So here's the batman I liked. Not the old-old 1960s ones haha, I'm not that young, but the 1990s ones with Michael Keaton! The movies were so well made. I know it sounds cheesy (because in reality they weren't well made) but they were well made for a very specific audience and that's why it worked so well. They were made for children (not toddlers), but children. It was glorious. It wasn't too violent to frighten our young minds that were still innocent enough to be scared by the odd darkness and actual realistic death with blood depicted in movies, but it was vibrant enough to show a 'scary' monster! Think of penguin, one of batman's main enemy. He had a ridiculous feature. Big, round body, pointy, crooked nose, dark, narrow scheming eyes with his totally mental pajama outfit. He even had green blood for god sakes!! It was a children's nightmare, but an adults laugh. So obviously, as a child, I found the movie absolutely entertaining and lovable. "Batman saves the day!" was the focus and there wasn't anything deeply serious. Joker was equally eccentric. He played a crazed man very well that scared our little minds. Oh and don't forget the over-the-top, cool new kid, Robin and the hilarious backstory Catwoman. Just to reinforce, I liked the old batman series. I grew up with it and as a child, it really was memorable and enjoyable.
Now we get to the... hmm... not new, since a 'newer' batman came out, but 2000 batman so to say. let's call it the Christian Bale Era (I'll just say Christian). Now, old people are bad at judging new ideas and concepts coated on an old character. Just look at my reviews for spiderman. I didn't like the new spiderman for silly reasons like his outfit. Dealing with nostalgia is always going to be hard because old people always hold on to a feeling rather than the actual content so even when the remake is good, which seems to be rarely the case (now even young people seem to think this way which is interesting), most people who grew up with the older version will criticize the new one for not being like the original. I built this little rant up to this point to point out one thing. I actually liked the Christian batman, because again, it did the same thing as the old batman which is target a very specific audience. This time, it was for adults. It did a perfect job of getting the attention of those millennial (hahah I hate saying that word, but it is true) that were children when they saw Keaton's batman who grew up now to be adults. This new batman had adult problems and actually delved more into the psychology of batman like an adult. It was the end of silly enemies. Joker, even grew up (metaphorically). Who knew!!! That a silly, insane clown, can actually be portrayed as batman's equal! Where batman was order, joker was chaos! No wonder why Heath Ledger who basically came up with this persona is praised as the best joker. This joker wasn't just insane like the old joker, he demonstrated how he can actually manipulate batman on a psychological level. Just to be clear, I'm going to be hated for this, but I put both Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson both on the same level. For me, it felt like they were just for different audience and just portrayed the character in a different light. But enough about joker. As I was saying, this Christian batman faced... a tad more serious trials. He had mental breakdowns and ranted in a party, 'the dark knight' even starts the movie off with batman having trouble with people imitating him and fighting crime, putting themselves in danger, all because batman became a symbol. His mental struggle seems real and relatable when he cannot save both Dent and Rachael, resulting in Dent becoming the Two-Face. Conflicts were played very well, there was grief, corruption, jealousy and most importantly, internal turmoils which made the batman movies more mature and enjoyable as an adult.
Now... comes the new batman movie... oh.... Ben Afflick... Now.. you know how I was going on and on about what audience the past two movies were for and how that made the movie successful?? Well... This is the main thing I wanted to point about the new batman and superman series. The confusion whether it's going to for adults or children. At a glimpse, the new batman seems like it'll be for adults, just like the Christian Bale one. Batman is brooding, setting is dark and enemies are... ok well badly designed enemies are one of the parts it really falls short. Lex Luthor is a joke, and not the good one. I feel like the director saw batman dark knight and thought, "oh yes. I really liked joker. I'm going to make Lex Luthor another joker", not realizing that they're 2 completely different villains with different motives. This Lex Luthor mindlessly jokes around and tries to kill superman with his terrible and childish plans. Then he starts making quotes like his some smart philosopher. It was just cringy to watch. You know how you get those teens who think their so cool and smart that they just say the darnedest things, making you slap your face in embarrassment for them? Well that's what he was like. The worst part was that he seemed to be totally unaware of how embarrassing his character is and continues to prance around the whole movie. So he's definitely not a villain like the old batman. He doesn't have depth, although he tries to be, and he lacks mature motive. The final enemy, the giant monster at the end was just a joke. An absolute waste of time. Now if this movie was designed to be a children's movie, this monster would make sense. The monster's design would've been something more for children and the fight would've been choreographed more to be somewhat interesting. But no... it was... not... They forced in a random character, wonder woman, to foreshadow the next up coming movie which was a terrible move because fighting the monster should've been built up to be a moment of reconcile and understanding like the good ol' batman and robin, but to be overshadowed by another superhero who just had a successful movie of her own?? I'm not even going to go on about the Martha scene because everyone know's it was the worst scene in the whole movie, but I will say one thing. Martha scene made it clear that the director misunderstood the true power of batman. Batman is not strong because he's physically strong or because he's rich with gadgets (well the gadget's help haha). Growing up watching justice league, we all know that. He knows that. In fact, he is painfully aware that a few kryptonite cannot stop superman, which was the initial reason why he decided to take on superman. Batman is badass, because he is the smartest guy in the whole justice league. He is aware of his strength and flaws AND the strength and flaws of his enemies. For this previous 'badass' character to fall so short like this, battling an enemy with pure strength and not his knowledge and wit, was disheartening to watch in the least. The batman we knew of would've done his research and rather than just battling head on with this demi-god, he would've had plans set. He would've done his research and it's actually not hard to find superman's identity, his personality, relationships, where he lives and what he does. Batman just freaking out like a teenage girl who found out she just stepped on her neighbours dog just made this batman really weak and almost pathetic compared to the other batman. Oh and speaking of not knowing characters... he really down played superman as well. That's actually not hard to understand why. Superman is a hard character to pull off. As you may all know, superman that we know of came out near the end of WW2. When things looked bleak and many adult and children alike did not feel safe in their own homes. Then an author came with this amazing comic book to put hope into the hearts of young minds. A superhero with incredible powers. He had a normal childhood and a normal adult setting where he works at a normal job. But when disaster strikes, he's the first one there to save the day! Most of the first couple of cartoons I've watched focused on just that. Him saving the day, over and over again with his incredible power. This gets old very quickly in the modern age where we're not constantly living in fear anymore. So for a superman movie to be successful, it requires a couple of things. A damn good storyline, great motives, a damn good villain and a damn good win. Like a soccer playing making the last minute goal that changed the winning team, an epic win that makes a kids heart pound, see and understand that he's a symbol of hope and a savior of humanity. Well there was none of that. So when something bad happened to superman (no spoilers) no one... felt any loss... Most of us were like "oh he's in trouble? Yeah na, we had wonderwoman barging in to promote the next movie, he'll be fine." or "I didn't even know people liked him that much." You know what, I'm gonna spoil it. Most people have watched the movie anyway. Kind of wish batman died instead. Because we know batman is mortal, it really would've had more impact. Of course, that's not possible because he's like the base of the justice league franchise, but you know... I can dream.
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