Here's the thing about the Twilight star's take on Bruce Wayne/Batman: He is a full-fledged freak and despite all his rage he is still just a bat in a cave.
Pattinson beat out Nicholas Hoult, Armie Hammer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson to take over the mantle in Matt Reeves' The Batman, which is as much of a psychological detective thriller in the vein of Chinatown and Seven as it is a superhero movie. (The director has said his take on the character was inspired by Kurt Cobain.) More disaffected youth than dour demi-God, his Bruce Wayne is basically a reclusive ghost, the actor having far more dialogue as the Caped Crusader—though you almost feel like have to lean in to really hear him—than as the brooding billionaire, a welcome change for the character.
Portraying Batman in his second year as Gotham's masked vigilante, Pattinson still manages to invoke the vulnerability of the broken boy behind the mask and the brash physicality of a man still learning the limits of his abilities. Given his penchant for choosing unusual roles and working with indie filmmakers, it makes sense that Reeves thought Pattinson would be the perfect Batman for his moodier interpretation, even writing the script with the British actor in mind before he had signed on.
Rather than avoid the character's long movie history, Pattinson wasn't afraid to look back at other actors take on the role to inform his own.
"I watched a lot of them on the run-up to it to just see where's a gap and something that hasn't really been explored yet," Pattinson told GQ, explaining his version is "really, really sad."