Chris Fritz's Blog - Posts Tagged "status-update"

I hate Batman's eyes. Over the years Batman has been adapted for the big screen several times and one thing that has remained consistent with every iteration is the eyes of the bat suit. What do I mean by this? Whenever we see Batman he has a suit that makes the majority of his body look like a bat but when we look at the eyes of the bat suit they are the eyes of a human. You're probably thinking to yourself as opposed to what eyes exactly? Here's the alternative. In Batman the animated series whenever he puts on his suit his eyes turn into white slits. that's how batman's eyes look in the majority of his comic book appearances and all of his animated incarnations. The movies however still have a caped crusader that looks nothing like this. What do we lose with this. Well if we look at human eyes that tells us that Batman is really just a man underneath that costume. If we look at two white sectioned off slits in the mask that gives him more of an inhuman look. he could strike more fear into the hearts of his enemies. So much of the batman mythology centers around him becoming more than a man. Surrendering his humanity and ascending to the status of symbol, of myth. With human eyes he still retains his humanity but with inhuman eyes he becomes so much more. That's a small visual representation that the movies have missed. To more solidify my point in the Spiderman movies from the early 2000's the eyes on the Spiderman suit look true to the comic books and nothing like human eyeballs. So it was done in a film that was better able to encapsulate the superhero trope of becoming superhuman and accomplish everything I'm talking about. So why do I care about this? I believe that it was Edgar Allen Poe that said eyes are the windows to the soul. That is extremely true for our favorite movies. If we see a characters eyes we can see there humanity and their soul. Conversely if we don't see a persons eyes then this character becomes so much more than a character. Certain characters like Robocop and judge dread wear dressings that cover their eyes. This is a step that removes them from humanity and makes them incarnations of cold, hard justice. In Star Wars when we look at Darth Vader and the storm troopers they wear masks that cover their entire face removing their humanity almost entirely becoming representatives of evil and death. I'll just touch on Boba Fett briefly saying that he is one of those characters that is removed from humanity because we do not see his face. I think back in the day what made fans love him was how little we interact with him. His limited screen time gives him an air of mystery around him. And in that mystery fans were able to imprint whatever they felt on to that character. Some fans could think of him as a cowboy others a knight others a bounty hunter. The possibilities were endless. So this is a cry to have Batman fall in line with other interesting characters in the cinematic tradition. It's a concept that I've yet to see live action batman embrace and it especially was absent in the most recent film with Robert Pattenson. There is some hope on the horizon though. There was a live action film that portrayed this eyeless Batman for me. In Batman V Superman dawn of justice Batman wears a mech suit for his fight with the son of krypton and this mech suit sports pale blue glowing eyes. They are a perfect representation of what I'm talking about and I hope they pick up on it in future films.

I might as well give you a personal update while I'm here. I do have to admit that my writing process has hit a snag. I've gone through a very big change in my life. I've gotten a new day job that's really started to take a good chunk out of my day. I know it's for the better but it's made me rearrange and reevaluate things in my life. So don't feel sorry for me feel glad for me. I definitely have been keeping myself busy right now I'm working on a project that could change everything in my life. So stay tuned for some amazing news.