Fans seem to be loving Robert Pattinson’s interpretation of the titular hero in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. From his intense style of combat to his emo-esque demeanor, there’s a lot to enjoy about this Dark Knight. This version of Bruce Wayne has some interesting attributes, with one being the fact that he doesn’t really disguise his voice when he’s suited up. It’s a surprising move, considering previous cinematic interpretations of the character. However, Reeves put a lot of thought into this particular creative choice.
One thing that was clear from the moment The Batman’s first trailer dropped in 2020 was that Matt Reeves was looking to deliver something different. For instance, his protagonist had no problem beating down criminals. Of course, while that happened, many took note of the natural-sounding voice he used when uttering, “I’m vengeance.” When discussing his reasoning for the voice, Reeves explained that he took into account the sheer amount of dialogue scenes the character would have:
I knew I didn’t wanna do a Batman that had been done previously, that had the growl that we’d seen. Because I knew that in this version, if you’re gonna do a detective story, Batman is gonna have a lot of dialogue scenes. Which, when you actually look at all the movies, Bruce may have a lot of long dialogue scenes but Batman’s dialogue scenes, he has dialogue but it’s controlled.
In previous Caped Crusader films which Robert Pattinson is a fan of), Bruce Wayne speaks with a sort of growl when he’s out and about as his alter ego. This was especially the case when it came to Christian Bale’s hero in the Dark Knight trilogy as well as Ben Affleck’s performance in the DC Extended Universe. Reception to both voices has been somewhat mixed, with Bale’s wife even finding his dumb. Affleck did, however, use it to entertain young fans in a sweet way.
Matt Reeves’ direction is understandable due to the fact that he was going for a detective story in which the main character was called upon to deliver a significant amount of dialogue. While speaking within the film’s director’s commentary (via ComicBookMovie.com), the Planet of the Apes filmmaker shared even more thoughts on the topic:
This, by literally the necessity of solving this crime, was going to require him to have to have long dialogue scenes in that suit and some are very emotional. If he was growling, we wouldn’t be able to connect to him emotionally. There was a real exploration to figure out how to make that work.
I’m not sure many of us would’ve been able to watch Batman growl at Catwoman, Gordon and others for nearly three hours. Fans can definitely be grateful for the director having the foresight to eliminate this from Robert Pattinson’s performance.
Though this franchise centers on a younger version of DC’s brooding vigilante who’s still evolving as a crime-fighter, I doubt he’ll adopt a raspier voice as time goes on. If anything, Robert Pattinson’s Bat will probably adopt an even calmer tone as he matures. I’m curious to see how he and Matt Reeves move things forward in the recently greenlit sequel and beyond.
The Batman is now available to stream with an HBO Max subscription.
