Even when compared to Christopher Nolan’s gritty “Dark Knight” trilogy, the first full trailer for Robert Pattinson’s “The Batman” — which debuted on Saturday during the DC Fandome virtual fan event — reveals a film that is unmistakably the darkest and most violent cinematic outing yet for the Caped Crusader. Pattinson’s Batman, barely a year into his reign as a masked vigilante, kills his foes with a visceral, uncontrolled ferocity that previous live-action Batman films never quite attained. (In comparison to Christian Bale and Ben Affleck’s growls in the part, Pattinson’s voice as Batman is surprisingly low-key in the whole trailer.)
The video begins with the arrest of the Riddler, but despite the fact that we know Paul Dano plays the part, director Matt Reeves keeps the character’s face covered throughout the film, implying a stunning reveal. This trailer, like the teaser that premiered at last year’s DC Fandome, barely teases at the underlying plot of “The Batman,” but Dano’s Riddler is unmistakably the main adversary, as a serial murderer who leaves cryptic clues with his victims and has a specific obsession with Batman.
Instead, the teaser gives us a closer look at two of the film’s main protagonists. The first is Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, who, according to comic-book fashion, likes to hide in plain sight in a succession of wigs and is intrigued by the guy beneath Batman’s signature cowl. Michelle Pfeiffer portrayed the role in 1992’s “Batman Returns” and Anne Hathaway in 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises,” respectively. However, “The Batman” is the first film in the wider Batman franchise to begin with Catwoman’s entrance, mirroring the character’s status as one of the most significant people in Batman’s life in the comic books.
“I don’t want her to be an idea,” Kravitz said of the character in a Fandome panel alongside Pattinson and Reeves. “I want her to be a genuine human being in a real circumstance in a real city trying to live and reacting to her own suffering.”
Meanwhile, the last time the Penguin appeared in a Batman film was in “Batman Returns,” where he was portrayed by Danny DeVito as a deformed guy who nonetheless looked like the actor. Hold my beer, say the directors of “The Batman,” because Colin Farrell as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, nicknamed the Penguin, is totally unrecognisable here. Farrell has stated that he barely appears in “five or six” moments in the movie, yet he’s all over this teaser, displaying a metamorphosis that nearly erases his look.
Aside from that, we get our first glimpse at Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s devoted butler, who, like so many Alfreds before him, sings a familiar tune when it comes to his charge.
“If this keeps up, it won’t be long before you’ve run out of options,” Alfred warns Bruce, whose response exemplifies the film’s nihilism: “It won’t be long before you’ve run out of options.” “I don’t give a damn about what happens to me.”
