joker, Todd Phillips, surprised a significant part of the audience and critics for a reason: it was not like any film in the superhero genre. In fact, one persistent critique of this argument has been to distance itself from the superhero driving force so much that it would be unusual. With its subversive, innovative, offbeat atmosphere, it was more of a story about desperation than a villain. Of course, this was also an adult production with clear references to Martin Scorsese’s cinema. Immediately, what seemed like a successful experiment was understood in thinking about cinema. And especially, a new type of perception of the heroes of the big screen and their significance. The same thing happens with Batman from Matt Reeves, an origin story that opens the door to a new dimension about a Gotham crusader.
But beyond that, it’s also an oddity in how the superhero genre works. In this case, Reeves used a formula very similar to Phillips’. The result is a vision of one of the great comic book characters in a new world. Batmanmore than anything This is a tribute to horror films. It’s also a visual experiment answering a whole new set of issues in a genre that’s showing some signs of weariness.
Reeves’ film also ran into the crossroads of a trilogy that was considered a cult classic like the one directed by Christopher Nolan. With this to a powerful version of Ben Affleck. Director and co-writer, the challenge was to tell the story of Batman to the audience who remembers his last incarnations very clearly. In addition, to build a completely new landscape around the character.
Watch Batman on HBO Max.
How do you do something like this without losing the essence of an essential pop culture figure? Reeves’ solution was brilliant. Match your movie with horror movies. The result is a journey through the codes of the genre that reformulates the superhero code. Just create something different and it has its own side.
darkness everywhere
To come up with such an idea, Matt Reeves drew on two different perceptions of Batman. First, something that was brought up by both Frank Miller in Batman Year One and the vision of Darwin Cooke in Batman Ego.. The two interpretations of Batman agree.. Gotham’s crusader is a dark creature, halfway between morality and a thirst for revenge.
It’s also one that uses fear as a tool, an idea that’s taken directly from Jeph Loeb’s Batman: The Long Halloween. To bring the various storylines together into a single point of view, Matt Reeves turned to the intimate. And also, to the symbolism of inner darkness. So everything around the character is based on this reconstruction of the concept of evil, good and sinister.
The result is a bleak Gotham with a gothic twist that lashes out at a corrupt center. Batman doesn’t just have to fight criminals. The same should be done with the overlapping layers of moral shadows. Reeves showed movement through long shots of dark streets, in which the music of Michael Giacchino creates an intimidating atmosphere. Batman is essentially a sinister figure emerging from portals and dark voids. One that seems to slowly materialize in the midst of a slow succession of shadows.
As if that wasn’t enough, there are entire episodes that pay homage to iconic horror films. From an obvious connection with the whole saga Saw to John Eric Dowdle’s haunting vision of horror in The Poughkeepsie Tapes. The film uses space to create a sense of claustrophobia. horror, interconnected with the invisible center of the character. The way the camera carefully follows the leisurely movements of the character is a direct legacy of Ari Astaire. As well as the unsettling silence as the camera carefully watches the face of the character filmed with Jonathan Demme. Slowly, the film is reconstructed as a tribute to the terrifying with a curiously heroic center.
Once upon a time there was an evil car, a serial killer and a hidden monster
Of course, the best example of Matt Reeves was David Fincher. From Fight club (whose ending the film honors in its own conclusion) until zodiacin. The influence of Fincher’s slow, choking shots is all over the place. Also in his look at the violent behavior of Enigma (Paul Dano), whose revenge ranges from the private to the apotheosis of horror on a collective scale. Every moment in Reeves’ film shows how evil can turn into a tidal wave.. At the same time, build an idea of good and evil as a philosophical element, assembled with a disturbing idea of morality.
In addition, there is room for long and precise photographs of John Carpenter. Reeves pays tribute to the director in the film’s first major sequence, in which Gotham must face the presence of an unclassifiable vigilante. Just like Carpenter’s halloween, every door and hallway becomes a terrifying space. But the biggest tribute is the Batmobile, turned into a stylized version for the occasion. Christina. With its long, old-fashioned lines and powerful engine roar, the Batmobile is a fast-moving monster that seems to have a life of its own.
A disappearing and reappearing Batman, whose alter ego is limited to a tower rather than a mansion, could very well replace the classic vampire. Kind of a stylized version of the style Only lovers will survive Jim Jarmusch. In fact, there is a strong gothic element to the film, inevitably reminiscent of imitate Guillermo Del Toro. In addition, to the cautious horrors doctor sleep Mike Flanagan.
Batman connected to his most disturbing side
Batman, played by Pattinson, still has not overcome the mourning over the death of his parents. This is a half-created monster whose human face we can barely see. The one that makes Gotham’s cops retreat. An inexplicable creature that moves forward with a slow step and the heavy sound of its boots. And Batman’s kinship with a certain realism is so unshakable that it makes his entire subsequent message a horror.
For Matt Reeves, one thing is clear: Batman is a creature halfway between moral categories. D Batmanwith all its horror films and semiotic reading codes, is a demonstration of this point of view.
Source: Hiper Textual
