Everything
A new trailer for The Batman, the latest incarnation of, you guessed it, DC antihero Batman has dropped and gee whiz Edward Cullen’s grown up.
Unveiled at the recent DC FanDome this new caped crusader flick stars Robert Pattinson as the crime fighting trust-funder Bruce Wayne/Batman and Zoë Kravitz is Selena Kyle/Catwoman. Utterly unrecognisable however is Colin Farrell who plays The Penguin while Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, Okja, Swiss Army Man) plays an utterly creepy version of nemesis The Riddler.
Directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield), The Batman is said to take place two years into Wayne’s nighttime antics, uncovering corruption and evil operating at the heart of his native Gotham City.
Notoriously hard to please fans of DC’s Dark Knight are already responding to the brutal and brooding nature of the trailer.
Batman has always been a problematic hero – his actions are fuelled by the need for vengeance, rather than his more noble-minded colleagues Wonder Woman or Superman. Reeves taps into this darkness happily, taking the character back to his noir origins with Pattinson’s Batman oozing sinister violence, in one scene even questioning the nature of the beloved Bat Signal by declaring “Fear is a tool. When the light hits the sky, it’s not just a call. It’s a warning.”
The casting of Pattinson was, at the time, controversial. While obviously the English actor was already familiar with playing a bat of an entirely different variety when he was in Twilight, Pattinson’s already being praised for his characterisation.
A huge part of the Batman persona is the voice, which even Ben Affleck managed to pull off before he pulled out of the role due to story direction. Pattinson’s managed to get the feral growl just right. He’s also done it without the excessive body makeover that even Christian Bale underwent, opting instead for a more realistic physicality.
A refreshing take, if you ask me. The sight of jacked-up mega bodies in films is starting to look a bit boring.
The Batman is due to hit cinemas in March 2022.
