Batman

⚠️ spoiler alert ⚠️

So I watched The Batman yesterday. Long overdue I know. What can I say, I have small kids.

I think it was worth the watch. Not the mind-bending magical experience that Christopher Nolan gave us with Christian Bale but certainly no George Clooney flop either. Like in the Nolan films, the dark elements of the movie give the anti-hero/superhero vibe some real authenticity. Not to mention the many stumblings and fails that this vigilante gave us as well. Also not uncommon to Batman Begins. However, the darkness in this movie gave us less of a spectrum and understanding of Pattinsons Bruce Wayne, it almost seemed as if all he was was a toned down emo-kid with lack of impulse control. But then again, that’s where the parts of the plot start to really shine through.

I’m not going to recap synopsis here, just go watch the movie or read up on it, instead I wanted to touch on what I think was the single most powerful takeaway of the movie: Batman was in almost no way a catalyst to the plot.

Riddler: I told you. We’ve been doing this together – you’re part of this Batman: we didn’t do anything together –

That scene from Arkham was the most profound description of the movie. Up until then I was slightly unnerved by the fact that batman always seemed to be one or many steps behind the Riddler, but with that dialogue I realized that that was the point of the story. A real hero/anti-hero like the one portrayed by the conflicted, attempting and disappointed Bruce Wayne wouldn’t suddenly be running the world and challenging every villain on their door steps, even if you’re a billionaire. Instead, he would be clever, trying to figure things out, but still just a recipient, an actor in the script that’s already being written against his will.

And so I had the realization that most of my life is like this batman’s. We believe we can control our fates, that with money and competence we can direct the world to our order. Which might be true on a very microscopic level, but as Tolkien said it “even the very wise cannot see all ends.”. We’re subject to what the world brings, and even in our own stories, we’re usually not the protagonists. We’re simply supporting actors in a much larger narrative. And the sooner we learn to cope with it, and act in our tiny circle of influence, the better off we’ll be.

I’m looking forward to the sequel! If only to see Andy Serkis in more of his British manner.