Written by Joy Lyn Parohinog Francisco
Just a few days to go and we will finally see Matt Reeves’ take on The Batman starring Robert Pattinson.
With the premise that Bruce Wayne has just donned the cowl for only two years, Matt Reeves opted to focus on the fact The Batman is the World’s Greatest Detective. Wayne becoming The Batman offers a psychological lens for the viewers and hopefully the most believable depiction of crime-ridden Gotham City.
As any individual taking a huge step, Matt Reeves questioned himself if the audience is ready for the detective aspect of The Batman. Matt Reeves revealed:
The first version of this movie that I screened; the movie has a very ambitious, complex narrative. So, by the time we got to a place where we had to start testing, I was not all the way through the cut of the movie. There was so much of the movie yet to be touched and it was really long. I mean, not to say that the movie doesn’t have length now, but it was longer than what I intended. I was terrified because I thought, oh my gosh, we’re showing this, before I’m ready, to an audience and in terms of a Batman movie, it’s a very complex detective story narrative. Are they going to be able to follow anything?
I think the subtext of his worries is “would they find it boring?”.
It’s probably because most blockbuster movies lately have action-packed, fast-paced fantastical stories. Matt Reeves thinks a very grounded film could not capture and keep the audience’s attention.
However, despite that personal apprehension, he pushed forward with his vision of The Batman.
Matt Reeves Initially Worried The Batman As Detective May Be Too Complex
Image: Warner Bros
Afterwards, the initial test screenings proved him wrong.
With delighted relief he shared:
What I found actually, which was amazing, was how much they loved that aspect. That was the biggest relief. I was thinking, okay, why did I do this? Why did I decide to make this kind of story? And what the first test screening told me was the audience wanted this, that we had the Batmobile chases, we had all the things.
He then went on to add:
You can’t make a Batman movie without giving the baseline things that people want from a Batman movie. But I knew we were challenging the audience in this side of world’s greatest detective side, because it was going to be a very complex narrative and it turned out they love that part of it. It was one of the things that tested best. So that part was a great thing to learn, which was that, actually, the audience would be excited about this version of the movie and that only continued to get better as we continued to test.
Image: Warner Bros.
For years Detective Comics has shown Batman’s prowess in deduction. Wayne is highly intellectual which is also why his opinion is very valuable in the Justice League.
Moreover, lifetime fans of the caped crusader knows this aspect of Wayne and Batman.
These fans anticipate Matt Reeves depicting this aspect. And many fans are also into the detective aspect of Batman. If not that, then there is a whole population of potential audience who follow the mystery-solving genre. Maybe this is their gateway movie into superheroes.
Then again, some viewers reject action-packed fantastical stories and are looking for the ones that tickle the mind because this… this is possible.
This can happen.
Matt Reeves could be happy to learn he was wrong.
Audiences starting March 4 will prove it.