Batman Begins
Introduction Halloween is finally over and as I recently reviewed „Batman – Arkham Origins“ it seemed rather to be a perfect choice to give „Batman Begins“ a look. I own the entire „The Dark Knight Trilogy“ and I catch myself watching the movies multiple times. To this day I do believe it to be one of the best interpretation of Batman to date and rather curious how Ben Affleck plans to reinterpret the character, especially drawing inspiration from Frank Miller’s classic “The Dark Knight Returns”, which seemed to be what inspired the last installment. Seems I drifted a little off and what I really am trying to say is, let us take a look on how the original Batman posters are keeping up after a few years.
Analysis With the name being in the title you would think it would take inspiration from the original Tim Burton film where all you required was simply the classic logo of Batman without any text. It actually takes that concept one step further by showing us the silhouette of the character, whose design is iconic all on its own. Only aspect that confuses me is the background choice, for some reason it is simply the sky dyed brown. It could visualize a new dawn for the character but it does seem a little odd as it confuses me on where exactly he is supposedly standing so that the sky is clearly behind him. Maybe it also is trying to cement the open sky as a metaphor on how the character has to learn with him still being young and naïve without truly understand in what exact direction they might be truly heading.
Now this is a little more like it. Help pushing the bat motive further while also showing what exactly inspired the creation of the Batman figure. There is a strong focus on the character, which is a natural direction for the advertising as many people come to see this icon come back to life on the big screen. Furthermore, this seems to show the darker side of the character by keeping him in the caves, but at the very same time having a shimmer of light upon him. Now I think there is more behind pushing Batman into the foreground and keeping Bruce Wayne in the background. Remember how there was a constant reference of Batman being a symbol across the entire franchise? This poster visualizes this effect by trying to avoid the person behind the mask but pushing the symbol into the foreground.
This seemed to be the most preferred posters across Europe as it was the only one I ever got a look at. It is the first poster to give us the huge cast for the film while also pushing the bats as well as Gotham at the viewer. My only confusion stays with the return of the orange/brown coloring of the background. I personally preferred the more darker and grayish colors that gave the character a bit more edge. Yet on the other hand I have to confess that orange makes much more sense from a marketing standpoint, as it is a rather unusual color to see which will draw some attention while also making the film feel a bit more alive. Darker colors seem to speak to a very niche crowd and may end up pushing people from viewing the film. This overall design stayed for the rest of the posters especially with many bats flying around in the background. There is one featuring Batman carrying his love interest for the film, which I am not all too fond of as not only do the characters feel as if they are sticking out too much from the design choices.
One last addition is something I have never seen before as I find it a rather interesting choice. First of all, they are keeping in tone with their color scheme, but also giving an international feeling. Taking some landmarks from all over the world and letting bats swirl around them is a nice way to make other countries feel relative even if Gotham city is once again part of the United States. It may aim to give the world the feeling they are apart of this story and that any effects the Batman may put in motion reach out further across the world.
Conclusion From a marketing standpoint the bizarre color choice makes sense in a rather curious way. Do find it interesting how they push the character of Batman into the foreground while avoiding any of the supporting cast, or the villain played by Cillian Murphy. One would think that with such a strong cast would try to also push them as characters, when counting that some rather big names like Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson or Gary Oldman. Still, the choice to stick to the main character does make sense in what the movie franchise stands for while also marketing towards the people that know exactly who the character is. I only wished to see something inspired by the creation of Batman, as it is titled “Begins” after all, with a shot of Wayne standing near the spot they were his parents got shot with a rose, or even as a kid at that very moment for a strong emotional punch towards what is probably a truly iconic origin story. Wonder what changed with the sequel though.
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