Now I’m intrigued.
After an unofficial leak of images revealed the full Batsuit and Batcycle in the upcoming The Batman (starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader), director Matt Reeves and Warner Bros. took back control of marketing quality control and debuted the first images of the new Batmobile in an official three-pic tweet. (See gallery below)
My hunch: the first scenes with the new Batmobile are about to be filmed. Getting ahead of any more leaks, the studio released these images that they could craft, rather than losing another round to some rogue photographer.
And I like it.
I was pretty “meh” on the Batsuit, feeling it was an uninspired amalgam of previous designs. But this? This is different.
Rather than a graphic gothic design ala Tim Burton, a modern mini-tank of Christopher Nolan, or Zack Snyder‘s combo of the two, Reeves has given us, well, a souped-up sports car.
In a world of franchises and tentpoles where the next best thing always has to be biggest to be considered better, Reeves has gone in the opposite direction, downsizing Batman’s wheels to something more akin to what Steve McQueen used to bullitt around in.
Striking a profile not unlike a 1960s Mustang GT, the new Batmobile is a muscle car that leaves little space for an arsenal of hidden gadgets and weapons, especially since its oversized engine takes up the car’s whole rear section.
For as jacked as that vehicle looks (what is the horsepower on that thing?!), it is streamlined and stripped down by comparison to what we’ve come to expect from comic book blockbusters.
If that approach to the Batmobile suggests what Reeves’ full vision is for this latest adaptation (he said he wanted to go back to Batman’s detective roots), then we could actually be in for something that’s more different and fresh than I was expecting.
We’ll still have to wait awhile to find out. The Batman won’t open until summer of next year, on June 25, 2021.
Click on any image for larger gallery
