First Look - Battinson Revealed

[Yellow Oval]

Right up front I'll say I'm not at all interested in this film. I'm sick and tired of Hollywood constantly trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to Batman and other comic heroes.

https://vimeo.com/391277390

I'm out. Another all black, all armored Batman with a cheesy batarang clipped to his chest in place of his logo. That, and I've no interest in sparkleskin Batman or Hollyweird's latest "ingenious improvements". With each new version they get further and further away and the character gets more and more distorted. I think it shows there's a limit on the argument to how many versions you can have before you don't even have the character anymore.

[chrisbcritter]

Well, heavens to Betsy, that's much too dark...

There we go!

[THE BATPHONE!]

I dunno, it looks black and grey to me, but I may just be seeing it wrong. I think the color tinting may just make it appear black, although I don't know for sure.

[BatMite]

Right up front I'll say I'm not at all interested in this film. I'm sick and tired of Hollywood constantly trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to Batman and other comic heroes.

https://vimeo.com/391277390

I'm out. Another all black, all armored Batman with a cheesy batarang clipped to his chest in place of his logo. That, and I've no interest in sparkleskin Batman or Hollyweird's latest "ingenious improvements". With each new version they get further and further away and the character gets more and more distorted. I think it shows there's a limit on the argument to how many versions you can have before you don't even have the character anymore.

Just like the 1966 Batman was based on comics of the era so, too, is today’s Batman. Hollywood can’t win because if they tried to model a new version on the TV show, there’d inevitably be comparisons that it’s not as good or, worse, a pale imitation that never should have been attempted. I’m all for reimagining the character but I do believe they absolutely got it right in ‘66.

[IdolGirl01]

I don’t know either if I’ll watch the movie it doesn’t look right to me is it like the comic books?

[AndyFish]

I dig the wider cowl opening rather than the peekaboo hole Bales cowl had.

[Mr. Comic Book]

I don’t know either if I’ll watch the movie it doesn’t look right to me is it like the comic books?

Honestly...no. It looks like it's trying to mimic the Arkham video game armor, but does so very, very badly. We don't even have anything resembling a bat symbol on the chest anymore, just an abstract Batarang-ish shape. And the less said about the weird vampire collar on Batman's cape, the better. I get that in real life, the mask and cape can't be connected because it would make movement or even just taking the mask off a huge pain, but did it have to be this extreme?

It's not like a modern version of the classic Batman look can't be done successfully. The David Finch Batman Inc. suit hits the right balance of contemporary and traditional.



All you'd have to do is use the same textured spandex of most modern superhero movie suits to give the illusion of high-end bullet-resistant material, and you'd be good to go. I would prefer a charcoal and navy blue color scheme, but would be fine with gray and black if the classic blue posed a special effects problem. Batman doesn't have to wear granny panties and off-the shelf spandex (no superhero should anymore), but there's no need to veer so severely from his classic look to the degree WB/DC is so insistent on. A more traditional look is completely possible to accomplish with today's upgraded costuming techniques. The problem is, WB/DC doesn't want Batman to be anything like his classic self anymore.

I'm not going to knock Robert Pattinson over this any more than I was willing to knock Ben Affleck over being saddled with a terrible Frank Miller-style Batman. Affleck was squandered potential, and Pattinson looks to be the same. This is purely on TPTB, not on the actor.

[Lou Szabo]

I just read the Bat Emblem is “spoiler alert “ two halves of the gun used to kill his parents.
The style is noir, and maybe more detective than superhero. I could enjoy that. Even the ‘66 series had detective work in each episode.

[AHTrois]

[Mr. Comic Book]

I just read the Bat Emblem is “spoiler alert “ two halves of the gun used to kill his parents.
The style is noir, and maybe more detective than superhero. I could enjoy that. Even the ‘66 series had detective work in each episode.

That still doesn't justify how ugly the suit is, or how unrecognizable the chest emblem is. You can have a noir/detective vibe and still let Batman LOOK like Batman. At the very least, the emblem should look recognizably like a bat. Even the Bale costumes, awful as they were, had reasonable bat silhouettes on the chest. This thing doesn't even come close to looking like a bat.

As to it supposedly being made of pieces of Joe Chill's gun...why in God's name would Bruce have that thing, much less wear it? Why would he even want to? I don't care how psychotic Frank Miller and his successors made Batman, having him own the gun that ruined his life -- or worse, wearing it as part of his suit -- is going much too far. There's no way Bruce would have any reaction to that gun other than to destroy it at the first opportunity. This idea is far too morbid, even by the insanely low standards of the past 34 years of comics.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

I will wait and see the film for myself. I cannot go into theatres basing this (or any recent) Batman on 50+ year old comics or adaptations. Just as Donner's Superman was in no way in the style, image or spirit of the George Reeves show (and thankfully, it was not), or the Wonder Woman movie was not going to take any cues from the Lynda Carter TV series.

Even in the comics the character (Batman) has changed over the decades; the mysterious, dark and violent early Batman was not like the silly Boy Scout Daddy from the late Golden - early Silver Age, nor was that Batman anything like the Novick/Robbins or Adams/O'Neil versions to follow.

That is the nature of comics and the films based on them.

[Lord Death Man]

I think the Bat-symbol being made out of Joe chill's gun is brilliant. In Batman's mind he's taken a symbol of the fear and terror he felt as a child and made it his own, robbing it of the psychological power it had over him.

This is adapted from Kevin Smith's story in Detective #1000. Here's what Batman has to say about it, from an article on Inverse.com:

But as Smith’s new story reveals, Batman isn’t looking for Joe Chill’s gun to add as a morbid piece in his Batcave. As his trusty butler Alfred protests, “Where’s the justice in letting this hunk of metal back into your life?”

Bruce tells him, it’s not going into the collection next to his life-sized t-rex and the Giant Penny (World’s Finest #30). “It’s never going to hurt anyone again,” he says. The comic shows Bruce smelting the gun and forging it into a chest shield embedded inside his bat-suit. “So the metal that broke my heart as a child? That same metal will protect my heart as a man. And that is justice.”

[IdolGirl01]

I don’t know either if I’ll watch the movie it doesn’t look right to me is it like the comic books?

Honestly...no. It looks like it's trying to mimic the Arkham video game armor, but does so very, very badly. We don't even have anything resembling a bat symbol on the chest anymore, just an abstract Batarang-ish shape. And the less said about the weird vampire collar on Batman's cape, the better. I get that in real life, the mask and cape can't be connected because it would make movement or even just taking the mask off a huge pain, but did it have to be this extreme?

It's not like a modern version of the classic Batman look can't be done successfully. The David Finch Batman Inc. suit hits the right balance of contemporary and traditional.



All you'd have to do is use the same textured spandex of most modern superhero movie suits to give the illusion of high-end bullet-resistant material, and you'd be good to go. I would prefer a charcoal and navy blue color scheme, but would be fine with gray and black if the classic blue posed a special effects problem. Batman doesn't have to wear granny panties and off-the shelf spandex (no superhero should anymore), but there's no need to veer so severely from his classic look to the degree WB/DC is so insistent on. A more traditional look is completely possible to accomplish with today's upgraded costuming techniques. The problem is, WB/DC doesn't want Batman to be anything like his classic self anymore.

I'm not going to knock Robert Pattinson over this any more than I was willing to knock Ben Affleck over being saddled with a terrible Frank Miller-style Batman. Affleck was squandered potential, and Pattinson looks to be the same. This is purely on TPTB, not on the actor.

I Don't know the Arkham game I just like the 1966 Batman series, Batman and Robin,and Christian Bale movies that's all my favorites and Gotham the show

[SprangFan]

Meh, another suit of body armor. I like what I can see of the mask better than the last couple, and Pattinson has a great jawline for the part, but at this stage of the game, the absolute last character I want to see more of on screen is Batman. By now, he's easily the most over-exposed and least interesting property from either of the two big publishers.

I'm not getting a "detective" vibe from this at all. More like "soldier." He looks ready for heavy combat, not brainwork. And I'm pretty much over UFC Batman.

Also, looks like the "gun" thing is still fan theory at this point.

[AndyFish]

I don’t know either if I’ll watch the movie it doesn’t look right to me is it like the comic books?

Honestly...no. It looks like it's trying to mimic the Arkham video game armor, but does so very, very badly. We don't even have anything resembling a bat symbol on the chest anymore, just an abstract Batarang-ish shape. And the less said about the weird vampire collar on Batman's cape, the better. I get that in real life, the mask and cape can't be connected because it would make movement or even just taking the mask off a huge pain, but did it have to be this extreme?

It's not like a modern version of the classic Batman look can't be done successfully. The David Finch Batman Inc. suit hits the right balance of contemporary and traditional.

Wow do I hate this version of Batman.
That said, I'm glad Pattison (Patterson?) isn't all bulked up like a tick about to pop-- I like the leaner look and as I've said I see more than a few homages to the original 1939 costume.

A few years ago a company had reached out to me for artistic advice on a "totally modern classic Batman costume" that wasn't like the movie costumes at all-- this is what they came up with and I laughed out loud when I saw it;



The only thing this (and the Affleck suit) is good for is training attack dogs.

I think the days of non rubber "armored" suits for Bats is long gone, Sprang. Hollywood won't risk deviating from what they think works.