Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was a film that suffered from an insurmountable level of anticipation prior to its release, and an almost equal amount of derision from many fans and critics after the dust had settled at the box office. While, to its credit, the film does have a lot of great character moments, some fantastic costumes, and impressive visuals, the fact remains that even its most ardent fans were left wondering why Batman didn’t debut in a solo film prior to showing up just to give Kal El a good ol’ what for and bark about Martha.

It’s been two years since the release of BvS, and we still don’t have a Dark Knight-centric outing in the DC Extended Universe's canon. This fact is somewhat concerning, especially when you consider the rocky road to production for the upcoming The Batman that has been well-documented in the media. Everything from screenwriters and directors dropping in and out of the project, to the inconsistent commitment to the film from current caped crusader Ben Affleck (earning him the nickname Schrödinger's Bat in some circles) has resulted in a fanbase that doesn't really feel warm and fuzzy about what lies ahead for one of DC’s biggest characters.

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But is all the turmoil necessary? There are myriad stories in the Batman universe have not yet been tapped for the big screen. Any number of them (or a combination of several) could easily be shaped into a strong narrative that would bring in huge audiences (c’mon “Court of Owls”). Surely there’s a Batman script that is worthy of the talents of director Matt Reeves, who is currently attached to helm the film. Or maybe there isn’t. Perhaps Warner Bros. is over-thinking just what a Batman film should be. After the massive success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy in which Batman was approached with a more grounded tone (for the most part), followed by the lukewarm reception of the ultra-grim version we’ve seen thus far in the DCEU it’s understandable if a massive film studio isn’t ready to put all their eggs in one cape-covered basket. The last thing Warner Bros. probably wants is another Batman and Robin on their hands.

Ben Affleck as Batman in DCEU

Maybe the key to making a great Batman film isn’t in the tone of the film or even the cast and crew. Perhaps what might make for a good movie is adopting an underused template in the action movie genre. Every now and then a film comes along to define how action films are made for the next decade (or longer). Die Hard reinvigorated the “every man action hero” genre and heralded a decade of films that could be pitched as “Die hard but on a BLANK.” Speed was Die Hard on a bus. Under Siege was Die Hard on Battleship. And Under Siege 2: Dark Territory was Die Hard on a train and way dumber…You get the picture.

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Other watershed films like The Matrix had similar effects on the genre during the early aughts (See: Equilibrium and the Resident Evil franchise). Going further back, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and Yojimbo shaped the entire genre and its influence can be seen even to this day. Now we aren’t expecting The Batman to be the next Yojimbo (although that would be amazing), but maybe barrowing the template and stylistic flare from a film with a simple premise would work for the DCEU. One particular sleeper hit comes to mind: The Raid (known as The Raid: Redemption in the United States).

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The Raid is an action film comprised of pure visceral thrills. The premise is simple: good guys get stuff in a building filled with bad guys and are forced to fight their way out. Very few movies have adopted this premise since the release of The Raid in 2011, but those that have produced some fantastic works. The 2012 adaption of everyone’s favorite grimacing Mega-City One peacekeeper, Dredd took this exact setup and gave us one of the best overlooked comic book films in the last decade. Jeremy Saulnier’s horror thriller Green Room also took a page from The Raid’s playbook but on a much smaller scale and was still able to give audiences a similar heart-pounding experience.

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Perhaps The Batman would benefit from the same treatment. Consider how Batman is currently portrayed in the DCEU; he’s tough as nails and is quick to suplex a bad guy into wooden crate. The warehouse fight scene is often cited as one of the highlights of BvS. Now imagine that for two hours but taking place in Arkham Asylum or Blackgate Penitentiary and with various members of Batman’s rogues gallery acting as “bosses” at various points throughout the film. Add some moments of intriguing detective work (something that has been sorely missing from most Batman films) during the time bridging the action set pieces and you have a pitch perfect formula for a crowd-pleaser.

And yes, this does kind of sound like we’re advocating for a film adaptation of the Arkham Asylum series of video games... but would that be such a bad thing? There’s a reason fans gravitated to those games. They blended two huge aspects fans love about The Dark Knight: problem-solving and amazing hand-to-hand combat. The warehouse scene from BvS works as a proof of concept for the latter. If “the world’s greatest detective” can bring his A-game to the former, the DCEU would probably be better for it and “Batfleck” might go down in history as the best version of the character ever to grace the silver screen.

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