I'm Reading Your Stuff: General News and Discussion Thread

[SwordOfMorning]

That right there rung like something I could imagine possibly working.

If the movie deals with the arrival of a new mysterious killer in Gotham, I feel like this movie can present Gilda, Christopher and Harvey himself each as plausible suspects. Looked at it another way, a riff on the broad structure of MOTP that swaps out the storyline with The Beaumonts for the Dents and makes a bit more of a mystery of it.

There's no getting around Gilda being the most obvious and natural reveal, both from the comics history and just ScarJo in this universe is going to feel very classical femme fatale. But there's still plenty to uncover when it comes to what's motivating all the characters and how it all plays out. And I think just the inclusion of Harvey Dent at all without clearly playing your hand as to how the Two-Face of it all will be utilized would keep us sufficiently on our toes, from a meta-fan expectations standpoint.

Think there will be something along these lines for sure.

I see a fair bit of concern that it's going to be pretty obvious Gilda is the twist. What that will ultimately come down to is really... how much that matters to you? To me, a movie twist being surprising is a basically meaningless thing - twists are almost never actually surprising and are only effective the first time you experience a story. Like, the "Falcone is the Rat" twist in The Batman is obvious but that's fine because that is just... what the movie is about, that's the story. Whether it is meaningfully shocking or not is completely irrelevant because it is fundamentally necessary to the story Reeves told and if you made it something different it is no longer that. I'd imagine whatever comes with the Gilda twist will be the same way: it'll fundamentally be what the movie is about.

This is absolutely gonna be a Dent movie. Even if they announce another villain, I really do think at its core we're getting a Two-Face movie.

 

[Stringer]

The Harvey Dent deep dive may be saved for another spinoff show while Gilda's villainy gets the majority of the movie's screentime.

 

[BatLobster]

Think there will be something along these lines for sure.

I see a fair bit of concern that it's going to be pretty obvious Gilda is the twist. What that will ultimately come down to is really... how much that matters to you? To me, a movie twist being surprising is a basically meaningless thing - twists are almost never actually surprising and are only effective the first time you experience a story. Like, the "Falcone is the Rat" twist in The Batman is obvious but that's fine because that is just... what the movie is about, that's the story. Whether it is meaningfully shocking or not is completely irrelevant because it is fundamentally necessary to the story Reeves told and if you made it something different it is no longer that. I'd imagine whatever comes with the Gilda twist will be the same way: it'll fundamentally be what the movie is about.

I think the inherent thing you have to work around in doing the full-on noir detective take on Batman in this day and age is that we as the audience go in way ahead of Bruce because we've ingested a whole lot of Batman media (AND noir fiction) that he hasn't, lol. I do believe there's a sweet spot to be had though. You don't want it to be try-hard shock value twist for the sake of twist, but IMO you also still want some twists, turns misdirects, etc. along the way. I think great storytellers tend to have a strong command of when to let the audience be a bit ahead of the characters and when not to. I also think just broadening the overall scope of the story could do a lot to create a world of more possibilities where it's harder to grasp how all the dots connect.

All that said, in trying to speculate about this movie you definitely get a glimpse into the minefield that must be navigated in order to try and put together a worthwhile Batman sequel in today's day and age. Between mining vast source material, differentiating from previous beloved takes with something fresh, attempting to top your own previous film, exploring dark subject matter without crossing PG-13, making something that works for both the GA and the hardcore fans. That's before even getting into even loftier goals like making it relevant to our f'd up times with the intense political readings that Batman already attracts, all the while trying to express something personal with a big studio film. Maybe figure out a way to introduce a new Bat-vehicle while you're doing all the above? I mean, yeesh...no pressure Matt.

 

[Boom]

A classic "whodunnit" with Harvey, Gilda, and Chris could be fun. Maybe with Dr. Arkham pulling the strings?

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Interesting thought: the middle chapter of trilogies is often the most standalone. Wonder if that’ll be the case here.

 

[Kane52630]

A classic "whodunnit" with Harvey, Gilda, and Chris could be fun. Maybe with Dr. Arkham pulling the strings?

 

[Sawyer]

If I don’t see Matt Reeves post a gif soon, I’m going to pull a Sean Young.

 

[Boom]

Maybe he wants to announce the Dents together.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

They could still be negotiating the deal with Scarjo.

 

[Lily Adler]

If I don’t see Matt Reeves post a gif soon, I’m going to pull a Sean Young.

You're going to appear on Call Her Daddy in a homemade Catwoman costume?

 

[WatchProtect]

Maybe we get a “Happy New Year, From the Dents ” gif with both.

 

[DKDetective]

There will inevitably be parallels with TDK because it’s the same source material, but there’s a million ways to do Dent. Plus, by the time this movie comes out TDK will be almost twenty years old - two full decades since the character was on screen.

It will make a huge difference in how it plays and feels if Two-Face and the Dents are the primary focus of the film. While Harvey was a major arc and emotional throughline of TDK, he was really just a pawn in the greater battle between Batman and the Joker. Provided the Joker is not a primary villain of the film, it will all play and feel fundamentally different than TDK, even if both films are technically Two-Face origin stories.