Superhero movies are the most popular genre among Hollywood blockbusters today. We've seen so many superhero movies over the last few decades that it becomes difficult to keep track of them all. Not only that, but within the comic book genre, we've seen more movies with Batman in them than pretty much any other popular character. With these things being true it would be easy to write off Matt Reeves' upcoming The Batman as just another Batman movie among just more comic book movies, but Jeffrey Wright says this one is special.
What's clear from the recently released trailer, is that this Batman will be a somewhat grounded version of the caped crusader. Even that isn't an entirely unique approach, but Jeffrey Wright, who plays Commissioner Gordon in the new film, recently told SiriusXM that this Batman film will be one whose story will resonate outside of Gotham City, and shine a light on the American cities on which Gotham is based. According to Wright...
Comic book films have sucked a lot of oxygen from the cinematic room. But with Batman, we have an opportunity to use all of the trappings of that genre to explore some things in an American city through a lens of crime, corruption that are really grounded and relevant and interesting. So the detective work there is an exploration of Gotham but it also becomes an exploration of a city very much like New York City.
One thing that The Batman trailer did show that made the movie look unlike the Batman films that came before, was the focus on Batman as a detective. The character was born in Detective Comics, after all, but few films have bothered to show this side of the character at all, and only a couple have included any sort of mystery to be solved.
The Batman is clearly all about the mystery, though the trailer does stop for a minute to beat the crap out of somebody just so you won't think that won't be part of the movie as well. And while Batman's hunt for clues will have him searching all over Gotham City, Jeffrey Wright says that ultimately, the story could just as easily be taking place in New York City, and so viewers will be able to relate to the story in a different way and the movie will be able to explore things about the real world within its fictional one.
Certainly, we'll have to wait and see more about Matt Reeves new film before we really know how The Batman is going to set itself apart from all the previous Batman movies. Especially after learning that some of the previous Batman actors aren't quite done with the role yet themselves. We'lll get a chance to see that When The Batman arrives next fall. The movie is scheduled to go back into production in September.
