Batman is probably one of the most overexposed superheroes of all time. He's interesting, he's cool, and a million other things I could say. I love most of the Batman movies, and so do a lot of people. So understand, I have no underlying hate or malice for the character or his work when I say this:
Batman has no right to be taken as seriously as he is.
Don't take that the wrong way. That in no way means that the Batman movies, comics, TV series, or any other form of media, can't be good. On the contrary, the Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies of all time. But...well, just think about Batman for a moment. He's a man dressed up as a bat.
No, don't roll your eyes at the screen like that. Think about it just as two separate components.
Man
Bat
Man dressed up as a bat.
Do you see what I'm getting at here?
Again, that doesn't mean it's inherently bad to make movies out of him. But by god, why do they have to be so serious? Take Batman Begins. For the first hour and a half, you have a solidly put together story. A boy with his parents taken away. A city subjugated by organized crime. A secret organization with plans to destroy the entire city. Legitimately good concepts. But the gritty, realistic picture is shattered about halfway through, when Bruce Wayne takes out the crime lord. You have this cool scene where a few goons get eliminated one by one, all building up to the big reveal. That dramatic moment where he jumps out of the shadows in full costume and declares, "I'm Batman."
A little jarring, isn't it? For those not familiar with the mythos, up until that point you could change all the names and it might as well be a completely different movie. A serious, non-comic one, with the Nolan-style looping story that somehow manages to string 50 different plot threads into a cohesive story. And then Batman comes in, dressed in the silly rubber suit with those pointy ears, and we're still supposed to take it seriously. You almost expect Nolan himself to walk in and say, "What is Batman doing in my movie?"
Most of us - myself included - still loved that scene, and still took that movie seriously. But it's a little odd to take that much silliness at face value. Imagine if, instead of Batman, the buildup had been for a superhero called Owlman. Imagine his costume - a big Barn Owl mask, unusually large eyes, and a beak poking out a good 2 inches. For one thing, you'd have nightmares later on. For another, you'd never be able to take another scene of that movie seriously. So why should Batman get a free ride?
This is probably why I like Marvel better. They don't try to pretend their characters would make sense in any real-world scenario. "Here is Thor," they say. "He hits things with a hammer. Now watch these movies where he hits things with a hammer." I'm hard pressed to think of one DC movie series - aside from the original Superman - where they just let the superhero be a superhero. Steel's main problem was how long it spent without a hint of superheroism, Catwoman stuck its head in a toilet and just kept flushing, Green Lantern had Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds all over the place, and Man of Steel...yeah.
So, dear internet, I ask you: When did Batman become the paradigm of realism? Why was Batman supposed to grow up and sit at the big boy table while everyone else was playing around eating Oreos? And why does MacGyver get to be a cult classic of camp and cheese while the Adam West Batman series became some sort of internet punchline?
And don't say Batman and Robin, or I'll have to give you the cold shoulder.
Batman has no right to be taken as seriously as he is.
Don't take that the wrong way. That in no way means that the Batman movies, comics, TV series, or any other form of media, can't be good. On the contrary, the Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies of all time. But...well, just think about Batman for a moment. He's a man dressed up as a bat.
No, don't roll your eyes at the screen like that. Think about it just as two separate components.
Man
Bat
Man dressed up as a bat.
Do you see what I'm getting at here?
Again, that doesn't mean it's inherently bad to make movies out of him. But by god, why do they have to be so serious? Take Batman Begins. For the first hour and a half, you have a solidly put together story. A boy with his parents taken away. A city subjugated by organized crime. A secret organization with plans to destroy the entire city. Legitimately good concepts. But the gritty, realistic picture is shattered about halfway through, when Bruce Wayne takes out the crime lord. You have this cool scene where a few goons get eliminated one by one, all building up to the big reveal. That dramatic moment where he jumps out of the shadows in full costume and declares, "I'm Batman."
A little jarring, isn't it? For those not familiar with the mythos, up until that point you could change all the names and it might as well be a completely different movie. A serious, non-comic one, with the Nolan-style looping story that somehow manages to string 50 different plot threads into a cohesive story. And then Batman comes in, dressed in the silly rubber suit with those pointy ears, and we're still supposed to take it seriously. You almost expect Nolan himself to walk in and say, "What is Batman doing in my movie?"
Most of us - myself included - still loved that scene, and still took that movie seriously. But it's a little odd to take that much silliness at face value. Imagine if, instead of Batman, the buildup had been for a superhero called Owlman. Imagine his costume - a big Barn Owl mask, unusually large eyes, and a beak poking out a good 2 inches. For one thing, you'd have nightmares later on. For another, you'd never be able to take another scene of that movie seriously. So why should Batman get a free ride?
This is probably why I like Marvel better. They don't try to pretend their characters would make sense in any real-world scenario. "Here is Thor," they say. "He hits things with a hammer. Now watch these movies where he hits things with a hammer." I'm hard pressed to think of one DC movie series - aside from the original Superman - where they just let the superhero be a superhero. Steel's main problem was how long it spent without a hint of superheroism, Catwoman stuck its head in a toilet and just kept flushing, Green Lantern had Ryan Reynolds being Ryan Reynolds all over the place, and Man of Steel...yeah.
So, dear internet, I ask you: When did Batman become the paradigm of realism? Why was Batman supposed to grow up and sit at the big boy table while everyone else was playing around eating Oreos? And why does MacGyver get to be a cult classic of camp and cheese while the Adam West Batman series became some sort of internet punchline?
And don't say Batman and Robin, or I'll have to give you the cold shoulder.
