3. Christopher Nolan 2.0
Christopher Nolan wasn't an obvious choice to helm the Batman franchise- he had never directed a blockbuster film but was known for directing twisty psychological thrillers like
Memento and
Insomnia. But it was because his films were focused on emotionally and psychologically troubled protagonists that made him a perfect fit for the character of Batman. Batman is arguably the most psychologically complex of the major superheroes. The strength of Nolan's first Batman film,
Batman Begins, was how it explored Batman's psychology in a tangiable way. Nolan also took a stripped down and gritty approach to the franchise, eliminating the campiness of the previous two films. While I feel that Nolan's approach works best for Batman, if any director could do for Spider-Man what Nolan did for Batman, while not feeling like it's just cribbing off Nolan's style, it'd be Fincher. Like Nolan, Fincher's films focus on twisted psyches like the Narrator in Fi
ght Club or Mark Zuckerberg in
The Social Network. This element of his filmmaking would have lent itself well to exploring Peter Parker's psychology in a way that made him feel like a real person. Fincher's films are also about outsiders, which Peter Parker essentially is even before he gets his powers- and even more so when he becomes Spider-Man. Fincher sums up what his Spider-Man film would have been like by saying it'd wouldn't be a teenager story but the story "of the guy whos settled into being a freak." Psychologically, how does Peter Parker feel being a "freak?" It's the type of question that makes characters like Spider-Man more human and relatable to us- and if Fincher was still able to incorporate Spider-Man's sense humour in to the film, it would be a fully rounded version of the character.