I'm writing a paper right now about gender and race as portrayed in Tim Burton's 1992 sequel (don't tell him I called it that) to his career-making unprecedented blockbuster Batman (1989) entitled Batman Returns (1992). Right, the one that parents flipped out over because it was too dark for their children since Danny DeVito's Penguin was too gross and scary and Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman was a ferocious blend of sexual liberation and modern female victimization. On a personal note, I've since decided that her phenomenal performance led directly to a perplexed discovery of my own male primal instincts at age 7. Anyway, now that I'm a self-righteous intellectual film student (before I was a self-righteous undeclared student) and too smart to be entertained or provoked by a comic book movie, I was surprised to find on a recent viewing that it's actually a complicated character study with subtly realistic allegorical implications. This is probably what ultimately sunk the film. Even though it made WB plenty of money (albeit not as much as the original), the parent protests and lack of happy meal accessory deals proved enough to convince studio big wigs to make the woeful decision to hand the franchise over to Joel Schumacher. Ugh...
The fact that Batman's up-and-down journey has found redemption in the profondly talented Christohper Nolan is nothing short of amazing in my eyes. I used to revile the notion of filmmakers, writers, et al settling for the same story over and over. While this is essentially how Hollywood (and humanity for that matter) seems to operate, I've recently had the epiphany that story repeats do not have to be synonymous with cheap cop-outs. It's the nuances that tell the story. Batman can jump off roof tops, fight bad guys, and brood around the batcave all he wants, and depending on how that same simple story is told, audiences can be anywhere from intensely engaged to intensely nauseous. Joel Schumacher and George Clooney are still apologizing for the abomination of Batman & Robin at every other interview, yet only 7 years later Batman Begins managed to lift the legend back to its rightful pedastal in and eager public's mind. As much as we love to bitch about people's failures, I still think we're most captivated by the successes. I know I'm using what some would consider a silly, meaningless example in Batman (some people simply do not understand art, and far be it from me to assume that I could cure them of their lack of taste and respect), but the point is that it's inspiring to realize that one individual's treatment of the same source material can result in a drastically different product than someone else's. Good or bad, we always want to talk about it.
Also, The Dark Knight is going to incredible. RIP Heath Ledger.
The fact that Batman's up-and-down journey has found redemption in the profondly talented Christohper Nolan is nothing short of amazing in my eyes. I used to revile the notion of filmmakers, writers, et al settling for the same story over and over. While this is essentially how Hollywood (and humanity for that matter) seems to operate, I've recently had the epiphany that story repeats do not have to be synonymous with cheap cop-outs. It's the nuances that tell the story. Batman can jump off roof tops, fight bad guys, and brood around the batcave all he wants, and depending on how that same simple story is told, audiences can be anywhere from intensely engaged to intensely nauseous. Joel Schumacher and George Clooney are still apologizing for the abomination of Batman & Robin at every other interview, yet only 7 years later Batman Begins managed to lift the legend back to its rightful pedastal in and eager public's mind. As much as we love to bitch about people's failures, I still think we're most captivated by the successes. I know I'm using what some would consider a silly, meaningless example in Batman (some people simply do not understand art, and far be it from me to assume that I could cure them of their lack of taste and respect), but the point is that it's inspiring to realize that one individual's treatment of the same source material can result in a drastically different product than someone else's. Good or bad, we always want to talk about it.
Also, The Dark Knight is going to incredible. RIP Heath Ledger.
(PS: In case you haven't figured it out yet, self-righteous or not, I'm extremely entertained by comic book movies...even the crappy ones.)
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