Any time a franchise makes a transition, it always comes under close scrutiny. This applies to superhero franchises especially. Throughout the years, new iterations of Batman tend to take the most heat. When Warner Bros. cast Ben Affleck as Batman, the internet nearly imploded. These days many of those same detractors are bemoaning the fact that they'll never see a solo Batfleck movie. That's the franchise lifecycle: new announcement, fan outrage, fan love, new announcement, outrage, love, and so on.
Now it's Robert Pattinson's turn to endure the super-scrutiny of superhero fans. Many online have expressed their disappointment with his casting as the caped crusader in the upcoming Matt Reeves film The Batman. Fans didn't have much insight into the film until a trailer dropped last year. It looks incredible, depending on who is being asked. Detractors have already gone to town pick the trailer apart. Predictably, one of their biggest sticking points is the new Batsuit.
The Batsuit is usually the first piece of a new Batman franchise to take hits online. Ben Affleck's suit garnered plenty of complaints when the first trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice released. Comparisons to previous versions of the suit are inevitable, in part because the design offers a hint at the direction of the newest film. The Batsuit in The Batman differs significantly from the suit featured in the Dark Knight trilogy.
For some, the differences are a problem. Pattinson's suit looks bulkier than the one Christian Bale wore throughout the trilogy. It also appears less refined. There are dings and scratches in the suit, and none of it looks as perfectly manufactured as the suit in Christopher Nolan's films. The cape attaches to Pattinson's suit rather than flowing right out from behind the shoulders, as in Bale's. Another major difference is the bat symbol on the chest piece. Bale's was jet black, almost hard to distinguish from the rest of the suit. Pattinson's symbol protrudes from the chest plate, clearly defined with some kind of gunmetal finish.
Pattinson's detractors claim that all these differences boil down to one thing: bad design. This new Batman won't be sleek, refined, stylish. He looks like he doesn't know what he's doing. Well, The Batman director Matt Reeves would say, that's exactly the point.
Year Two
One of the few details anyone has known about The Batman is that it will focus on a version of Bruce Wayne who is very new to the superhero game. He's been acting as Batman for about two years when the film opens. The new Batsuit design comes with that in mind. Matt Reeves has said he and the team spent a year working on the Batsuit design, so they clearly put a lot of thought into how Pattinson's look will affect their film.
Bruce Wayne built this suit himself, so it should look unrefined, even stitched together in some places. He's new to being a hero, so he takes some damage from night to night. The fact that Bruce built the suit himself leans into the source material Reeves chose for his film. Many assumed Reeves would base the movie on the Year One comic story, but instead Reeves is taking cues from Batman: Ego. That story focuses on analyzing the psychology of Bruce, picking apart what it is that keeps him patrolling the streets of Gotham night after night. This new Batsuit gives a glimpse of how this version of Bruce sees himself.
Many signs point to The Batman being a darker, grittier, but also more personal take on the character and his world than fans have ever seen before. Between the massive list of characters in the new film and the Gotham PD tie-in series coming to HBO Max, there's also a good chance that Warner Bros. views The Batman as ground-zero for a new, long-running Batman franchise. Pattinson recently signed a deal with Warner Bros. that means he'll be taking on more projects with the company. The deal wasn't Batman-exclusive, but certainly neither the actor nor the studio are ruling anything out at this point.
If there's a larger franchise being planned, this Batsuit could be something of a mark-one, and audiences could see further iterations of the suit in sequel films, or possibly by the end of The Batman itself. Right now, everything rests on the success of Reeves's film when it comes to theaters next March. Despite what detractors may be saying online, this Batsuit is perfect for the story that Reeves plans to tell, and Robert Pattinson has already proven he's perfect for the role. If the movie fails, it wouldn't be the first time a DC film looked great up to release and didn't quite deliver, but at the moment, there's every reason to believe The Batman will be an incredible superhero movie.