The hype machine for Matt Reeves‘ reboot of the ‘Batman’ franchise has almost hit its crescendo as “The Batman” is about to hit theaters early next month. Audiences around the globe will finally get to see Robert Pattinson‘s take on both Bruce Wayne and the Caped Crusader, as Reeves guides us into more of a gritty crime thriller version of Gotham City thanks to the slick visuals courtesy of Oscar-nominated “Dune” cinematographer Greg Fraser.
Pattinson spoke to GQ Magazine and broke down his take on both personas of his comic book character.
“I’ve definitely found a little interesting thread. He doesn’t have a playboy persona at all, so he’s kind of a weirdo as Bruce and a weirdo as Batman, and I kept thinking there’s a more nihilistic slant to it,” said Pattinson. “’Cause, normally, in all the other movies, Bruce goes away, trains, and returns to Gotham believing in himself, thinking, I’m gonna change things here. But in this, it’s sort of implied that he’s had a bit of a breakdown. But this thing he’s doing, it’s not even working. Like, it’s two years into it, and the crime has gotten worse since Bruce started being Batman. The people of Gotham think that he’s just another symptom of how shit everything is.”
He added, “It’s a sad movie. It’s kind of about him trying to find some element of hope, in himself, and not just the city. Normally, Bruce never questions his own ability; he questions the city’s ability to change. But I mean, it’s kind of such an insane thing to do: ‘The only way I can live is to dress up as a bat.'”
He also points out how his version of Batman interacts with the Gotham cops is slightly more engaging than previous incarnations.
“But from the first shot, it’s, ‘Oh, this actually is a detective story.’ And I feel like an idiot because I didn’t even know that Batman was ‘the world’s greatest detective’; I hadn’t heard that in my life before—but it really plays,” he explained. “Just ’cause there’s a lot of stuff where he’s in amongst the cops. Normally, when you see Batman he arrives and beats people up. But he’s having conversations, and there are emotional scenes between them, which I don’t think have been in any of the other movies.”
Will “The Batman” become as beloved as the Christopher Nolan ‘Dark Knight‘ trilogy? Well, it certainly sounds like Reeves and Pattinson will be taking big swings with their takes on the mythology to at least give audiences a complex experience alongside attempting to be more the realm of a crime thriller by taking inspiration from films of the 1970s and the work of David Fincher, as the nods to things like “Seven,” “Zodiac” and even “The Game” are unmistakable.
“The Batman” will debut in theaters on March 4.