2022 – The Batman
It took me a while to figure out why I wasn’t terribly impressed with the visual effects in The Batman. But I believe I now have the answer. When we go to see a superhero movie, we expect it to be a big, CGI-fueled, visual effects extravaganza. But this movie was neither an action film, nor was it filmed as a fantasy. It was a detective movie that was so grounded in reality that the superhero element, at times, seemed like nothing more than window dressing. There were no supernatural elements, no futuristic technologies, nothing that could not exist in the world in which we currently live.
But this makes sense when put under the light of director Matt Reeves’s vision. He wanted to tell a story about the early days of the Caped Crusader. He doesn’t yet have all the fancy gadgets we are used to seeing him use from his utility belt. The Batmobile can’t sprout wings or turn into a submarine. Though there was an interesting escape in which Batman’s suit turns into a wingsuit with a parachute attachment. Thus, many of the visual effects could be practical effects.
But that’s not to say the CGI effects were not used. Of course they were. But they were effects that were, in this day and age of filmmaking, pretty commonplace. There were practical explosions that were enhanced by CGI. There were sets that were extended by CGI. There was rain added to scenes using CGI. And there were digital face replacements, where the stuntmen and women’s faces were replaced with those of the lead actors. There were also a few short sequences where digital water and flood effects were created, as well as a few electricity arc effects, which were created in computers. But really that was about it. There just wasn’t much of it, and in any case, it has all been done before.
Another technology that isn’t exactly new, though I’m guessing isn’t yet the industry standard, was the use of on-set LED screens. They were used during filming as backgrounds, instead of using blue-screens, where environments and backgrounds are added in post-production. This was very effective, and has the added bonus of allowing the actors to see and be a part of the environments they are supposed to be in. I imagine this allows the actors to more readily inhabit the roles they are playing, enhancing the storytelling.
When it comes down to it, I’m not saying the visual effects were badly done. I just think they were too common, to widely used already. There seemed to be nothing new, nothing original. I did a fair bit of reading about the visual effects employed in The Batman, and I couldn’t find anything that made it stand out above any other film, let alone any modern superhero film. I’m sorry to say that while the visual effects in this film were good, it has all been done before, and done just as well.