The Batman (DC universe Film)

The Batman
Directed By	George millar
Written By	Paul Dini and James Vanderbilt
Based On	Batman Created by Bill finger and Bob Kane
Executive Producers	Steven Speilberg, Geoff Johns, Bruce Timm
Starring	Karl Urban, Eva green, Timothy Dalton, Rowan Blanchard, Kit Harington, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moritz, Emma Watson, Brian Cranston, Julianne Moore, Salma Hayek, Michael Madsen, Danny Glover, Adam Driver, Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Derek Meyers, Bradley Cooper
Music By	Henry Jackman
Production company	Warner Bros., DC studios

The Batman is a 2021 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill finger.

Plot

After the death of jason todd and the events of the Killing joke, Gotham has become full of crime corruption and decay. Many of the villains now rule the streets like the penguin, the riddler, Two-face etc. One night, Selina Kyle after years of separation returns to gotham to see bruce. They talk about the old days and how things are now terrible. She flirts with him but she’s turned down and she leaves, later the only people who’ll even bother to talk to him are alfred and leslie thompkins. Elsewhere Dick grayson become a new superhero Nightwing with the Crippled Barbara Gordon as his aid, calling herself Oracle. One night Bruce is alone watching television and catches Superman saving the white house live. This sticks with him for a week when Lois lane’s interview with the man of steel is released. Upon hearing Superman’s story and why he’s becoming a costumed adventurer, Bruce Realizes that there is still hope despite what the joker said. That night a mother and her children are walking home from the Grocery store when they’re attacked by a psychopath with a knife when The batman subdues him and disappears. Later A pimp is beating up a prostitute for not paying him when The batman swings in and carries him off. Later a teenage girl, Carrie kelly, Her friend Stephanie Brown, and Stephanie's boyfriend, Tim Drake are walking home through an abandoned arcade when members of a gang begins to surround them but one has his gun forced away by a small bat shaped throwing weapon. Later the Batman Strikes from the shadows before the teenagers momentarily get a glimpse of The Dark knight in his full glory before he Disappears.

The next day the media is flooded with sightings of batman sightings. This causes a debate on what to do among the GCPD but it’s ultimately decided to Join forces again. Elsewhere Bruce, has a conversation with alfred and Leslie thompkins about this and they say that in a world where things are changing there needs to be a better batman, but he can’t go alone.

Elsewhere Barbara is working at the gordon’s residence when The batman appears. He explains that he needs to speak with Nightwing and that he knows she’s more valuable more than ever. That night Barbara summons nightwing and the gordons to the roof the GCPD station The Batman appears explaining about a series of Robberies that are done in a way done by Batman’s first Villain Doctor Death. A plan is formed: Barbara gets as much information on Doctor Death as she can while Jim Gordon Reopens the case. Later Batman wanders to his parents' tombstone. He overhears Andrea talking at her mother's grave, just as she had been when he first met her. She is startled by Batman's appearance and he flees.

The Batman, and Nightwing prepare for stealth mission to into a Meeting held by the Criminals of Gotham. However batman then begins to use extreme force including Non-lethal Rubber bullets and Riot control gear but Doctor Death who Called together the Meeting has his man servants Fight him, and they proceed to Defeat Batman and Nightwing, Oracle calls alfred who with leslie drive off to the warehouse where it takes place. They would have been killed but Carrie arrives and manage to defeat the Manservants. dick manages to recover instantly but Bruce is injured, but luckily Selina appears and saves them. with the aid of the teens they drag him into the car Alfred and leslie are driving, the old batmobile.

They drive to the cave where they manage to nurse Bruce’s wounds. Barbara feeling responsible begins to doubt herself, She finds out about an experimental exoskeleton that could get paralyzed people to walk again, But gordon along with his wife Sarah are hesitant but When she confesses why she’s doing it anyway, mainly how her self-worth needs to be fixed, Gordon then tells barbara that he’s proud of her so she goes and undergoes with the device. With Selina she’s looking among the old items from the past and Bruce has a conversation, where they admit they’re in a life of danger. Then Selina kisses him, and the two have sex.

Elsewhere in the batcave Carrie remnants of the history of the dark knight, while striking a conversation with alfred pennyworth and leslie thompkins about what Batman stands for. When leslie says that she’ll need to be brave, carrie responds, she shall.

Tim and Stephanie go to investigate theories on Dr. Death, where they come across something big. Later Bruce is gearing up for a second go, when questioned about the teens by dick he says they’ll be perfect. When leslie reminds bruce of Jason, he acknowledges that it is a likely scenario that his allies will be killed, “But the war goes on.” he sets up a task for Spoiler and Red Robin. They figure out why Doctor death is in gotham. Robin is at Batman’s side. Selina also stands by his side once again taking on the identity of Catwoman.

Soon Barbara fully able to walk heads to the batcave where she demands to help Bruce, He refuses but Barbara is still persistent and not flinching once. This causes Batman to smile as he agrees to let her become batgirl again. Spoiler and Red Robin come in and figure out that he’s trying his old scheme of poisoning the water supply with a mutagen that causes decay in its subjects.

At the warehouse the villains prepare for an all out war when they get picked off one by one, from the shadows. This coupled with the fact that Batgirl hacked into the tech. This allows them to open a path for the Police to arrest some of the criminals, but the villains escape and run into The Bat Family who proceed to go after a particular villain, Nightwing and batgirl go after the penguin, Catwoman and robin go after the riddler, and Spoiler and Red Robin go after Two-face. They all manage to defeat them in various ways. The batman manages to catch up to Doctor death where he’s about to poison the river but batman tackles him causing Doctor Death to stab him. But it’s a bloodpack, as the police swarm the scene batman and Doctor death are in a brawl, Ending with The batman breaking Doctor death’s arm and knocking him unconscious saying “This isn’t a warehouse, It’s an operating table. And I’m the Surgeon.”

Later things are in order, Gotham is how it was ten years ago, and a new era is approaching. Soon the team is fully working, and Selina stays in gotham, she even restarts her relationship with Bruce. All over america and the rest of the world people are telling the same message, “The Dark Knight Returns!”

Cast

Karl Urban as Bruce Wayne/Batman

Eva green as Selina Kyle/ Catwoman

Timothy Dalton as Alfred pennyworth

Maggie Smith as Dr. Leslie Thompkins

Sophia Lillis as Carrie Kelly/Robin 3

kit Harrington as dick Grayson/nightwing

Emma Watson as Barbara Gordon/ oracle/ Batgirl

Bryan Cranston as Commissioner James Gordon

Julianne Moore as Detective Sarah Essen

Salma Hayek as Rene Montoya

Michael Madsen as Detective Harvey bullock

Danny Glover as Lucius Fox

Aaron tyler johnson as Jason todd/Robin 2

Adam Driver as Doctor Death

Robert Carlyle as Edward nigma/ the riddle

Mark Addy as Oswald coppelpot/ the penguin

Jon Hamm as Harvey Dent/Two-Face

Production

When the Superman reboot was announced in late 2020, Warner Bros. and DC confirmed that they would be creating a cinematic universe based on their characters in hopes of creating a Justice League movie. The universe would begin with the Superman film, and the second film announced to be a part of the universe was a Batman reboot.

Based on his work on films such as Babe and Mad max fury road, George miller was selected as the director. Miller was reportedly thrilled to be taking part in the construction of the universe and was especially happy to be overseeing the Batman reboot. 

Several scripts were worked on but none really worked until the draft by paul dini, the creator of harley quinn and head writer of batman the animated series, and James Vanderbilt, based on his work on Zodiac and The Amazing Spider-Man, were chosen. They talked with Miller and they all agreed that the film would take element from various batman works particularly the early golden age material, Frank Miller's the dark knight returns, Batman year one, the long halloween, Death in the family and most importantly Batman: the killing joke. Dini said that the killing joke was definitely a setter for the kind of batman we were trying to create. Miller stated in interviews that the tone and atmosphere was heavily inspired by the animated series. The Villain Doctor Death was actually taken from batman's early appearances and in the 30s Comics he's essentially the DC universe's first supervillain, so it was decided to do something similar.

Casting

when casting the film various actors were chosen for the role of batman like Tom hardy, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, And Benedict cumberbatch, however eventually Karl Urban was chosen. Urban had some experience with comic book films Most famously playing the titular character of judge dredd in Dredd . "it's a high honor to play a charcter like Batman, And i have two comic book characters i've played now. Ready for my third" Karl said in an interview. the next roles were harder though Alfred pennyworth was Just as hard but eventually Timothy Dalton was chose, Dalton also had some experience with superheroes playing the villain neville sinclaire in the rocketeer . Maggie smith was chosen due to her stern yet maternal presence which is needed for Leslie thompkins. For the Role of Catwoman People like Rachel weisz, and Charlize theron were considered before Eva green was chosen. Eva was stated saying "i was given comics that retold her origins and i took her past into account, as well as the preformances from the 60s televison show and michelle pfieffer's preformance, yet i still wanted to do my own thing." she went on to be in many's eyes the definitive Catwoman. 

For the roles of Nightwing, Kit harington was cast. Kit said "i always thought of him as sort of like a brother Batman never had/ The angel on his shoulder. plus i'll know that there's a chance i'll be him, Spoilers." for Barbara Gordon Emma stone and Amanda seyfried. the role went to emma watson who said "i wanted to show barbara as a fighter, as just as strong as even batman. But i knew i should show her vulnerability which is why she's has night terrors about the joker."

For the roles of Red Robin and Batgirl/Spoiler Asa butterfield was chosen right from the getgo for Red Robin, but batgirl/Spoiler was originially played by Haliee steinfeld but she was too busy with Mythic city/Star wars/Indiana Jones: the colliding of worlds , which Emma watson was also in but finished before Haliee, so Chloe Moretz was chosen. In an interview Asa said that "the idea we had is that they were fans of batman who decided to do it themselves" and chloe in that same interview said "yeah and they have no idea what they're doing." For carrie kelly Rowan Blanchard was chosen because of her showing up to the audition with with a slingshot.

As soon as the reboot was announced, Bryan Cranston was a fan favourite for the role of James Gordon. Cranston had previously voiced the character in the animated Batman: Year One film and was reportedly interesting in reprising the role. The fanbase's reaction to his casting was overwhelmingly positive, with Cranston commenting on Twitter that he was honoured to get such a reaction. Julianne moore lobbied for the role and was happy to discover that she was the first choice. Rene montoya and James maddsen were also first choice picks with the two actually appearing at comic con as montoya and Bullock respectively.

For the villains Robert Carlyle was as the riddler chosen after Guy pearce refused. Mark addy was cast and actually took inspiration from the comics and the animated series and played off of that. "he's the Sociliate of the underworld" Addy describred his character. For the main villain of Doctor Death, it was decided to go with Adam Driver due to his Role of Kylo Ren in the Lucasfilms Universe. "I saw him as a Man who lost his mind after the police destroyed his home after due to his actions."

Design

A big part of the film was design, as the creators wanted to set it apart from previous Batman films and make it unique. one of the important details was that they'd be practical and would actually work in real life. Most of the superhero costumes were in fact actual combat suits that were deisgned for the military to more flexible and stronger than normal wear and more skin tight and be able to adapt to the wearer. they were able to get them through a donation from the military. They were scanned into a computor and the sculptors were able to add the batman elements over them and recreate them with the original material in the same way. the capes however were actually made with the same cape material as the previous batman suits particularly the BvS cape. they were able to keep them since they would last a long time anyway.

The Batsuit's design when he first appears was inspired by the costume from detective comics number 27. Every flashback has a batsuit based on a point in the comic's history. the New batsuit was based on the Batsuit which had appeared in "Arkham" video games, but with a navy blue cowl and cape, and a symbol with the bat in the oval, similar to the 60s series, intentionally done as a tribute to the late adam west. The cowl was given the white pupiless eyes from the comics. "i think my costume's probably the most realistic of the batsuits, at least since the 60s series. since it was designed from military unifroms i could really be more active with it. It also made you feel more like your character and made you more fierce since it was a real bit of gear."

Catwoman's was inspired by the sixties series but the mask was actually designed after the one in the comics. Unlike the others it was a uniqute material that was more like a catsuit but still had the adaptability of the others. Eva said "it was actually kind of empowering wearing it, and it actually works as a outfit so i could be warm when it was cold yet also cool on a boiling day." one element that was added was a bandadna like face guard that can be taken off and become cloth, which was actually based on the early days when catwoman's mask was an actually cat head.

the batgirl costume for barbara was based on the costume worn by yvonne craig but with a darker purple and yellow gloves and boots inspired by the comics. Emma watson said "that costume was actually alot of fun to wear since you could hypothetically wear the costume in combat and it would actually protect you. But most of all it was actually mobile and was designed with us in mind so it would actually adapt to our surroundings. It's also the closest to method acting i've ever been since the suits made me and pretty much everyone feel more like we were those characters."

The designs for red robin, Robin, and batgirl's early outfits were thought of as something a kid would make out of materials they could find. stephanie's hood in both batgirl and spoiler was inspired by a hoodie. their Uniforms were actually Done in the same manner as Barbara's and batman's and were done in the same way except for spoiler's hoodie which was normal cloth.

Nightwing's was the easiest to design since it was taken almost directly out of the comics without variations. Like the others Kit was able to use it but he had this to say "I was careful trying not to break them in the start since they were military grade but i got used to them. yet it still made me want to do some tricks, Karl, Eva, Emma and the other probablt said this over and over but it was real and was just made me feel like nightwing."

The villains were designed almost entirely off of the arkham games. For Doctor Death since he was Burned they looked at real burn victims and exagger upon them. for his clothes which are a trench coat, Black suit coat, white suit shirt and a top hat it was decided that since they belonged to his family who died in a fire, that they'd show fire damage.

The one bit of design that set this batman movie apart from the others is that gotham city has a design, which itself was inspired by batman the animated series, a art deco, retro futuristic city, though to set it apart from metropolis it was done in a style more suited for a film noir, which many have argued is the tone where batman is the most natural. as such the clothing was designed and made by hand to envoke that noir time frame.

Reception

The film was Well received with fans saying it did the characters justice. Critics enjoyed the neo-noir atmosphere and story telling. Some even say it's better than the dark knight. Doug walker said "it's like the Purest form of batman but it also took a huge risk and knocked it out of the park." James rolfe said "it's like an old movie but done in a new style."

sequel

The film was followed by World's finest in which superman and batman met. Then Justice League which batman, nightwing, Batgirl, Red robin, Spoiler, Batwoman and Robin appear, though only Batman joins the league. Then with The Shadow. in which batman admits he was inspired by the titualr hero. Return of the Batman where he fights Black mask and other mobsters. House of the batman Where the Batfamily are trapped inside arkham asylum and have to deal with every batman villain, including the joker. Trinity where Batman Superman and wonder woman fight off an alien invasion on their own, and Trinity/The shadow where The trinity team up with the shadow. The Titans informing robin and nightwing about the movie's conflict, Deathstroke. Justice league Brave and the Bold, where The justice league faces off against their Earth 3 counter parts. City of the batman where Gotham is cut off from the rest of america. legacy of the Batman where Dick has to take on the mantle of batman.  Batman Vs superman in-which friends become enemies. and finally Justice league apocalypse.