5 Films That Most Influenced Matt Reeves’ Take on Batman

In the past couple of weeks, it seems like we’re finally making some progress in the production of Matt Reeves’ follow-up to his massively successful first Batman film with Robert Pattinson.

In honor of the news and progress, let’s take a look at some of the works that Matt Reeves has cited had the most influence on his take on the character.

Se7en and Zodiac

I mention these films together as they are both directed by David Fincher, and they are also the two influences that are arguably the most visible on a first viewing, both stylistically and narratively. The Riddler’s costume is eerily similar to that of the Zodiac killer, both in Fincher’s film and what he was believed to have worn in real life. The capture and subsequent implementation of the Riddler’s plan is very similar to John Doe’s in Se7en, and when you look at the film visually, it’s dripping in images straight out of a Fincher thriller.

This kind of intensity and vulgarity is something that many fans, including myself, have been longing to see implemented properly in a story about Batman, and Reeves did so in a way that is difficult to beat. Perhaps most impressively, he was able to do it while keeping the film at a PG-13 rating.

Chinatown

$Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in \u2018Chinatown\u2019$ ‘Chinatown’Paramount Pictures

Disgraced filmmaker Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir thriller has left an indelible mark on the genre that it occupies. Utilizing more modern filmmaking techniques to mesh with a more classical style, it almost single-handedly reinvented the subgenre. It’s visually rich, thematically dense, and deeply dramatic without falling into cliché or heavy-handedness.

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