Michael Keaton's Updated Batsuit In The Flash Was Purely For Practicality
Since there have been Batman movies, there have been actors complaining about the Batsuit. Val Kilmer seems to have been the most upset about it, having played the Dark Knight in 1995's "Batman Forever" and likening being in the suit to being an old man. As the actor told Conan back in 2004: "You need help getting dressed, it takes about 45 minutes to get undressed, you need help going to the bathroom, you can't hear any more [...] when you call out for help no one comes."
But Val Kilmer wasn't the first to experience Batsuit woes. The original, and still the best big-screen Batman, Michael Keaton, had a famously hard time in his rubber getup. The veteran star, who recently returned as Batman in "The Flash," summed up his experience in the original suit from 1989's "Batman" in an interview from Les Daniels' 1999 book "Batman: The Complete History," saying:
"I could barely move in that suit. To this day, one hip has not been right because I practiced when I first kicked that guy on the roof, and it was very difficult to get my foot up that high. It was like fifty thousand rubber bands holding you down."
The unforgiving nature and rigidity of Bob Ringwood's original Batsuit design led to the now famous "Bat turn," whereby Keaton would have to move his entire body due to his head being locked in place by the cowl. Happily, those stiff movements only added to the mystique of his brooding Batman. But when it came time for his return in "The Flash," the now 71-year-old Keaton wasn't prepared to revisit that discomfort after 30 odd years. And so, director Andy Muschietti made sure the suit got a significant upgrade.
'The better a suit looks, the more uncomfortable it is'
In "The Dark Knight," Christian Bale's Batman asks Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox for a new suit. And when trying to conceive of a decent reason for Batman needing such an upgrade, director Christopher Nolan realized he should just use the actual reason — i.e. that Christian Bale needed to be able to turn his head. And so, in a somewhat meta moment that seemed to speak directly to the complaints of so many Batman actors before Bale, the "Dark Knight" suit arrived complete with a cowl that allowed its wearer the luxury of being able to swivel their skull.
Which, it turns out, is pretty much what happened during the production of "The Flash." As reported by Entertainment Weekly, during a press conference for the movie around the time CinemaCon was getting underway back in April, Andy and his sister/"Flash" producer Barbara Muschietti spoke about Keaton's upgraded suit, with Andy explaining:
"You know the story. [Keaton] was like, 'That old suit was impossible to work with.' He was very frustrated because he couldn't move his neck or anything. The design was perfect, but it's very often in movies that the better a suit looks, the more uncomfortable it is."
Barbara then added, "Alex Burns, our costume designer, made a fantastic suit where this guy could actually move his neck, lift his leg." Considering Keaton previously claimed to have sustained permanent damage to his hip after attempting a kick in the original suit, that's a pretty important upgrade.
Practical, but not perfect
Prior to "The Flash" being released, a shot from the Superbowl spot for the movie revealed an array of Batsuits that had, presumably, been languishing in the Michael Keaton Batcave since his retirement. Alongside the classic "Batman" 1989 suit was the version from 1992's "Batman Returns," as well as several others that hinted at the varied career Keaton's Dark Knight had since we last saw him. And in the center was Alex Burns' newly redesigned suit.
In that shot, the suit looked great. But as more shots of Keaton in his new attire started to emerge, it became clear that this wasn't quite the design triumph that the "Batman" and "Returns" suits constituted. As a kid, I was mesmerized by those suits. The designs seemed to bend light to their will, resulting in this elemental profile that, when seen amid Anton Furst's industrial nightmare Gotham, and Bo Welch's enchantingly oppressive production design, made for an unforgettable aesthetic vision. The suit from "The Flash," on the other hand, might have allowed Keaton more flexibility, but it seemed to lack something crucial.
Maybe it's the way the material folds in certain areas, rather than staying rigid like the original designs. Or maybe it's just because Keaton's face just doesn't sit the same behind the cowl. It could even be that Andy Muschietti made the faux pas of showing Batman in direct sunlight for a good chunk of his film. Whatever the case, I can't help but think the re-emergence of Michael Keaton's Batman deserved something a little better. All of which is partly why I was worried about Keaton's "The Flash" return in the first place. But hey, considering Keaton talked about how the original Batsuit gave him "literal panic attacks," maybe this latest iteration isn't all that bad.