Orphan Noir – Leaning Into the Rage: The Batman and Bruce Wayne

I saw this movie last night and when I woke up today, I finally realized why this movie was so different. Unlike the other Batman movies, where Bruce Wayne is living the billionaire playboy lifestyle during the day, this one is isolated, emo and dark. It is so much more believable that Bruce Wayne is an orphan in The Batman. Robert Pattison was giving me the orphan noir vibes I didn’t know I needed. And I am living for it.

Don’t get me wrong. I consider Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy among my favorite movies. Christian Bale portrays Batman as he was written. A guy living his best life, playing up to the world’s expectations by using the distraction of his flashy lifestyle to hide the fact that he is a masked vigilante. But that Bruce owns his wealth and his status. He knows where it can get him, plus he is also hung up on a girl. One who won’t give him the time of day because of the role he plays.

Pattison on the other hand has a character who is written to be a recluse. He is more of an orphan than Bruce Wayne has ever been portrayed to be in movies past. He is the most believable orphan on screen. His wealth has isolated him. He truly lives in a tower, separated from everyone and everything. He roams the streets at night. He has used his money to create or buy technology that suits his needs. But for no other purpose than his personal mission. That is very in line with the Wayne legacy. He doesn’t have to be a playboy, but he is not your typical orphan.

He plays Bruce dark and despondent. Bruce is looking for the answer to his question, knowing that even if he gets the answer it isn’t going to change the fact that his parents are dead and he is all alone. But rather than wanting to end his solitude, he would rather not feel anything. That is my favorite part about how this character was written. He knows that feeling things reduces his control, and all he wants is to be able to control his life now so he doesn’t have to feel what he did when his parents were killed.

The Batman is another change. He is more nimble, more versatile. His outfit is not the bulky battle gear from the previous movies or even the iterations in the DC universe. Thinking back to the Justice League movies and how Batman was portrayed, it was clear that Batman suffered from impostor syndrome. The Flash asked him what was his special power, and Bruce answers that he is rich. Truth is, that is not a superpower. He is, for lack of a better comparison, too human. He is limited by the trappings of the world. He is afraid to die. His suits get bigger, he has more weapons.

Batman, in Robert Pattison’s hands, is lonely but driven. He gets hurt. He has tools that help him adapt to his environment, and just enough protection to keep him alive but just so he can keep fighting. He was a superhero in the sense that he did not fear death. His single-minded focus to keep going was his superpower. Not fancy gadgets. They helped him, but he was smart. He was quick thinking.

The movie had me from the moment that they used Nirvana’s Something in the Way in the soundtrack. This movie feels like it was written for the disaffected youth of Generation X. For all the latchkey kids who basically raised themselves. Angry at the world that we were given.