Originally published at: WB still hasn't green-lit a sequel for The Batman yet | Boing Boing
…
2 Likes
I mean, Batman did already get the big-screen treatment in 1943 and 1949 and 1966 and 1989 and 1992 and 1993 and 1995 and 1997 and 2004 and 2008 and 2012 and twice in 2016 and twice in 2017 and in 2021 and then two more times in 2022 and then that one movie already scheduled for 2023 so it’s not like Hollywood has been reticent about giving that character his time in the spotlight (which in this case is a Bat-signal).
12 Likes
brilliant take on the Caped Crusader
I do not think we watched the same film. I watched a somber, depressing, downer of a film wherein a brooding, emo Batman failed utterly to stop thousands from drowning, and never once smiled the whole time while he was doing it. Dark music, dark scenery, dark, dark, dark. The cop who knew about carpet replacement was a better detective than Bruce “I hate everything and the world is relentless gray” Wayne.
Maybe they should focus on new characters for a bit, they don’t seem to know how to make a film about heroes.
3 Likes
I watched the ten minute clip they posted for free on the internet and even as a huge Batman comics fan I couldn’t sit through it.
An adaptation of Grant Morrison’s Batman RIP arc would have been good, with a few interesting characters vying to inherit the cowl
1 Like
I think what’s needed is a reboot of Batman, with an all-new cast and director. Has that been tried?
/s
12 Likes
And he caught constant shit for that from everyone around him.
I liked it a lot. Cause it was very much a Batman that was bad at being Batman, and learning to do better. It sold the “early Batman” thing better than any of the others, and the character got to demonstrate growth. A lot more interesting than the by now default, ultra capable, has a plan for everything Batman.
I think we were specifically getting set up for a less dour Batman in the future.
That said. The ending was a bit bonkers and over the top. They ramped up the stakes so fast it became campy. And not the fun kind.
2 Likes
Batusi dance-off or GTFO
3 Likes
Fair point, I can see it from that perspective. And he was also pretty shit at being Bruce Wayne.
I also hated the Riddler character here, and hated that they thought “the Penguin” deserved a fine actor like Ferrell and then stuffed him in a fat suit for no real reason because all DC can see these days is caricatures of it’s heroes and villains. The Penguin on Gotham never had to wear a fat suit, and he was interesting (if over the top too often, but it was show that couldn’t decided if it was dark/brooding or straight up camp).
Yeah, I had major problems with the ending. All that death and destruction was excessive and unnecessary to what they were trying to do with the character. Honestly, all it did was bum me out and pretty much turn me off to future Batman adaptations.
I don’t know what to make of Warner Discovery. Some entitled white guy canceling things, thinking ‘Warner Discovery’ is a bigger name than ‘HBO’. It’s going to be like SyFy and all the great shows will get canceled for wrestling. Or because it’s Discovery, maybe it’ll be shark week, week after week. Last Week Tonight With Shark. 
I think that’s pretty unfair to Farrell. That guy was having an absolute BLAST. Many of the performers in the film seemed to be. Including Dano.
As to the makeup. Most of what Farrell was wearing was a complex face piece that made him look like Bob De Niro after getting dragged behind a truck.
Batman returns put Danny DeVito in a fat suit.
Because it went with the egg shaped bird man version of the character. Neither the Batman nor Gotham did.
It’s also notable that The Batman ran with the crime boss/mobster take on the Penguin over the theme/Super villain one. Which has lead to some of my favorite comic takes on the guy.
Absolutely. There seemed to be a sudden attempt to compete with the climax of the Nolan films, everything ramped up so much and the Villain monologuing about social issues while things went splodey.
But I’m giving that a pass. It’s clearly setting up one of my favorite Batman runs No Man’s Land. Which 1. was part of a series of archs meant to reset Batman as less frowny, bring back his supporting cast and make Bruce Wayne an actual character with a life again. Even if at the time DC comics didn’t really follow through.
And 2. contained one of my very favorite takes on the Penguin. In No Mans land he operates as a fence and information broker, running running the destroyed Gotham’s black market. Much like with the film’s Penguin he’s less a main villain than a underworld operator Batman can use or even coordinate with.
It’s a very fun take on the character. Not evil or crazy, just selfish. An opportunist than can be pressed to do something useful to save his own skin or if it’s profitable. Not a major player, but a turd that just won’t flush.
I didn’t even know it was Farrell until much later after I watched it. He left no discerning mark in my head to tell me anything about him. Didn’t even know it was the penguin for most of the film. It felt empty and hollow to me.
Yes, they did it for DeVito, too. That seemed more appropriate, though, given the more campy feel of those films. Since they were going with the more straight “crime boss” motif in the recent one, it felt unnecessary to me. Clearly your opinion differs, which is fine.
Now, John Turturro, THAT guy was eating the scenery up. His was the one role I enjoyed and took delight in, as clearly he did. Even that quiet scene when he was talking to Bruce about his father was brilliant. One of the best things I’ve seen him in, and strangely far less over-the-top than his usual acting gigs.
Can’t argue, though, if it’s setting up for a run from the comics you’re interested in. Lord knows I feel the same way about some of these comic book stories. I thought Nolan did an adequate “Batman: Year 1” which was one of my favorite comic book takes on the myth. But the Logan movie was one of the few that took a story people enjoyed and truly elevated it while changing it. I hadn’t read the comic before I saw the movie. When I did, I was deeply disappointed. The movie was soooo much better.
Also in the context of that film it was more believable that Oswald’s parents would abandon him for being a hideous beak-nosed, flipper-handed cat-eating mutant than just for being an uglier-than-average baby.
Still pretty cold-hearted of Pee-Wee and Simone to throw their own child in the river like that though.
6 Likes
Have any of those movies covered how his parents died? That probably had a big impact on him.
They should do a movie on that.
6 Likes
Meh. It would have been a tight brilliant movie had it been two hours. but it was 3 dragged out hours because people somewhere decided that 3 hour movies are really where it’s at and that the audience. I was wathcing it thinking: well you could trimmed a minute there, 30 seconds there, and so on - so every bit just drags a bit further while the director sorta got all maturbatory with his camera work.
I was like ‘why am i still watching this drivel’ but I wanted to see if it redeemed itself in the end.
Spoiler: it didn’t
I really loved batman. I loved the christopher nolan movies. I read the comics in the 80s and 90s. I love The Dark Knight Returns. But after this I am fine with never having another batman movie as long as I live.
Besides: the idea of “bully vigilante who does the violet things the police can’t because they can only be SO violet” is an idea that is sort of past its prime.
1 Like
Apparently he’s under orders to cut costs, and “unscripted” shows (90 Day Fiancé, etc) cost way less to produce than scripted shows. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an announcement at some point that the DCEU is done, and that while they may make the occasional Batman or Superman film, they’re done trying to go head-to-head with the MCU. Every streaming service except for Disney seems to be in a race to the bottom right now.
2 Likes
Turturro’s version of Falcone was pretty much the only version of that character I have ever cared about or enjoyed ever.
Ultimately my thing with the movie is it’s very promising in all directions.
It felt far too much like set up for something better later. I think it will hang better if we get an amazing second outing. And from what I saw there’s definitely the potential for that to happen.
It’s very halfway between grit and something else. I know a lot of people who really didn’t like it as a result.
So you are right on Penguin, that was almost a cameo in terms of how much of it was actually there.
In promoing this thing they name dropped both Year Two which is eeehhhh. And the O’Neil and Adams run. And it is sorta a bit of one and a bit of the other, draped in the recent Nolan derived “realism”. In terms of an early Batman who hasn’t quite figured it out, who’s kinda a dick, it did a much better job than Year Two did.
And while the first Nolan did a decent job on Year One and good origin story. It still hewed pretty close to the standard structure of “He’s Batman Now” by the end story telling. I kinda like breaking that mold by showing a Batman who’s still not sure of himself, still figuring it out. Despite being BATMAN. Along with the way the characters around actively criticize him and push him in a better direction.
I mean Catwoman directly calls him creepy.
Warner posed a $3.4 billion dollar loss in their first financial filing after the Discovery merger, mostly covering the period just before Discovery got involved.
Their previous earnings reports also pretty bad.
The big culprits are supposedly eh rolling DCEU disaster and the insane amount of money they’re pouring into HBOMax.
There’s a reason that Discover’s C-Suite and board ended up in charge. And “Merger” or not what we’re basically watching is a smaller (but still huge), more limited media company buy one of largest and most consolidated entertainment businesses in the world.
Warner has been fucking up bad, for a long time.
Near as I can tell the claim that non-scripted series are the go is just based on assumptions because the guy in charge of Warner now is from Discovery. And that’s what Discovery does.
Sorta like how we hear every Disney+ or Marvel project will be “family friendly” or “for kids”. Even as we watch a show where Captain America decapitates a political dissident with his shield and poses covered in blood.
We might see some of that. But non-scripted and reality series don’t seem to hang particularly well on streaming. Cheap or not. Look at where that’s landed Netflix.
4 Likes
“And where is the Batman?” He is right here, this is all the Batman I will ever need.
1 Like
Yeah but… a 3 hour intimation of ‘something better yet to come’ is garbage. No one has patience for that. “I made it mediocre now so that when I make another slightly better than mediocre movie people will go gaga!”
