Should Batman self narrate?

[Silvermoth]

I'm a huge fan of what miller did for batman and one of the things I love was that sin cityesque style self narrating as batman describes his relationship with Gotham while he waits and plots in the darkness. That's one of the things I was really looking forward to in terms of a new style for the reboot.

That said, I reckon Ben affleck's voice would get on my nerves a bit. What do you think?

 

[BatmanGoesToRio]

Sounds interesting and would be a new take. It works in some films like in the Kick-Ass movies. As a German I don't know Afflecks' voice. Wanna watcha "Argo" in the next couple of days so I'll try the original version to find out.

 

[Silvermoth]

Oh haven't you seen Argo yet? It's really good! There are a few creative differences where you can see they fixed things in the script compared to real life though.

Which city are you from in Germany? You can be vague but Germany is such a fascinating place!

 

[NosfeRomas]

I would really like Batman being the narrator. Have him play detective and we actually hear what his thought process is, or his inner monologues. That would be great. Don't know if Affleck's voice fits the narrator style but will see. I really hope they do it though.

 

[hellblazer103]

i'd honestly love to see that. but if it doesn't happen, eh, I wouldn't mind.

also, NosfeRomas , nice sig ^ that's one of my favorite quotes from ol' johnny. finally a fellow hellblazer fan on here ! lol

 

[jonathancrane]

I would prefer not.

Narration rarely works in film and its an exercise in poor screenwriting: for this genre, it is better to show people what is important, than telling them.

 

[Snow Queen]

I don't like narration usually. It's something that is usually just used to say something that could have been said in dialogue or shown rather than insight on the character. so I'll pass on it.

 

[uniqueweasel]

I'd love them to try it, something like Sin City worked well (at least to me).

 

[titansupes]

No narration for me. 85-90% of the time it's just grating.

Especially if it's "He panics and rushes at me, I move swiftly and shatter his arm with a critical strike. I AM GOTHAM CITY". Shut the **** up, Bruce.

 

[Spider-Kurt!]

Interesting idea but I feel that conversations with Alfred, Robin and to some extent Gordon or Superman better serve that purpose.

 

[Dark Raven]

No narration for me. 85-90% of the time it's just grating.

Especially if it's "He panics and rushes at me, I move swiftly and shatter his arm with a critical strike. I AM GOTHAM CITY". Shut the **** up, Bruce.

I don't think anyone is thinking of that kind of 1st person storytelling. If there were narration it could be similar to how it's done in Burn Notice where he often describes people's psychology or gives tips on what to do in a certain situation to achieve your goal and how you might go about defeating the enemy.

 

[hellblazer103]

or the early seasons of dexter, before it got ****** and Dexter's narration just became statements describing what the audience just saw 3 seconds ago.

 

[747]

If done well, and fitting in context, it could be awesome, but it's hard to pull off for sure.

 

[the last son]

Naw. The less I hear from Batman the better.

 

[DACrowe]

Well if you guys want more comparisons to Daredevil...

No. I think it can be done, but not with this character. The more silent and removed Batman is, the better.

 

[shauner111]

No narration for me. 85-90% of the time it's just grating.

Especially if it's "He panics and rushes at me, I move swiftly and shatter his arm with a critical strike. I AM GOTHAM CITY". Shut the **** up, Bruce.

 

[uniqueweasel]

So do you guys think they were right not having him have internal monologues in The Dark Knight Returns animated? Because personally I think it could of done with having them in especially with the "this would be a good death" that sort of style would be great imo. Even just the Sherlock fight breakdown self narration would be great.

 

[Brother Jack]

It would be hard to do well but it's something I've wanted to see in a live action Batman film. It's such a staple of the modern comics that it is a little weird to not have it any of the films. Even the cartoon movie of Dark Knight Returns removed the internal monologues, which I think hurt it. But given it would most likely backfire it might be just as well that they don't bother.

 

[uniqueweasel]

Yeah I think the key would be if they were to try it,would be to just do a tiny amount perhaps in his intro or certain fights or something. I don't think anyone expects full on narration like has been suggested.

 

[Human Torch]

I honestly never liked it in the comics,so no.

 

[Jekecy]

Well if you guys want more comparisons to Daredevil...

No. I think it can be done, but not with this character. The more silent and removed Batman is, the better.

Every single live-action Batman has had an underdeveloped role (under the cowl), so I say now's a good time as ever to go a different route and tackle it head on. On film we've never seen the true mind state of Bruce when he's in full costume. And you really can't explore that without making him talkative. Which in and of itself is a betrayal to his outside exterior. Inner monologues are the next best thing at accomplishing that.

Dexter has done a fantastic job at showcasing a seemingly unfazed sociopath with underlying empathy. Without dumbing it down (at least in the earlier seasons) for the audience. It's such an integral component to his presentation that taking it away leaves you with a hollow persona. Great for the in-context world and its denizens, but terrible for the audience.

 

[shauner111]

I disagree Jekecy. The mysteriousness of Batman and what's going on inside him is more fascinating than spelling it out to the audience by having Bruce and/or Batman narrate his thoughts. I don't think it's necessary.

It works for Dexter sure. But I don't think I want to see it in Batman.

 

[BatmanGoesToRio]

Which city are you from in Germany? You can be vague but Germany is such a fascinating place!

Düsseldorf. Deep in the west at the River Rhine.

Capital of the state North Rhine Westphalia with about 550,000 citizens. And not a small Bavarian village in the Alps like it was shown in Burton's "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory".t:

 

[Jekecy]

I disagree Jekecy. The mysteriousness of Batman and what's going on inside him is more fascinating than spelling it out to the audience by having Bruce and/or Batman narrate his thoughts. I don't think it's necessary.

It works for Dexter sure. But I don't think I want to see it in Batman.

If you read comics, you already see it in Batman.

But no, I see the argument for both sides. It's just with these inherently stoic leads, you have little wiggle room to explore them without "resorting" to methods like inner monologues.

So it's either you have a fairly shallow presentation of Batman, or you're forced to be creative and make the narration work. After decades of the former, I'd be more interested in the latter.

It's not like we're not familiar with the method. I think everyone is aware how Shakesperean and expositional Nolan's films can be. This would simply remove that stage play element and give it solely to the one character it would make sense to have their thoughts uttered out loud.

 

[uniqueweasel]

I agree with Jekecy, Batman as a character is very introspective, and we need something different than previously seen, I want to get more characterisation when he's actually Batman.