Most of us are salivating at the mere thought of a Matt Reeves directed Batman film. Reeves is, of course, the dude that gave us the magnificent Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War For the Planet of the Apes. In case you didn’t know, Reeves’ The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson supposedly isn’t related to the DCEU as established by Zack Snyder. Much like Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, The Batman is reportedly going to be its own thing.
Interestingly, The Batman will not be another standard origin story, in the sense that we won’t be seeing the character evolve from Bruce Wayne into Gotham’s Dark Knight. In other words, this will not tread a similar path as Nolan’s Batman Begins. Instead, it appears as though Reeves will re-introduce us to the character rather similarly to the way we got introduced to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the MCU. In an interview with Nerdist, Reeves said:
I wanted to do not an origin tale, but a tale that would still acknowledge his origins, in that it formed who he is. Like this guy, he’s majorly struggling, and this is how he’s trying to rise above that struggle. But that doesn’t mean that he even fully understands, you know. It’s that whole idea of the shadow self and what’s driving you, and how much of that you can incorporate, and how much of it you’re doing that you’re unaware of.
Reeves also mentioned that he was initially worried that his pitch would be rejected by Warner Bros, as he wanted to prioritize humanism instead of action and spectacle.
I’m going to pitch the version of Batman that I would do, which is going to have a humanist bent. And who knows if they’ll have any interest? If they don’t, then I won’t do it. And that’ll be okay. I was really lucky that they said yes.
Reeves also talked about the psychological aspect of the film and how the film will be an exploration of corruption in Gotham.
There’s something in there that feels very psychological, very emotional, and it felt like there was a way of exploring that along with the corruption in this place, Gotham. That feels very current. I think it always does. There’s almost no time when you can’t do a story about corruption. But today, it still seems incredibly resonant and maybe, from my perspective, maybe more so than maybe at other time.
This is exactly what one would hope to get from a Matt Reeves film. While his Planet of the Apes films had action in them, they were mostly character-driven and highly psychological character dramas. Even Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, which I borderline worship, were action-spectacles in their own right. I’m excited to see Reeves’ unique take.
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