I’m a huge fan of Matt Reeves’ The Batman. To the point where I might just peg it as my favorite comic book movie … after I’ve seen it a few more times. Everything about the film, from Gotham City’s moody streets to Batman’s armor-clad getup to Michael Giacchino’s riveting score, was perfection. I’ve never seen a superhero film quite like it.
This is one of those movies that you can go back to over and over again and discover new details with each viewing. Case in point: after our second viewing, my brother Josh and I were discussing tidbits we picked up on. I noticed the sign of Riddler’s (Paul Tano) hotel was neon green, and the man Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) runs into at the funeral, i.e. the “I’m Vengeance” guy who is unmasked during the climax, is dressed in a green cloak — a sign that he was one of Riddler’s followers. Kind of cool.
Now, maybe this is common knowledge by now, but Josh came away with a few additional notes that struck my interest. He believes that The Batman sets up a number of the Caped Crusader’s iconic gadgets and/or weapons, which is something that completely flew over my head. Mostly because I was so caught up in the movie to pay attention to such details! Either way, here are a few we discussed.
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Shocking Mask
Midway through The Batman, our brooding hero is rendered unconscious after a bomb around district attorney Gil Colson’s neck ignites. The police haul Batman to the Gotham City Police Department and practically dare each other to rip off his mask. A few officers get pretty darned close too before our hero awakens and fends them off.
Similarly, in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Batman (Christian Bale) gets knocked off his Batpod following a confrontation with the Joker (Heath Ledger). Except, when a goon tries to rip the mask off, he’s shocked by some sort of booby trap hidden in the cowl.
What if Reeves’ Batman adopts this particular gadget following his close call at the GCPD? Imagine how cool it would be if, in the sequel, Batman is again knocked unconscious and his mask ultimately protects him from nosy bad guys?
A Better Cape
In that same scene at the GCPD, Batman escapes and runs to the top of the building, hits a button on his belt (or something), and brandishes a wing suit. He then swoops off the structure, glides down to the street, and pulls a ripcord to slow his descent. Unfortunately, his parachute pops out and gets stuck on a bridge. Batman is violently tossed to the pavement — he wasn’t flying, he was falling with style.
Now, according to Josh, this incident could lead Batman to adopt a cape that actually does something. Perhaps he never flies like the Batman in those Arkham Knight video games, but at the very least his cape could afford Battinson the same luxuries as those enjoyed by Bale’s Batman.
A Batarang
There are a number of times in The Batman where a batarang would come in handy. Early in the film, Batman storms into the Iceberg Lounge to find The Penguin and ends up duking it out with a bunch of goons. At one point, he uses his grapple gun to fend off some bad guys, which works well … except, I imagine a couple of batarangs would come in handy in such a situation.
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Ditto for the moment at the end where Batman must cut an electrified cord using the knives on his chest (that make up his emblem). While it was awesome to see our hero make a leap of faith and sacrifice himself for the good of Gotham City, tossing a batarang at the cable would have been much easier — and far less dangerous.
Smoke Bombs
Late in The Batman, during the climactic battle with Riddler’s henchmen, Batman uses a bomb to rupture a doohickey that creates a smokescreen for him to hide in. The cover gives him the upper hand on his enemies and likely inspires Battinson to create one of Batman’s oldest gadgets: smoke pellets.
Why use a bomb when a couple of pellets would do the trick? Particularly in Reeves’ grounded world where shotgun blasts to the chest really hurt; and Batman, while amazing, can only handle so many goons at once? I’m with Josh on this one: I think the second chapter in the Battinson saga opens with our newly crowned Caped Crusader using more tactical approaches to combat his enemies, rather than taking them head-on.
Bat Lenses
This one might be a bit of a stretch, but considering the obvious discomfort caused by Batman’s super-advanced contact lenses in Reeves’ film, one might assume our hero adopts a simpler mode of capturing his environment — Bat lenses, similar to those used by Bale’s Dark Knight. Rather than plastering something in his eye, Batman can modify his cowl to feature infrared, night vision, sonar, etc.
Just tap a button, Bruce, and select your preferred mode of vision; and let the Bat Computer do the rest.
Bat Computer
Speaking of which, throughout The Batman, our hero lugs around a laptop so that he can surf the web, check his email, or chat with evil psychopaths. That can’t be too convenient for someone who’s seemingly always on the move.
After speaking with Josh, we thought: what if future Battinson episodes feature a more handy computer device. As in, a computer that’s literally built into his suit. Like in Arkham Knight. (In case you haven’t guessed, we really want this series to become Arkham Knight.) This might be more wishful thinking rather than a tease of what’s to come, but it would be a cool upgrade nonetheless.