Christopher Nolan gave an impressive non-response to being asked if he's seen The Batman.
"If I start talking about comic book movies, that would be the only thing anybody pays any attention to in the article," Nolan told Variety. He's right and he should say it.
Nolan helmed The Dark Knight trilogy, consisting of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. The darker, grittier take on the Caped Crusader was quite the departure from the goofier, campier portrayals a la Tim Burton and even Adam West's 1960s Batman series, and would go on to change comic book movies as we know them.
After a few years of Batfleck and the Justice League, a darker take on Batman surfaced once again, this time from director Matt Reeves. While it's easy to compare the two, both depictions of Batman and Gotham are masterful in their own rights. Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne is a tortured recluse who still wants to save Gotham from the villains who control it, while Christian Bale's portrayal is more of a straight-up suave debonair action hero who leans into the playboy lifestyle. Both iterations succeed, and both directors haven't really felt the need to comment on each other's work.
"It’s clear from the box office that audiences are looking for things they haven’t seen before," Nolan told Variety, speaking on the film's success. "We’ve been through a period where it was wonderfully reassuring for studio executives to feel that their franchise properties could go on forever and be predictably successful. But you can’t deny filmgoers’ desire for novelty."
