Starting today, Matt Reeves’ Batman is available to stream on streaming platforms, meaning we’ll see Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz as the Defender of Gotham and Catwoman after a month and a half wait. By the way, this is already the 11th film about Batman, and for the first time the story about the defender of Gotham received a full-length incarnation in 1966 – it was an atypical comedy for the gloomy character of the protagonist with Adam. Continuing the series of the same name, West. Since then, outside of television series and cartoons, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck have starred, and now Robert Pattinson has joined the cast. Those who remember the actor only from Twilight are skeptical of such a casting, but the few years that he devoted to festival cinema (in the same period of his career, the thriller Good Time was released, in which he played his best role), is a must. helps transform yesterday’s vampire into today’s Dark Knight as befits his predecessors. We commemorate them on the day of the premiere of the most anticipated movie of the year.
Michael Keaton
When Tim Burton took on the movie adaptation of Batman, Michael Keaton was already one of the main actors in Hollywood, with an established comedy role that did not suit the hero at all (Night Shift, Johnny Danger, Bluff, Beetlejuice). It’s a very difficult fate. Therefore, Warner Bros. Mass discontent from the Dark Knight fans in his office and 50,000 letters and even criticism from DC Comics artists, as well as tabloid homepages with headlines: “Mr. note. ed.) Playing Batman? But the decision was made, and neither Tim Burton nor Warner was determined to back down.
Their persistence, it seems, determined the future success of the film: Batman (1989) was a box office hit, grossing $411 million on a $35 million budget, critically acclaimed by critics and fans, and Michael Keaton is still remembered as the best Bruce Waynes on screen. one of them. Despite the not very successful sequel, which was released in 1992.
Val Kilmer
After Burton’s slightly less successful second Batman ($266 million), Warner Bros. decided to change the director, but they had to replace the main character with him – Michael Keaton left the project after Tim Burton.
In the end, the studio chose Joel Schumacher (A Time to Kill) and Val Kilmer (Tombstone: Legend of the Wild West), who accepted the offer without even looking at the script. And the joint “Batman Forever”, which was released in 1995, was, of course, not what Tim Burton did: Jim Carrey had a lot of color, bright costumes and a serious cast in the persona of Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman and Chris O’ donnell
In any other case, it might be the perfect combination for a good superhero movie, and Val Kilmer has been praised for having more impressive physiques than its predecessor, but the list of his virtues sadly ends there. The main complaint against the new Dark Knight was his unnaturalness and “emotional range like a toothpick”, but out of the frame, judging by the stories of Joel Schumacher, he played his role to the full: he was capricious, scandalous and acted like a toothpick. child. Due to the nature of the actor, after Schumacher called his former colleague the best Batman in the movie, cooperation with him was stopped.
George Clooney
Again under Joel Schumacher, the next to wear a bat suit was George Clooney, who was at the peak of popularity at the time thanks to the ER series. And with him in “Batman and Robin” (1997) everyone understood: Val Kilmer was still a pretty tolerable option.
The film adaptation received 11 nominations for the Golden Raspberry anti-award and, in principle, the status of one of the worst films in the history of cinema, and the ridiculous nipples in Clooney’s costume even earned the name Batnipples.
The actor himself jokes that he’s still killing the franchise, and business with Batman didn’t really go uphill after that part: production of the next, fifth movie was canceled, the superhero genre was going through tough times, and the Dark Knight movie franchise needed a strong reboot. .
Christian Bale
After the utter failure of Batman & Robin, the new Bruce Wayne is perfect both inside and out, and the genre and Warner Bros. The series had to be revived. It was entrusted to Christopher Nolan, who established himself in the 2000s with the detective-thriller Remember (2000) and the psychological thriller Insomnia (2002), but he has yet to become a major director. And his new hero was the former “American Pervert” and “Machinist” Christian Bale, who would later be called the exemplary Black Knight.
Both titles were relatively new to the public, but Batman Begins, which was presented to the public in 2005, changed everything: the film was called the best comic book adaptation in history, and the director himself was praised for hitting the target perfectly.
That’s what Tim Burton strives for and what the story demands: a serious, deep, dark drama with no unnecessary frills and a trailer for the injuries from the back of a childhood Gotham defender.
The huge success, backed by an Oscar nomination for cinematography, gave Nolan’s Batman two no less successful sequels, which in total grossed about $2.5 billion at the box office with the first episode (now only the best projects can compete) such. with the box office). Marvel).
This trilogy took the superhero genre to a new level, and its second part – 2008’s “The Dark Knight” – became a cult. Thanks to Christian Bale’s amazing performance and genius Heath Ledger who embodied the Joker on screen.
For the actor, this role was the penultimate one – on January 22, 2008, he was found dead in his own home as a result of acute poisoning. A year after the tragedy, he would be honored with a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar, the first award for a movie based on a comic book.
Ben Affleck
Nolan’s final “Batman” with Christian Bale – “Rise of the Legend” – was released in 2012, and a year later the DC Universe era began with the premiere of “Man of Steel” about Superman. It was planned to bring together different comic book characters. The company requested a new Dark Knight and took him in the person of Ben Affleck, but unfortunately, an explosive bomb did not have the effect, as in the case of its predecessor.
In addition, Zack Snyder did not honor the hero with a solo film and decided to look at Bruce Wayne from a different angle: this is how Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016 turned out, met with hostility and received four Golden Raspberries. Fans literally hated him, critics responded with composure, and in an interview on the occasion of the premiere, upset Ben Affleck was often a meme.
He never got his solo, which might have corrected the situation, and the next time he wore a black cape in Justice League, he again didn’t have much success. Then, Zack Snyder’s film, which promised to take the DC Cinema Universe to a new dimension, sadly had to end without a director leaving the project due to his daughter’s suicide, and in this article he re-enacted the story about his replacement, Chris Terrio. superheroes in their own way. Justice League, in its revised form, was a perfect match for the theatrical format (Zack Snyder’s version ran for nearly four hours and was definitely not allowed), but it didn’t live up to fans’ demands and failed reviews. Four years will pass, and Zack Snyder will still correct the situation: the director’s cut will release Snydercut, giving the audience one of the main films of 2021.
In fact, the allegations were piling up for the studio rather than Ben Affleck himself, and he even dreamed of making his own Batman movie, but it didn’t happen. Now they say that in general the actor can be good, he has only acted in bad movies, but neither he nor us was given a chance to check this.
Now the baton is being taken over by Robert Pattinson, led by Matt Reeves, which could give the Dark Knight a new round of development.
The actor, who has built a solid dramatic role over the past decade, told Vanity Fair France about preparing for the role: “Batman is a role where I need to learn how to better portray double-acters. It’s out of the question to portray a character in one color. It’s great that she looks like she lives in two states.”
In a conversation with Variety Studios, he added: “After all, he (the character. note. ed.) does not know whether he is a good person or not.” How did he end up with Batman, and will the movie repeat the success of Christopher Nolan? We’ll see!
Source: People Talk
