BACK IN BLACK
EARLY IN THE BATMAN, OUR HERO strides into a train station where a group of face-painted hooligans are harassing a citizen of Gotham. He starts punching their ringleader. Maybe too many times. And a little too hard. Is he enjoying it? The man Batman has saved doesn’t say thank you. Instead, he crawls backward, begging for his life. Batman strikes fear in the hearts of villains, but he strikes fear in the hearts of victims too.
“I wanted to play on this idea that Batman is going to unleash on these guys, and there’s a part of you that can’t wait to see it,” says director Matt Reeves, whose superhero reboot hits theaters March 4. “You go to a Batman movie to see that moment. And then you see it’s having a toxic effect. It makes you get a little unsettled.”
starring Robert Pattinson, isn’t exactly a horror film, but it revels in trilogy told the story of a superhero desperate to help his city eradicate corruption so it would no longer need someone to watch over it. Reeves’ version knows a bright future is not possible. That’s an apt, if grim, observation at a time when a pandemic, increased anxiety about global warming, and a war in Europe have contributed to a pervasive sense of doom.
