman and a horrific rendition of Venom was way too much for one movie.
Instead of giving us one well-developed villain like we got with Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus in the previous movies, we had three under-developed villains. Venom is perfectly capable of being the only villain a movie needs. Sandman was pointless and Hobgoblin didn't add anything of real value until the fight at the end (the only good part of the movie).
I'm worried that The Batman will suffer the same fate as Spider-Man 3 with too many villains. Heck, Sony repeated the same mistake with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just a couple of films later by featuring The Rhino, Green Goblin and Electro. Learn from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One villain per movie is plenty. Loki does fine. Thanos does fine. They don't need assistance.
It's especially crucial that The Batman really take steps to lay a solid foundation since it'll be the first Batman solo movie since 2012's The Dark Knight Rises. If there's anything I lament about Ben Affleck's Batman, it's that he didn't get a solo performance where he could really develop as the hero. He showed up with Superman, the Justice League and for a couple pieces of Suicide Squad.
And while everyone knows who Batman is and what he does, the reason Batman solo movies exist is to let each actor lay a foundation for their interpretation of the character, like Michael Keaton did, like Christian Bale did, like Adam West did.
Villains need their own room to breathe and develop as well. When given that room, we end up with some truly memorable performances such as Tom Hiddleston's Loki. When a villain isn't given any room to develop, we end up with Iron Man 3's Mandarin. I'm still mad about that movie. It's the only bad entry in the Marvel Comics Universe.
Can Robert Pattinson have sufficient space to make his own Bruce Wayne/Batman when he's building romantic interest with Selina Kyle and solving riddles from Edward Nigma? Will he be able to develop as the caped crusader when he's doing those things and trying to tackle a third villain like Penguin or Vandal Savage? I don't know. I guess it'll depend on if we get a 2-hour The Batman or a 3-hour The Batman.
We've already seen what happens when Batman (and Robin) have three villains to deal with in one film. It's called Batman and Robin, and it features a terrible performance from George Clooney. In that movie, we got Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, and Bane. It was a dumpster fire, and I don't want to see The Batman meet the same fate. Batman and Robin killed Batman films until 2005's Batman Begins.
Maybe I'm just being too paranoid. The Dark Knight Rises featured Catwoman, Bane and Talia al Ghul. It still ended up being a fantastic movie. But here's the trick on that. The Dark Knight Rises capped a perfect Batman trilogy and had a heck of a foundation to stand on. It was also directed by the genius that is Christopher Nolan, a man incapable of making a bad movie.
Batman is a popular character, and there's a lot of expectations riding on any movie he's in. I don't want to see this movie ruined because of too many villains. What I would much rather see is Nightwing incorporated into a live-action film for once. Surely we can sack one villain for that, right?
MovieStyle on 10/25/2019