Batman

[ScottSF]

Lewis Wilson: "Nooobody remembers us. . ."
Douglas Croft: "Holy has-beens Lewis, nooobody loves us."
Lewis Wilson: "Everybody hates us."
Lewis and Douglas: "We're gonna eat some worms."

[ScottSF]

I've learned of yet another live action Batman. So there's two people who played Batman that I haven't really seen. There's Lewis Wilson in 1943 and Robert Lowry in 1949. Starting to look like Dr. Who

Lewis Wilson
Robert Lowry
Adam West
Michael Keaton
Val Kilmer
George Clooney
Christian Bale

[Interference]

There wouldn't necessarily have been anything wrong with Clooney - except his sense of humour might have got in the way - if anyone had bothered to write a script, get a director and cut Robin out. Coming out of the wrap party, Clooney reportedly heard saying, "well, it looks like we killed that franchise" and for a long while he was right.

Movie people aren't necessarily comics people and that's a big mistake. Comics writers don't consider themselves as any less creative than their novel, cinema or TV counterparts and in many cases are much more mature story-tellers, and terrific at pruning their scripts. The stories in comics since about 1970, for almost every mainstream (and specialist) character have been contextually convincing and often scary. Tim Burton understood this. Sam Raimi understood this. Chris Nolan and Bryan Singer understood it. Joel Schumacher wouldn't get it if it arrived on his doorstep in driving an Itmobile and wearing green leotards wearing about its neck a billboard in pink neon proclaiming "Comics Ain't for Kids Anymore".

I mourn the wastage of the Earth's meagre remaining resources that were squandered in the making of those irredemably ill-conceived works.

I have little to say of Carrey that shouldn't be heavily censored, he was a ridiculous choice for the Riddler - the Joker, I might just see, but the Riddler?? - and his over-acting, overly malleable face and upstaging tendencies destroyed any subtlety that Tommy Lee Jones might have been going for. Jones' as Two Face could have been brilliant, poignant and disturbing - the Harvey Dent (D.A.) story is at least as tragic as the Joker's. But that's all there is of note about those two movies, and that was only one of them.

Keaton was excellent. Bale is exceptionally skilled and well served by the both script and director.

[Kostmayer]

Has anybody read many of the comics?

I read Year One after watching Mask of The Phantasm (MotP was based on it apparently).

I've since read The Killing Joke and the War Games arc.

[Interference]

Let me be the first of thousands to recommend Dark Knight Returns. Killing Joke and Year One, Burton's two movies and Batman Begins owe their existences to Miller, the last owing quite a bit to Tales of the Demon by Denny O Neil and Neal Adams as well.

[ScottSF]

I was happy with how much Batman Begins drew upon Miller’s work. I was really hoping they would have included the scene where Bats crashes the corrupt wealthy socialite party. Oh man, he cuts the power and is lit only by the barbeque charcoals! Batman Begins also chose to go with a weaker Gordon, which I didn’t like so much. There’s a wealth of great comic stories to draw upon. I think there’s also a long period in the seventies when Batman was really for the kids with a whole bat family (bat-dog, bat-mite). I’m glad Burton went darker but he was still a bit campy-pupetshowy for me. Not much longer to wait for the next movie, woohoo!

[Blood]

I allways liked the car in the 1968 spoof camp movie: the most authentic of them all! so heavy! Think Keaton was the best Bruce Wayne (b.B.: before Bale); The best Batman (b.B.): Val Kilmer; The worst Bruce Wayne AND Batman: George Clooney. Adam West (and Burt Ward) cant really be seen/compared here, though i loved them as a kid!! BATMAN THE ALLTIME FAVOURITE!!