How The Batman Highlights The DCEU’s Gotham Problem

Setting The Batman early in Bruce Wayne's crime-fighting career highlights the mistake the DCEU made by having had Ben Affleck's Batman already fight Gotham's villains off-screen. Batman has a rich history in comics, TV, and movies, and core story is embedded into pop culture in such a way that fans don't necessarily need to see multiple versions of the same events. However, jumping ahead and excluding Batman's origin story to avoid repetition also comes with the problem of a lack of character development.

Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne is only in his second year of vengeance in The Batman, and throughout the movie, his trials and tribulations are clear as day as he attempts to overcome the Riddler. Conversely, Ben Affleck's interpretation of Batman for the DCEU makes him a cynical veteran. In Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, he's been fighting crime in Gotham for twenty years - highlighting both his experience and distance from his origins as a crime fighter.

On paper, at the time, having Ben Affleck be a veteran hero could have worked. Audiences had just seen Christian Bale's journey as Batman through the Dark Knight trilogy, and starting back at the beginning in the DCEU could have been interpreted as repetitive. Ben Affleck's Batman is world-weary and has seen it all (until Kryptonians show up). The mistake, though, is that the audience doesn't have the chance to really understand his version of the character at this stage of his life. The obstacles that made him who he is have already happened. He will have already fought the DCEU's version of the Riddler, along with the Joker, the Penguin, and the rest of his rogues' gallery. The audience knows he overcame them, but not how or what it really cost him (aside from the death of Dick Grayson/Robin), and they are left to fill in the blanks themselves.

Conversely, The Batman shows how intense taking on just one villain (and a less physically imposing one at that) is for Batman. The audience is with Pattinson every step of the way and feels the hard-earned victory over the Riddler keenly. In contrast, Ben Affleck's past victories in Gotham aren't seen and are barely mentioned - creating a disconnect from what is otherwise a smart idea of having Batman in the later stages of his career. Given the quality of de-aging special effects in contemporary filmmaking, there was scope to show some of Ben Affleck's DCEU past and deepen his character despite running the risk of further adding to the already bloated runtime of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League. The opportunity was also there to do so with Ben Affleck's solo Batman movie (which evolved into The Batman once he left the project), but with him set to step down (again) in The Flash; there is little chance to rectify the DCEU's mistake now.

With The Batman 2, Robert Pattinson will be able to develop the character of Batman in a way that Ben Affleck hasn't had the chance to (and likely never will). If Pattinson keeps the cape and cowl long enough, he could become the veteran hero of Gotham that has overcome his obstacles, and it would mean more by then as the audience will have taken that journey with him, starting with The Batman. Till then, though, the DCEU's Batman problem of having an unexplored character history remains.

Next: Everything Revealed About Ben Affleck's Batman Movie Story

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