Nolan cast him in Tenet. That will be how I'll judge his ability. I'm going into The Batman with an open mind. It's entirely possible he'll be horrible, or that the film is targeting a younger audience and I'll hate it all. Or, it could be outstanding. But I'm not going to waste a ton of mental imagery bitching about casting just because the guy had a prominent role in some tweeny Vampire series. Again, Ledger was a gay cowboy...and nailed one of the most iconic roles and performances ever.
I realize I'm ridiculously late in replying here (
), but if you'd like a better and more immediate idea of just how damn good of an actor Pattinson is, I highly recommend checking out his performance in Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse. Both he and Willem Dafoe should have been nominated for Oscars for their performances in that film IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyag7lR8CPAPattinson starts off a bit timid, but by the end, he brings out an intensity in his performance reminiscent of Jack Nicholson in The Shining or Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Dude has some
insane range and is going to rock as Batman!
Also, can I just say that the cast of this film feels like it's one of the best ever? So far we've got:
- Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman
- Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon
- Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman
- Paul Dano as the Riddler
- Colin Farrell as the Penguin
- Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth
- John Turturro as Carmine Falcone
- Peter Sarsgaard in an unknown role
I love how out of the box and inspired a lot of these picks are. Reeves has a habit of picking character actors in his films and it's nice to see the trend continue here. Also love that he's working with Rogue One's Greig Fraser for the cinematography and Michael Giacchino for the score. Hopefully we finally get a soundtrack more akin to Danny Elfman's work in the Burton films or Shirley Walker's work on Batman: The Animated Series!