The Batman

Rather than being about Batman, this is another example of a movie-fable centring the struggles of content creators trapped in an endless, iterative process of storytelling. This story asks the question, “What are media consumers watching, and how can we get them to watch our stuff?”

Justice as a metaphor for content

Batman spends the film obsessed with Riddler, his rival in the business operations of “justice.” They both must produce. Ultimately, he must sell you a Batman story or cede his ground to degenerate conspiracy wonks. This appears to me as a false dichotomy on loan from the culture war. We have seen this before.

It’s a pretty predictable move for the Batman franchise. Nolan used this space in a very similar way, choosing capitalism as his catalyst, drawing out themes from the war on terror and the occupy movement and, ultimately, presenting three hypercapitalistic solutions. Generally, Nolan’s message embraces a paranoid split from reality into a cold world of surveillance and crisis managed by a paramilitary corporation.

Similarly, the Phillips Batman draws from the turbulance of its day, choosing media consumption as the catalyst and presenting a solution that, like the Nolan run, seems to rely on the thing it calls out as the problem. Batman has to keep watching and produce more justice. He’s the creator and the critic; an auteur. Yet, the franchise film is his city. And the people of Gotham are turning to social media and conspiracy cults. He’s reminding you, “I’ll do this ‘til I die.” He’ll keep an eye on these weird youtubers from now on. Batman can manage that relationship on your behalf.

Batman as his own media critic

Maybe Gotham, like Hollywood, (and Batman) is an exhausted enterprise. Maybe the new content creators are right and Gotham is moribund at best, and at it’s worst, a nest of lies. “But wouldn’t you rather hear that from Batman?” Given the alternative, you’d be damned if you didn’t pick Batman every time!