Over the past 60 years, more than a handful of actors have portrayed Batman. Actors such as Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck and most recently, Robert Pattinson have all had the chance to show movie and comic fans different perspectives of the caped crusader.
The performance that stood out among the rest was Pattinson’s in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” When Warner Bros announced in May of 2019 that Matt Reeves cast Pattinson as the new Batman, it was met with a lot of skepticism. Casual movie fans who were not familiar with Pattinson’s work after the Twilight trilogy were not very happy, but the ones who had watched his other performances knew he would be a good choice for the role.
Compared to the other live-action performances of Batman, Pattinson’s might be the best ever. Not only does he have the best live-action Batman suit, but he also has the perfect voice for the superhero, which is not raspy or a voice changer. Pattinson shows a lot of emotion in the film by using his eyes behind the mask. He makes sudden movements while wearing the Batsuit, making it feel like Batman is a real, tangible person.
One great thing about Pattinson’s Batman is that he does not call himself Batman, he calls himself Vengeance. The decision from Matt Reeves to have Bruce Wayne call his Batman persona Vengeance is genius, because throughout the movie Wayne is out for vengeance for the death of his parents. It is not until the movie’s end that Wayne realizes that he has to be a symbol of hope rather than revenge.
Pattinson’s performance as Batman gets all the attention, and rightfully so. It is a great performance, but the way he portrays Wayne is also brilliant. In “The Batman,” Wayne is so immersed in the Vengeance persona that he basically chooses not to be Wayne. Whenever Pattinson is out of his Batsuit playing Wayne in the movie, he is awkward, anti-social and vulnerable.
This version of Wayne is something audiences were not expecting when the movie came out and it led to them believing that it was a “bad” Wayne, but it makes sense when you realize that Wayne has been Batman every night for the past two years without being the charismatic playboy that Batman fans know him to be.
Pattinson’s performance as Batman and Wayne should not be looked at as “trying to be different,” it should be viewed as a breath of fresh air. Audiences have seen the typical brooding Batman and the charming Wayne archetype on the big screen for way too long. What Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves were able to do with the iconic character — mixing a mysterious Batman with an antisocial Wayne for the noir-styled movie — is brilliant, fresh and adds more depth to the legend of Batman.
