There are several key aspects to the character of Bruce Wayne that are present in almost all of the comics, movie, and games. He’s a billionaire orphan, a socialite, but by night, he’s the caped vigilante known as Batman. Director Matt Reeves included many of these sides of Bruce Wayne in The Batman… except for Wayne’s social agenda. He’s no longer a super-rich “playboy,” but instead an unsociable, grumpy figure who prefers to remain in the shadows.
Losing that aspect of the character was a joint decision made by Reeves and Pattinson. Normally, Wayne’s social persona is another mask he wears to deflect the people of Gotham from thinking he’s the Batman. However, in the new movie, Reeves and Pattinson figured that doing away with it fit with their version of the character. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Pattinson said that it “makes more sense” for the tone of the movie.
"When you think about Bruce Wayne, you kind of think he’s a playboy, and then that’s how he disguises himself, so no one knows he’s Batman. As soon as you take that away, it made the character almost make more sense."
And take it away they do. The only time Wayne is seen socializing in the movie is when he attends a funeral at the request of Alfred (Andy Serkis) to keep up the family image. But even then, he’s quiet and reserved. See for yourself:
In The Batman, Bruce Wayne isn’t as “sociopathic” as in past depictions
“There’s something about a person who would be able to delineate three incredibly distinct personalities, and then just being able to switch them as an outfit at will,” Pattinson said. “That’s really way more sociopathic than someone who doesn’t really have much more control over it and is compelled to put this suit on. It’s kind of out of his control a little bit.”
Compared to other depictions of the Dark Knight — Christian Bale, Michael Keaton, etc — Pattinson’s version is completely melancholic and isolated. In the movie, Wayne has only been running around as a masked vigilante for two years. He’s still very much grieving the murder of his parents and totally determined to remove crime from Gotham’s streets. Keeping up appearances isn’t high on his list of priorities.
“It made more sense with the grieving process as well if he hasn’t gotten over being the 10-year-old boy who, in his mind, let his parents die,” Pattinson said. “What he feels is himself, he thinks is an incredibly weak and vulnerable child, and he needs to have an entirely different alter ego to survive himself, let alone fight all the criminals of Gotham.”
Similar to Joker (2019), The Batman feels as much like a character study as it does an action-adventure. It deals with Bruce Wayne’s internal struggles in a way that no other Batman movie has done before.
The Batman is currently in theaters.
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