During an interview with THE INDEPENDENT, Paul Dano — who played Edward Nigma/The Riddler in Matt Reeves’ THE BATMAN — was asked why THE BATMAN was immune to the disease known as “Superhero Movie Fatigue,” or SMF for short. His response should not surprise you…
There are enough comic book movies where you just know what you’re gonna get. Reading the script for THE BATMAN, you knew it was a real film. Every sentence… that’s just [writer/director] Matt Reeves.
Paul Dano, we speak your name, brother! He had more to say about the state of superhero cinema…
It’s an interesting moment where everybody has to go like, ‘OK – what now?’ Hopefully from that, somebody either breathes new life into [comic book movies], or something else blossoms which is not superheroes. I’m sure there will still be some good ones yet to come, but I think it’s kind of a welcome moment.
“It’s a larger thing, too. As soon as the word ‘content’ came into what we do — meaning making movies or TV — it meant quantity over quality, which I think was a big misstep. And I certainly don’t need that as a viewer or as an artist.
Preach!
While SMF certainly exists, the comic book film genre is not dead. They will still be made, but hopefully, there are fewer of them and the ones that come to fruition are, well, good.
And this is the time that I say (again) that one way to make fewer and better ones would be to stop with the shared universe thing because that model fuels cookie-cutter movies that are often bad. What Matt Reeves is doing with Batman and THE BATMAN SAGA — a universe centered around one character — is the blueprint. But alas, my protests fall on deaf ears. ANYWAY…
Dano also had a blast being part of THE BATMAN. He even wrote an excellent prequel comic book titled THE RIDLER: YEAR ONE that’s part of THE BATMAN SAGA. (CLICK HERE to buy if you haven’t read it…it’s FANTASTIC!)
I was able to really enjoy [THE BATMAN]. It wasn’t too much for me. I liked the fan fervor around it. I became a total Batman dork!
We need more superhero movies like THE BATMAN (and JOKER, and THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY) and actors like Paul Dano in them. Speaking of which, I’m looking forward to his return to Gotham in THE BATMAN: PART II. I hope he has as much of a blast this time as he did on the first one. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
