The Batman Repeated Burton's Wayne Murders Trick - But Did It Better
Matt Reeves' The Batman was a completely fresh take on the Caped Crusader. However, he did use something from Burton's 1989 Batman film.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Batman.
Tim Burton's 1989 Batman was something unique in comic book movies and films as a whole, thus The Batman has paid homage to an original Burton twist, but made it so much better. The Batman isn't a typical Bat-film, and so it shouldn't be, with the character having such frequent film reboots. Reeves' take on the Caped Crusader is something of a detective noir, involving a very discontented and emotionally turbulent Batman. Despite its unique natue, the film does repeat one trick from Burton's film, and it works seamlessly in Reeves' vision, making it even better than the original.
Bruce Wayne's backstory is one of the most well-known facts of comic book lore, and has seeped its way into pop culture. As a young boy, walking home from the theater, Bruce's parents Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered in front of him. After this, Bruce becomes the golden orphan child of Gotham, growing up to be a successful businessman, yet, the pain presides underneath the facade. Both films use this knowledge to their advantage, but The Batman takes it further.
Batman 1989 and The Batman both open in incredibly similar ways, as they trick audiences into believing they're getting Bruce Wayne's origin story. The 1989 version of Batman opens with a family (mother, father, and son) as they walk home from the theater where they're mugged. This isn't the Wayne's, though, revealed when Batman appears from the shadows to enact justice on the muggers. The Batman similarly opens with a POV shot of someone watching a family in their wealthy looking house, who fit the base description of the Wayne family. Audience expectation is subverted when it is revealed via the TV that Batman has been the masked vigilante for two years, so the family being watched are not the Wayne's, but the Mayor's family. This Wayne murder twist in both films is a fun tool that still works to catch audiences out, but The Batman's use of the Mayor's family throughout the film makes it so much better.
It's a clever twist that displaces audience expectations. In Burton's version of Batman, it's nothing more than a playful audience tease, but in The Batman it means so much more. When Batman investigates the Mayor's murder, his stare lingers on the Mayor's son, who sits despondently as an officer tells Batman that the child was the one who found the body. It's clear from this look that Bruce immediately identifies with the child, and the two are bonded by their significant losses of a parent. From then on, the family are ever-present in the film. At the tribute to the Mayor, Bruce goes out of his way to save the child from the car that crashes through the building, and then the child appears again at the end of The Batman in the flooded stadium, where he is brought to safety by Batman. The Mayor's son is intertwined in Batman's narrative arc, whereas the bait family from 1989 are not. The kinship Bruce feels with the child has an overarching effect on the type of hero, and person, he wants to be, as well as making strides in confronting his own childhood trauma.
Batman has a turbulent relationship with his vigilanteism in The Batman, and constantly appears to be in some sort of strained inner conflict. The experience with the Mayor's son means he's able to confront himself as a child again, and this leads him to some realization regarding what kind of symbol Robert Pattinson's Batman wants to be for Gotham. He, ultimately, resolves to lead with hope rather than fear, becoming a literal beacon of light for the city; this resolution being unknowingly helped along by a child he saw himself in.