Can The Batman live up to The Dark Knight?

     During a time when Hollywood was steadily keeping their distance from comic book properties in fear that audiences would not take them seriously, there came a movie that would change all of this. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight changed the landscape of comic book movies forever. This movie was different, it was far from the campy, over the top, cheesy versions of the golden age comics that worked on the pages in the past. That style failed miserably with Batman's previous theatrical outings (do NOT get me started on 1997's Batman & Robin). This film took risks, it dropped us in a dark and dirty Gotham, giving us a comic movie that made us believe that it could actually exist in the real world. It also gave us arguably the greatest villain of all time with Heath Leadger's breathtaking iteration of the Joker. The Dark Knight did not set the bar, it IS the bar. 

 

I have not been this excited for a Batman related theatrical project since The Dark Knight trilogy. With early reviews of The Batman's test screenings coming in as "controversial and complex", "as polarizing as Joaquin Phoenix's Joker" and is being praised as "the best since The Dark Knight". Also, it is being compared to other movies such as Zodiac, The Usual Suspects and The Silence Of The Lambs which sounds like a perfect fit for Paul Dano's Riddler. The Riddler is usually over looked as a top tier villain in Batman's rouge gallery. He wont beat you with his strength or his fists. He defeats his foe behind the curtains with his superior intellect of mind bending puzzles and rubix cube like traps, that are usually designed to be fatal. With the version of the Riddler being inspired by the real-life Zodiac killer, we could finally witness the character get his due and redeem the version we got with Jim Carrey in 1995's Batman Forever.

The Batman starts us off in year two of Robert Pattinson's venture as the masked vigilante, it's a young take on the character, but this won't be an origin story. So in theory, should drop us right into Bruce Wayne already being Batman for a couple of years, similar to how Christian Bale's outing as the caped crusader was already underway at the start of The Dark Knight. This version though is a noir-esque mystery, promising us a true detective plot that has been long overdue for "the world's greatest detective" on the silver screen. Bruce Wayne isn't the confident playboy that he usually is portrayed as when not wearing the cowl. He is said to be a "weirdo", always on the verge of a breakdown. The director Matt Reeves stated that his version of Bruce was inspired by Kurt Cobain. But as Batman, he is deliberately "unpolished" but is 'monstrous'.  He is "on this obsessive mission" that brings a horror like aspect to use fear as a weapon to intimidate the criminals who are unfortunate to cross his path.

Can The Batman dethrone The Dark Knight? Audiences only have to wait less then a week to find out and make that choice on their own. It has all the tools, a great directors vision and an all star cast to at least give The Dark Knight a run for its money. I believe we are all in a win-win scenario. Even if The Batman doesn't come out victorious as the new king of the Batman mountain and is just in the same league as The Dark Knight? That's a win. Thankfully, we only have to wait till March 4th for The Batman to drop in cinemas. I'll be impatiently waiting on a rooftop somewhere in Gotham City until then.

The synopsis reads: "Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman (Robert Pattinson), striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. With only a few trusted allies — Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) — amongst the city's corrupt network of officials and high-profile figures, the lone vigilante has established himself as the sole embodiment of vengeance amongst his fellow citizens."

"When a killer targets Gotham's elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World's Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle/aka Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Oswald Cobblepot/aka the Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Edward Nashton/aka the Riddler (Paul Dano). As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator's plans becomes clear, Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City."

The Batman will be released worldwide on March 4th 2022.

By Tom Nordyk Nerdthusiast Content Writer