Robert Pattinson became this decade’s iteration of the DC superhero Batman when he starred in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Playing a younger version of Bruce Wayne who has just started his vigilantism, Pattinson’s performance was lauded by audiences and critics, despite initial backlash at the time of casting.
However, no Batman escapes the comparisons and Pattinson too underwent this ordeal as he was compared to the last definitive Batman i.e. Christian Bale in The Dark Knight trilogy. While the latest iteration is still too new to be considered a classic like the trilogy, many find it to trump Christopher Nolan’s superhero films in one department.
Criticisms On Christian Bale’s Fight Scenes As Batman
Ever since its announcement, director Matt Reeves positioned The Batman as a detective story, similar in vibe to David Fincher’s Seven. Robert Pattinson’s Batman focused more on the caped crusader being the ‘greatest detective’, an aspect the other movies did not focus much on.
However, it was still a Batman film and a blockbuster film of that scale needs to have some cool action scenes. The superhero is not afraid to use his fists to get answers or stop crimes. One of the major criticisms of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy was its fight choreography.
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Coming at a time when the Jason Bourne style of action choreography was at its peak, the Christian Bale starrer saw rapid cuts and shaky fight choreography, making it unclear what was happening on screen. On top of that, Bale’s Batman barely showed any of the martial arts training that he is known to have as he either fights street-level thugs or engages in a battle of wits with the Joker.
While Bale’s hand-to-hand combat with Tom Hardy’s Bane in The Dark Knight Rises was a significant improvement, the rest of the fight scenes in the same film pales in comparison. The excitement in the trilogy stems more from the tech-assisted action set-pieces or more character-driven moments.
Robert Pattinson’s Batman Had Better Hand-to-Hand Combat Than Christian Bale
Despite being a neo-noir thriller disguised as a superhero film, Robert Pattinson’s The Batman had many memorable action blocks. Be it the scene in the police station where Pattinson’s Batman escapes a barrage of officers after he fights James Gordon or the incredible Batmobile chase where he goes after Collin Farrell’s The Penguin, the action scenes in this film are as exciting as the thrilling moments.
One of the highlights is the impressive fight choreography in the film. When the first teaser of The Batman was released, the talking points of it were the barrage of punches and blows that Pattinson gives to a thug on Halloween night. The sequence has the accentuated audio of the punches, with Batman finally uttering, “I am vengeance”.
The film’s fight scenes do not follow the Dark Knight or the MCU technique of rapid cuts and actions. They go for longer takes where the action is registered and the movement is choreographed rather than the camera. It also shows the training that Bruce Wayne has endured to be the menacing presence that he is.
Pattinson reportedly underwent intense martial arts training in preparation for the role, including learning a new form of Indonesian martial arts called the Silat. Talking about his training, the actor spoke in an interview with Cinema 21,
“Silat is Indonesian, right? It’s one of the martial arts that you can’t really use as a sport because it’s all about fatal hits and I thought it was so fun…It’s really crazy, it’s really fun though. It feels like a different fighting style, every single movement feels so incredibly painful.”
The movements, punches, and jabs of Pattinson’s Batman are actually registered as opposed to the convoluted camera and editing techniques used in Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy. Pattinson’s suit is also designed to be more agile compared to that of Christian Bale who only got a neck upgrade in the second film.
