Performance Batman at the beginning of Bruce Wayne’s career in the fight against crime highlights the mistake that the DCEU made by forcing Batman Ben Affleck to already fight the villains of Gotham off-screen. Batman has a rich history in comics, on television and in movies, and the main story is embedded in pop culture in such a way that fans don’t have to see multiple versions of the same events. However, looking ahead and excluding the Batman origin story to avoid repetition, there is also the problem of a lack of character development.
Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne is only taking revenge in Batman for the second year, and throughout the film his trials and tribulations are as clear as day when he tries to defeat 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 has been fighting crime in Gotham for twenty years, emphasizing both his experience and distancing himself from his background as a crime fighter.
On paper at that time, Ben Affleck could have become a veteran hero. Viewers have just seen Christian Bale’s journey as Batman through the Dark Knight trilogy, and starting from the very beginning in the DCEU could be interpreted as repetitive. Ben Affleck’s Batman got tired of the world and saw everything (until the Kryptonians appeared). However, the mistake lies in the fact that the audience does not have the opportunity to truly understand his version of the character at this stage of his life. The obstacles that made him who he is have already happened. He has already fought the DCEU version of the Riddler along with the Joker, the Penguin and the rest of his gallery of scammers. The audience knows that he overcame them, but they don’t know how and what it really cost him (except for the death of Dick Grayson/Robin), and they are left to fill in the blanks themselves.
Ben Affleck’s Batman Caused Gotham Shutdown
Conversely, Batman shows how stressful it is for Batman to fight a single villain (and a less physically imposing one). Viewers are with Pattinson at every turn and keenly feel the hard-earned victory over the Riddler. On the contrary, Ben Affleck’s past victories in Gotham are not visible and almost not mentioned, which creates a gap with the reasonable idea of having Batman in the later stages of his career. Given the quality of rejuvenating special effects in modern filmmaking, there was an opportunity to show part of Ben Affleck’s past from DCEU and deepen his character, despite the risk of further increasing the already bloated runtime of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Zack”. Snyder’s Justice League. There was also an opportunity to do this with Ben Affleck’s solo Batman movie (which turned into “Batman” after he left the project), but he was going to retire (again) in “The Flash”; there’s little chance of fixing the DCEU mistake right now.
In Batman 2, Robert Pattinson will be able to develop the character of Batman in a way that Ben Affleck did not have the opportunity to (and probably never will). If Pattinson will keep the cape and hood long enough, he can become a Gotham veteran hero who overcame his obstacles, and by then it will mean more, as the audience will go on this journey with him, starting with Batman. Until then, however, there remains the DCEU Batman problem with the character’s unexplored history.
