Batman is coming back, but do we need him so soon?

We are finally starting to get a first look at the latest iteration of Batman -- Robert Pattison in Matt Reeve's The Batman -- and while the first trailer looks good (and appears to be a return to the gritty realism of the Christopher Nolan movies) I couldn't help but shake the feeling of 'been there done that.'

This is essentially the fifth big screen version of this character, more than any other superhero has been interpreted. This perhaps makes sense -- Batman is a uniquely cinematic and dynamic character. 

We've had Tim Burton's gothic flair, Joel Schumacher's unapologetic camp, Christopher Nolan's intense crime thrillers and most recently the murky mess of the Zack Snyder interpretation. The recent news of Michael Keaton reprising the role for the first time in almost thirty years has me and fans excited, not just because his interpretation of the character remains my favorite, but it's also an opportunity to see the character in a way we never have before, albeit in a movie about The Flash, which I'm not particularly jazzed about.

That news was undermined a bit by word that Ben Affleck would also be returning in the same film in a kind of multi-verse narrative. Which sort of cheapens and detracts from Keaton's return.

Meanwhile, the Reeves-Pattison movie does offer something akin to a fresh perspective -- this is the first take on Batman as more of a young man (although Batman Begins covered much of this terrain). I trust Reeves as a visual stylist, his Planet of the Apes movies were especially riveting tour de forces in action and technological marvels -- but I simply can't see what he could add the Batman mythology that we have not already seen.

I've written many times about superhero fatigue -- I'd had it for quite a while. Pretty much everything I've seen since Black Panther feels like a bit of a letdown, even though I quite enjoyed Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home for what they were. 

Batman has long been, by far, my favorite comic book character -- in part because he can made to feel at least semi-plausible. There is no interplanetary travel in Batman, no superpowers. And usually I can't wait to see the character on the big screen. He's probably second to James Bond for me in terms of anticipation.

But that began to change with Zack Snyder's interpretation, which made the mistake of being dull. Even Schumacher's films, with all their myriad of deficiencies, aren't boring. 

I am completely open to and willing to be surprised by this new movie. I especially like the choice of Paul Dano to do a totally new and different riff on The Riddler (a character due for a reboot) and it looks like there may be some new iteration of Catwoman too, which I am not sure we need.

Of course, if and when we'll actually get to see this new Batman is anyone's guess. And I think by the time we do, not only will it be impervious to reviews, but I will probably have gotten over my hesitation to embrace it.

Pattison is an interesting choice for the lead -- he's become an actor I quite admire despite his beginnings as a hearththrob in that Twilight pablum. But yeah, I am still going to have to wait and see. And of course just wait, since the world is upside down, and will be for the foreseeable future.