The Batman: 10 Ways The Riddler Parallels Batman
Two sides of the same coin.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman is the most direct live-action Batman movie so far in how it criticizes the disturbing problematic concept of a Billionaire trying to dress up as a bat to beat up the criminal lot to where Bruce Wayne looks like an obsessed creepy man.
How Matt Reeves does this is by making us realize that Batman is not so different from The Riddler, who in this movie is a mysterious serial killer and a self-confessed enemy of the corrupt.
Admittedly, watching The Batman, not all of the parallels between the two are instantly noticeable, but the film does weave the pair together as two sides of the same coin. This is something Batman has to wrestle with and answer to, but in what ways are the hero and villain similar in this latest flick?
Spoilers ahead.
10. They Are Both Voyeurs
In a loving homage to the opening of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, The Batman starts similarly with a bird’s-eye view camera observing people, implying that it is a POV of a man stalking people through a scope or binoculars.
There is a creepy vibe as we hear the breathing of the man observing, and his eyes wander through a window of a happy family. The stalker is revealed to be The Riddler, and he is stalking the family because he wanted a chance to be alone with the patriarch of the family to kill him.
Later in the movie, as Batman is curious about Selina Kyle’s involvement in a crime, he follows her to her home. He similarly uses binoculars to spy on her through her window to get some answers.
As the audience, all we see is Batman being Batman, but if we come to think about it, this is the behavior of a stalker, and not far off exactly what The Riddler was doing in the opening.