Matt Reeves’ The Batman was able to craft a take on The Dark Knight that was unique and well-made. Reeves in particular had really thought about how he would present Batman, a role essayed by Robert Pattinson, in a unique way. Speaking on The Treatment podcast, Reeves revealed his unique take on Batman, and how one of the aspects of that was explored in one scene.
The scene in question here appears early in the film, where Batman rescues a subway user from a gang of goons with face paint. This has Batman declaring that he is ‘vengeance’ before he proceeds to beat them up. However, this scene, while looking like a rescue, actually has Batman indulging in his coping mechanism.
The Batman Subway Scene revealed how Bruce Wayne was coping with his trauma
Matt Reeves, speaking on The Treatment podcast, revealed what his goal was behind the subway scene. The sequence establishes the core struggle of the character, such that he might be engaging in an altruistic practice, but struggling with his inner demons, to the point of alienation. Reeves said:
What was so interesting is the idea of being lost in the mystery of your own struggle to such a degree that, if you would ask him, in a conscious way, well, what are you doing? [He would say] this guy’s in trouble. I’m trying to help him. But that wasn’t really what it’s about at all.
This notion that somehow people do things in an altruistic way. I mean, there’s nothing psychological about that. We do things because that creates meaning. So altruism creates some kind of meaning for him.
The Batman in Reeves’ universe approaches crime-fighting from a coping point of view. While it works as an altruistic practice as a front, Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne is so lost in beating up the criminals, that it becomes more about his own struggle than the rescue that he is conducting.
Matt Reeves does not want to go fully fantastical with his Batman universe
Matt Reeves revealed that The Batman is never going to be completely fantastical, given that the universe would not stray away from its mystery-thriller vibe. While The Penguin can appear in the film, there is no chance that audiences will see the Gentlemen Ghost in the sequel.
Speaking with Variety the director revealed:
It doesn’t mean that you won’t see characters that people love. That’s exactly what we want to do. Gentleman Ghost is probably pushed a bit too far for us to be able to find a way to do, but there is a fun way to think about how we would take characters that might push over into a bit of the fantastical and find a way to make sense of that.
It is probably unlikely that audiences will see characters like Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and Solomon Grundy appear in the universe, but fans could definitely expect some of Batman’s greatest hits from his rogues gallery, such as Hush, Scarecrow, Ra’s al Ghul, or even Hugo Strange.
The Batman can be streamed on Max
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
