Audiences are pretty familiar with why Batman chooses to duke it out with the worst of Gotham's scum, but that won't stop studios from coming up with clever ways to engage them anyway in upcoming movies starring the Caped Crusader. The most recent TV spot for the upcoming The Batman proves just as much.
As if there hasn't been enough hype already for The Batman, a recent TV spot for the film gives viewers an inside look at how Batman sees his enemies. His monologue reflects on how Gotham's baddies misunderstand him because they interpret him hiding in the shadows as cowardice. Little do they know, he uses the shadows to his advantage in combat.
"Fear is a tool," Batman says. "They think I'm hiding in the shadows waiting to strike, but I am the shadows." After Batman's monologue, the spot shows a clip of the Penguin laughing at our hero, believing he's got the drop on him. That is only until the Bat himself proves his enemy wrong mere seconds later as he emerges from the flames.
Fans have received plenty of interpretations of Batman over the years. This is why many groan out loud when they hear that there's going to be yet another live-action reboot of him coming to theaters. Luckily, Matt Reeves and co. have clearly understood that and have embraced the challenge of coming up with a new Batman story with characters who, despite having been used in previous movies featuring the Dark Knight, are portrayed to have a completely different characterizations from what audiences have seen in the past.
At least, that's what we've seen from the promotional material we have gotten thus far before the film's eventual release. However, we haven't just seen multiple live-action Batman interpretations. We've seen multiple excellent live-action Batman interpretations that have set the bar reasonably high. This new film certainly has its work cut out for it since it not only has to be good, but it has to stand out on its own compared to the many movies we've seen of the World's Greatest Detective. Since the ad campaign for The Batman has given it a noir, mysterious tone thus far, they're off to a good start.
But being a mystery does not always equate to being good. We've seen films in the past get the attention they did because there was an element of mystery to their stories. Whether they pulled it off depended on the payoff. Some films worked so wonderfully because the payoff to their mystery both made sense and improved the film. The ones that didn't work worsened the film either because it didn't make sense or it was just stupid. In The Batman's case, the reception to this film will heavily depend on its mystery's payoff, and the filmmakers better believe everyone will be watching.
The Batman is scheduled to be released in theaters on March 4th, 2022.
Source: The Batman Film News/Twitter