Matt Reeves feared audiences wouldn't understand The Batman's 'ambitious, complex narrative'

Matt Reeves feared that audiences wouldn't be able to understand The Batman.

The 55-year-old director has helmed the new superhero blockbuster but recalled how he was worried that fans would struggle to follow the "complex" detective narrative during test screenings for the movie.

In an interview with Collider, Matt said: "The first version of this movie that I screened; the movie has a very ambitious, complex narrative. So, by the time we got to a place where we had to start testing, I was not all the way through the cut of the movie.

"There was so much of the movie yet to be touched and it was really long. I mean, not to say that the movie doesn't have length now, but it was longer than what I intended.

"I was terrified because I thought, oh my gosh, we're showing this, before I'm ready, to an audience and in terms of a Batman movie, it's a very complex detective story narrative. Are they going to be able to follow anything?"

Matt admits that he was hugely relieved when he learned that audiences responded well to the plotline for the movie - which stars Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader.

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The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director said: "What I found actually, which was amazing, was how much they loved that aspect. That was the biggest relief.

"I was thinking, okay, why did I do this? Why did I decide to make this kind of story? And what the first test screening told me was the audience wanted this, that we had the Batmobile chases, we had all the things. You can't make a Batman movie without giving the baseline things that people want from a Batman movie."

Matt added: "But I knew we were challenging the audience in this side of world's greatest detective side, because it was going to be a very complex narrative and it turned out they love that part of it. It was one of the things that tested best."