Batman

Batman

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • Title: Batman
  • IMDB: link

Vicki Vale: “I just gotta know, are we gonna try to love each other?”
Bruce Wayne: “I’d like to. But he’s out there right now. And I’ve gotta go to work.”

Tim Burton is obviously one of our greats in concerns to innovation, style and creativity towards filmmaking. His vision for Batman was dark and brooding, just like Keaton played him. Gotham City was dark and corrupt, it had dirty streets and always foreboding and controlled by mob boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance) until the sadistic and charismatic Joker (Jack Nicholson) appeared and took over not only Grissom’s control of the city, but his gal Alicia (Jerry Hall). The Joker owned the streets and controlled the crime in Gotham with a “smile”, the Caped Crusader (Michael Keaton) created this monster and realized he was the only one who could put him down.

As I see it I must have always been meant to be a film critic. Do you know where I was at 11:00 PM the evening before Batman was released? I was sitting in a theater watching the film before anybody else (as far as I was concerned) got to view this masterpiece. Yes back then I would have considered Batman a masterpiece. If you were to compare it to today’s Batman Begins it would have been considerably dark for it’s time.

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Absolute Batman – The Long Halloween

/ / Comics, Theme Week
  • Title: Absolute Batman – The Long Halloween
  • Comic Vine: link

“The promise I made to my parents, the promise to rid this city of the evil that took their lies, may finally be within reach.”

“I believe in Harvey Dent.”

This being Halloween I though it would be a good opportunity to take a look at the Dark Knight Detective’s holiday themed adventure, Batman: The Long Halloween.  The Absolute Edition comes in an oversized volume complete with slipcase and extras.

The thirteen-issue maxi-series from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is collected in this handsome Absolute Edition oversized hardcover complete with an introduction from Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer discussing the influence the series had on Batman Begins, the transcript of Richard Starkings interview with Loeb and Sale, the original proposal for the project, and a look at cover art, sketches, and the toys inspired from the tale.  All in all a nice collection bundled together in a handsome package.

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The Animated Dark Knight Detective

/ / Home Video News , Theme Week
  • Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Volume Two
  • tv.com: link

Season One (read that review) dealt with setting up the major Bat-villains, the city, and dealing with Bruce Wayne.  Season Two delves deeper into the Batman universe in examining the more of the characters’ origins, motivations, and roles in the series.  Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski really begin to knock out some winners as the series begins to hit it’s stride.

Season Two brings back the villains and Gotham natives from Season One while expanding the universe and adding a few new characters.  We get some more Robin episodes, most notably the retelling of the Dick Grayson Robin origin story.  Finally a Riddler episode “If You’re So Smart Why Aren’t You Rich?” tells the origin tale of the Mr. Edward Nigma and his life of crime involving riddles, a maze and a Minotaur.  Commissioner Gordon will be shot in “I am the Night” prompting Bruce Wayne to consider hanging up the cape and cowl.  The episode is also of interest for the sly reference O’Neil and Adams.

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Holy 60’s Movie Batman!

/ / Home Video, Theme Week
  • Title: Batman: The Movie (1966)
  • IMDb: link

“What has yellow skin and writes?”
“A ball-point banana!”

Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) take on one of their biggest challenges yet as four of the villains from the 60’s Television show team-up to take down the Dynamic Duo and kidnap the World Security Council, turn them into dust, and hold the world hostage.  You know, just your average run-of-the-mill day in Gotham City.

Although not as good as the series itself (it was filmed during the hiatus between the first and second seasons), the film does capture the spirit and campiness fans of the show came to love.

We get ridiculous riddles which are reasoned (and I use that term loosely) in an insanely twisted logic to unexpected, and quite unbelievable, answers.  Oh, and don’t forget the suicidal porpoise.

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