The basic concept can be taken in so many different directions, you have so many different mutually exclusive takes on the same character.
So it’s interesting to think about how 20 years ago those who wanted to limit what Batman could be wanted only the Dark and Gritty and Realistic takes while now I’m seeing multiple YouTube think pieces about how the Fantastical stuff NEEDS to be there.
It seems like people will say "yes different takes should be different" but only in cosmetic “style”. That certain Fantastical Elements are absolutely required to show up or your Batman Universe just isn’t real Batman.
First of all there is so much stuff in the Batman Comics Lore that you can never fit all of it into a single film Trilogy or even a 7 season TV Series of 22 episodes per season. Even an Anime with as many episodes as Detective Conan would struggle to find room for absolutely everything.
Are there a lot of Batman villains who could never have justice done to them in movies and shows done in the vision of Nolan or Matt Reeves, yes. But there are more than enough who can fit just fine that you really don’t need to go beyond those to fill out a trilogy of movies and a few spin off Minserises. Plenty of them are just normal criminals with a gimmick.
Some of these villains have changed so much over their history that toning down the fantastical parts of how they’re popularly viewed today would actually bring them back to their roots. The Golden Age Clayface was just a killer in costume. And with Poison Ivy I kind of hate how fantastical she usually is now, I want to go back to her just being an Eco Terrorist who can invent some things that probably could never exist in real life but still is herself a normal human. I'm tired of the green skinned plant monster Poison Ivy. Still if Ivy can only be in one of these universes I'd give dibs to James Gunn because what I most want to see is Margot Robbie's Harley finally get her Ivy.
I will disagree with those who say Robin can't exist in a realistic Batman setting, Dick Grayson is on the short list of characters who needs to exist in some capacity by at least movie three so I do dock points from Rises for doing it’s silly homage instead.
I keep seeing this argument that putting Batman in a realistic setting only draws further attention to how fundamentally ridiculous it is. That it’s easier to take him seriously when he’s not taking himself seriously, and this is the kind of weird cynical “everything needs to be a deconstruction” logic I hate.
I'm not even really a fan of the Matt Reeves Batverse so far. But given that we will be getting a Batman movie filled with Fantastical stuff in the coming James Gunn lead DC Universe it’s silly to sit here and demand Reeves force fantastical elements into his artistic vision, it is frankly another case of Fan Entitlement.
Thing is the last thing you want is for a character you're fan of to be adapted by someone who doesn't actually want them in their movie, that's the real reason for Spider-Man 3's flaws, Raimi never wanted to include Venom or Gwen Stacey, they were forced on him.
But again part of the fun of Batman villains is how they have such basic ideas behind them that they can be interpreted in a variety of different ways, including all over the spectrum of grounded to fantastical. Trust me as a lover of Anime I understand the impulse to consider the fantastical inherently more imaginative, but it really isn't, taking something fantastical and making a more grounded and plausible version of it that still feels true in spirit to what the original was takes it's own kind of imagination. And that imagination is what I feel Nolan was better at then Reeves.
A Batman movie or series made by me would be more Fantastical then what Nolan or Reeves is willing to do, but there are also still a lot of things I would not include.
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