The Batmanstar Paul Dano has broken the comic book world with his portrayal of the comic book villain Riddler. His iteration was one that was meant to scare the audience while providing depth and a more grounded take on the character, which was noticed by Jim Carrey.
The Batmanalso stars Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, and Jeffrey Wright as the Caped Crusader, Catwoman, and Gordon, respectively. Each character was portrayed with an intense level of depth and realism while still retaining their roots in the comic books.The Batmanmanaged to blend everythingold and new in a nice cohesive creative manner.
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Often portrayed as a man in a bright green suit with a more open demeanour, Dano’s version ofthe Riddler was a man of the shadows, as he was inspired by the Batman himself. Speaking to Unilad, Carrey started off by saying he has “mixed emotions” about the “very dark version” of The Riddler. Carrey did, however, verify to give Dano his credit as a talent by saying, “To each his own and all that. I love [Paul Dano] as an actor, he’s a tremendous actor.” That said, Carrey had some concerns about this darker rendition of the Riddler. “There’s a spot of worry in me over gaffer-taping people’s faces and encouraging people to do the same,” the actor points out. “Some sickos out there that might adopt that method. I do have a conscience about the things I choose. Robotnik has cartoon bombs and no one gets hurt. I know there’s a place for [The Batman], and I don’t want to criticize it, but it’s not my kind of thing…it’s very well done, those movies are very well done.”
The actor’s critiques are fair, as life often imitates art. People watch something and can become inspired by what they see on the big screen. Many people watch movies about high school and go into 9-12th grade thinking that it’ll be like the movies they watched growing up. There have also been very sad tragedies in recent history where the perpetrator will call themselves the names ofcomic book villainswhile committing violent acts. However, this says more about society than it does a movie. Think about what this says about society if there’s a fear of making a movie on the off chance that somebody will copy it.
Even though Robotnik is a cartoonish type villain in a children’s movie, who’s to say that nobody out there will get a twisted sense of inspiration from him using bombs, traps and gadgets on animals. Any and everything has the chance of causing the wrong kind of influence, albeit some more than others like the Riddler in this case. This exact notion is what made the Riddler in this movie work well because he is someone who potentially can or has existed. The Riddler takes a lot of influencefrom the real-life Zodiac Killer, and the reveal of his face is reminiscent of the stereotypical quiet kid in math class that many are familiar with. It was scary because of how likely something like this can happen, even to a lesser degree.
The critique is fair on both sides because whatever gets put on the big screen usually gets magnified to the masses, so expecting directors to have a sense of responsibility for what they choose to show is very fair. This conversation, however, can become very tricky because then it starts to become a debate on what can or can’t be shown in terms of violence or content. Children’s content is known to sell more, as can be seen with Marvel Studios' approach to filmmaking, but in recent times it’s shown that dark can sell as well.Invincible,The Boys,Deadpool 2,and Daredevilare all examples of this, to name a few. Hopefully, filmmakers find a perfect balance.
